Ships
- USS Stockham (DD-683) Captain from 28 December 1944
Commander Milton G. Johnson took command of the Fletcher-class destroyer Stockham (DD-683) on 28 December 1944, while the ship lay at Ulithi in the western Carolines. He relieved Ephraim Paul Holmes, who had commanded her from commissioning at San Francisco the previous February through the Marianas and Leyte operations. Stockham, built by Bethlehem Steel and named for Marine Gunnery Sergeant Fred W. Stockham, was then resting and taking on stores after weeks of screening the fast carriers over the Philippines.
His first cruise began on 3 January 1945. Stockham guarded the oilers and supply ships of the replenishment group that kept Task Force 38 at sea until 7 January, then joined the carrier screen. Through the middle of the month she stayed with those carriers while their aircraft struck shipping and airfields along the coast of French Indochina, on Formosa, and at Hainan, Hong Kong, and other points on the China coast. On the return passage the force hit Okinawa on 22 January, and Stockham spent about the next two weeks at Ulithi in upkeep, replenishment, and training.
In mid-February she sailed again with the fast carriers. Carrier aircraft bombed the Tokyo area on 16 and 17 February, and on the 19th the force supported the assault on Iwo Jima. While the ships were off that island, antiaircraft fire from Stockham destroyed one Japanese plane. On 22 February she turned north to screen further strikes on the home islands. In rough water off Tori Shima on 26 February, Stockham sank a Japanese patrol craft. She was back at Ulithi on 6 March.
On 14 March Stockham put to sea again. After a day with Task Force 59 she joined the screen of the fast carrier force for strikes on Kyushu, Okinawa, and the Kerama Islands. Once troops landed on Okinawa on 1 April, she remained off the island through the rest of the month as Japanese aircraft, including kamikazes, attacked the ships offshore. On 6 April her gunners shot down two Japanese fighters. On 21 April she bombarded Minami Daito and Kita Daito, small islands east of Okinawa, and on the 30th she entered Ulithi.
Johnson left Stockham on 2 May 1945, and Dwight Lyman Moody assumed command the same day. The destroyer sailed from Ulithi on 7 May for another series of strikes on Kyushu and Okinawa. Johnson's four months in command had carried the ship from the winter carrier raids in the South China Sea through the Tokyo and Iwo Jima operations and the opening weeks of the battle for Okinawa.