Overview

After enlisting in the Naval Reserve in April 1942, Hawkins went through cadet training in Texas prior to being designated a naval aviator and commissioned in January 1943. During World War II, as a fighter pilot in VF-31, he flew in combat from the light carriers USS Cabot (CVL-28) and Belleau Wood (CVL-24). In all, he shot down 14 Japanese aircraft. He became a regular Navy officer in 1946, subsequently serving as a floatplane pilot in the cruiser USS Portsmouth (CL-102). He had two tours with the Blue Angels flight demonstration team, sandwiched around Korean War duty in Fighter Squadron 101, which operated from the carrier USS Princeton (CV-37). As skipper of the Blue Angels in 1953 he made the first through-the-canopy ejection from a jet aircraft, an F9F-6 Cougar. Subsequently, interspersed with tours of shore duty, Captain Hawkins commanded Attack Squadron 46, served as air officer on board the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVA-42), and commanded Air Group One and the oiler USS Caloosahatchee (AO-98). He became a programming specialist during the McNamara years in the Pentagon, and he had a satisfying tour as commanding officer of the U.S. Naval Air Station Atsugi, Japan. He retired in June 1973.

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9781682691205

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Paul Stillwell is an independent historian and retired naval officer. He worked for thirty years at the U.S. Naval Institute as an oral historian and editor of Naval History magazine. He is the author or editor of fourteen books, including four on battleships and an award-winning volume on the Navy’s first African American officers, The Golden Thirteen. His 2021 book Battleship Commander: The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee Jr. also received acclaim. He lives in Arnold, Maryland.

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