Ships
- USS Cowpens (CVL-25) Captain from 10 September 1945 · Relieved on 13 December 1945
Herbert Spencer Duckworth was born on 23 October 1900 in Keosauqua, Van Buren County, Iowa. His parents were Albert Stone Duckworth, a lumber buyer and merchant, and Edna Charlotte "Lottie" Boutin. Appointed from Missouri at 17, he graduated from the Naval Academy on 2 June 1922, 243rd of 539. On 14 December 1925 he married Eloise Richardson Kilby at Norfolk, Virginia, and they had a daughter, Eloise, and a son, John.
He won his wings soon after graduating and flew fighters with VF-1, the "Top Hats." He later commanded Fighting Squadron Two in Lexington and became her air officer. In that post, the ship's "air boss," he ran her flight deck through the Lae-Salamaua raid of March 1942 and the Battle of the Coral Sea in May. Lexington kept launching and recovering aircraft even after bomb and torpedo damage, until she was lost. His two reports form enclosures to Captain Sherman's action report.
In September 1945 he took command of the light carrier Cowpens. He was credited with raising the first U.S. flag over a Japanese air base in the occupation. He commanded the new carrier Midway from January to July 1946, then NAS Jacksonville in 1947–48, and was a rear admiral by 1950. He retired in 1952 and was advanced to vice admiral. From 1956 to 1958 he was president of the Jacksonville Art Museum.
His daughter and son-in-law, a Navy officer, were killed in a car accident in 1960. His first wife died in 1962, and he later married Myrtle. He died at St. Luke's Hospital in Jacksonville on 29 May 1990, at 89. A memorial service was held at the NAS Jacksonville chapel, and he is memorialized at Arlington; his obituary says his body was donated to the University of Iowa medical school.