Ships
- USS Cogswell (DD-651) Captain, 31 October 1944 – 7 April 1945
Commander Robert Elmore Lockwood, United States Navy, was captain of the destroyer Cogswell from 31 October 1944 to 7 April 1945. Those months covered the fast-carrier drive from the Philippines toward the Japanese home islands.
Cogswell, DD-651, was a Fletcher-class destroyer whose wartime job was to stay with the big ships. She screened carriers against aircraft and submarines, took a turn as plane guard astern of the flight decks, and recovered pilots who came down in the water. Lockwood assumed that duty at the end of October 1944, with the fleet already committed to a long series of strikes and with little time in port between them.
Through the late autumn and the winter, the carrier groups Cogswell screened struck airfields and shipping connected with the fight for Luzon and the waters around Formosa. Day after day the destroyer held station in the screen, fueled underway, and went to general quarters when Japanese aircraft reached the formation. The work was repetitive, and it was what allowed the carriers to keep launching.
In January 1945 the fast carriers pushed west into the South China Sea. In February they swung north, covering the landing on Iwo Jima and sending raids toward the Tokyo area. In March they hit airfields on Kyushu ahead of the Okinawa assault. Lockwood was still in command when troops landed on Okinawa on 1 April 1945. Over the following week Cogswell remained with the carrier force while Japanese aircraft attacked the fleet in strength. His tour as captain ended on 7 April 1945.
Harold Thomas Deutermann and Reuben Noel Perley also served in Cogswell during the war. Lockwood's own mark on the ship is the captain's tour itself: five months and a week on the bridge, from the last day of October 1944 through the opening week at Okinawa, in a destroyer whose task was to keep the carriers at sea and able to fight.