Ships
- USS Cushing (DD-797) Captain, 17 January 1944 – 18 May 1945
Louis Frank Volk was born on 10 April 1909 in Enochsburg, Indiana. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1931 and began his career as a naval officer. He was promoted to lieutenant on 26 January 1939. After the United States entered the Second World War his rank rose in two wartime steps, to temporary lieutenant commander on 15 June 1942 and to temporary commander on 1 November 1942.
His first command was the destroyer Bulmer (DD-222), a Clemson-class ship left over from the previous war. He took her on 16 June 1942, the day after his promotion to temporary lieutenant commander, and he left her on 21 October 1943. The temporary rank of commander reached him while he still had Bulmer. That year on an older destroyer was the command he held before he was ordered to a new Fletcher-class ship.
On 17 January 1944 Volk commissioned Cushing (DD-797) and became her first commanding officer. Bethlehem Steel had built the destroyer at Staten Island, New York, and launched her on 30 September 1943. He remained in command until 18 May 1945. After fitting out, Cushing sailed from Norfolk on 5 May 1944, trained at San Diego and Pearl Harbor, escorted a convoy to Eniwetok, and then entered the yard at Bremerton, Washington, for newer antisubmarine equipment.
She returned to the fleet in late summer. On 24 August 1944 Volk brought Cushing into the Fifth Fleet at Eniwetok for the assault on the Palau Islands. The destroyer screened carriers while their aircraft struck Mindanao, Samar, Cebu, and Negros, and she supported the troops who landed on Angaur on 17 September. Through the autumn she stayed with the fast carrier forces covering the opening of the Philippines campaign, including the operations around Leyte Gulf in October 1944.
The new year opened with another long strike cruise. From 1 January 1945 through 28 January, Cushing sailed with a task force that hit Formosa, the Indochina coast, the China coast, and the Philippines. She then joined Task Force 58 for attacks on the Japanese home islands. On those strikes she served as a radar picket near the launch point and helped direct the interception of Japanese aircraft trying to reach the carriers. The same months carried the ship through the strikes that prepared the landings on Iwo Jima and into the first weeks of the battle for Okinawa.
Volk turned Cushing over to William D. Adams on 18 May 1945. The destroyer remained in the western Pacific, and John Wyatt served as acting commanding officer for a few weeks in September and October 1945. The Navy later credited Cushing with six battle stars for the Second World War. A large share of that service fell while Volk had the ship, and the cruise continued after he was relieved. He died on 26 December 1965, at the age of 56.