Ships
- USS Lexington (CV-16) Commanding officer from 30 January 1945 · Relieved on 18 November 1945
Thomas Hinckley Robbins Jr. came from old New England stock. His ancestors included William Bradford of Plymouth, Thomas Hinckley, a later governor of Plymouth Colony, and his great-great-grandfather Fisher Ames, the Massachusetts congressman. He was born, though, in Paris, France, on 11 May 1900, the son of Thomas Hinckley Robbins Sr. and Alice Ames. He entered the Naval Academy in the Class of 1920, and the war hurried his class through to graduate in 1919.
His early sea duty was varied. He served in the troop transport Kroonland, the battleship Utah and the destroyer Sturtevant. From 1922 to 1924 he was in the armed yacht Scorpion in Turkish waters and in the submarine chaser SC-96 in the Black Sea, in the troubled years after the Ottoman collapse. He then served in the destroyers MacLeish and McFarland and taught at the Academy. In 1928, back aboard Utah as a lieutenant, he was sent to Pensacola and became Naval Aviator No. 3426.
He flew with Scouting Squadron 5 in the cruiser Concord and was executive officer of Scouting Squadron 6 in Cincinnati. He was assistant operations officer at Anacostia and then aide to the Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics. In 1933 he took command of the minesweeper and aircraft tender Sandpiper, which worked in Alaskan waters and took part in the 1935 Aleutian Islands survey expedition. He flew with Scouting Squadron 4 in Langley and went through the Naval War College in 1936–37. He was aviation officer at the Newport torpedo station and then on the War College staff. He was navigator of Lexington (CV-2) in 1939–40, then aviation officer to Commander, Scouting Force. On 7 December 1941 he was the Chief of Naval Operations' liaison officer to the Army Air Forces Combat Command.
For most of the war he served in Washington on planning work: liaison between Admiral King's headquarters and the Army Air Forces, aviation plans officer for the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, and naval aviation officer at the Army-Navy Staff College. In 1944 he went to sea in Essex on temporary duty with the Pacific Fleet's air force.
On 30 January 1945 he took command of Lexington (CV-16) from Ernest Litch. In February her planes struck Tokyo and supported the Iwo Jima landings. After an overhaul in the United States she was back in action in June against Luzon, and in July and August she joined the heavy strikes on the Japanese home islands. After the cease-fire Lexington dropped supplies to Allied prisoners of war in Japan, and she was the first Essex-class carrier to enter Tokyo Bay. Robbins was promoted to rear admiral there and left her on 16 November 1945 (uboat.net: 18 November). He received the Legion of Merit with Combat "V."
After the war he worked in the offices of the Deputy CNO (Air), the CNO and the Secretary of the Navy, and became a key adviser to James Forrestal as the Navy turned from battleships to carriers. In February 1947, when he read that the Army Air Forces planned to fly the P-82 Betty Jo nonstop from Honolulu to New York, he suggested launching a Navy P2V Neptune half an hour later to beat it there. The Navy did not take up the idea. He commanded Carrier Divisions 17 and 2 and sat on the Joint Strategic Survey Committee. In 1953 he went to the Naval War College as chief of staff. He was acting president twice, the second time after Vice Admiral Lynde McCormick died in office in 1956. He became the College's 30th president on 5 September 1956 and began a course for senior officers of foreign navies. He was the first War College president since the war to stay on active duty afterward: he led the Naval Discharge Review Board and then commanded the Potomac River Naval Command, earning a second Legion of Merit, before retiring in 1962.
In 1930 he married Barbara Little. They had a daughter, Barbara Robbins Armstrong. He died in New London, Connecticut, on 12 December 1972 and is buried in the Naval Academy Cemetery. His papers are in the Library of Congress.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Thomas H. Robbins Jr." (citing Naval War College past presidents; Library of Congress register of his papers; Power, Carrier Lexington; Hall of Valor).
uboat.net, Allied Warship Commanders: Thomas Hinckley Robbins, Jr. (born 11 May 1900; USNA 1920; CV-16 30 Jan – 18 Nov 1945).