Ships
- USS Hancock (CV-19) Captain from 15 April 1944 · Relieved on 30 November 1944
Fred Clinton Dickey was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, on 29 May 1897, the son of Arthur B. and Maude Bailey Dickey. He attended Manchester High School and the Columbian Preparatory School in Washington. On 17 April 1917, days after America entered World War I, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve as a quartermaster third class. He went through ground school at MIT and flight training at Key West, then taught flying at Miami. He was designated a naval aviator and commissioned an ensign in 1918, and he joined the regular Navy as a lieutenant in December 1921.
Between the wars he flew patrol and observation planes from the tender Aroostook. He was senior aviator of Marblehead, flying in the Second Nicaraguan Campaign and on the Yangtze with the Asiatic Fleet. He later commanded Scouting Wing, Scouting Forces from Chicago, attended the Naval War College, commanded Patrol Squadron Three at Coco Solo in the Canal Zone, and commanded NAS San Pedro, California.
From March 1941 he was executive officer of Wasp during the Atlantic neutrality patrols, the British-led Malta reinforcement runs in the Mediterranean, and the capture of Guadalcanal, and he won the Bronze Star. He commissioned the Naval Reserve Aviation Base at Hutchinson, Kansas, then fitted out Hancock at Quincy and commissioned her on 15 April 1944. With Task Force 38 he took her into the strikes on the Ryukyus, Formosa and the Philippines. On 14 October 1944 he maneuvered her clear of two dive bombers that had broken through the formation, and he won the Silver Star.
He then served on the staff of the Naval War College (1945–47) and with Fleet Air Western Pacific, and he commanded NAS Sangley Point in the Philippines from February 1948. He retired on 30 June 1949 and was advanced to rear admiral for his combat awards. He was married to Mary Redfield Ryder of Manchester. No reliable source found for his date of death.