Ships
- USS Lewis Hancock (DD-675) Captain, 14 March 1944 – 15 May 1945
William Marvin Searles was born on 8 January 1907, with San Francisco, California, as his home. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in the Class of 1928 and served as a line officer through the peacetime Navy, reaching lieutenant on 1 July 1936. After the United States entered the Second World War he was promoted to lieutenant commander on 1 March 1942 and to temporary commander on 15 September 1942.
On 14 March 1944 he became captain of the Fletcher-class destroyer Lewis Hancock (DD-675). The ship had been built at Kearny, New Jersey, and commissioned in September 1943 under Charles Huntington Lyman, her first commanding officer. Searles remained captain until 15 May 1945.
Lewis Hancock was already a fleet destroyer in the Pacific war. Under Searles she stayed with the forces moving west toward Japan. In the spring of 1945 she was off Okinawa, supporting the long fight for that island. Early in May she was released to start for home, and his command ended a few days afterward.
On 19 November 1944 two Japanese torpedo planes attacked Lewis Hancock. Searles handled the destroyer so her guns could be brought fully to bear and helped destroy the first plane. A second plane then attacked. He turned the ship so the torpedo ran clear, and the gunfire damaged that aircraft so badly that it crashed. The crew came through unhurt, and the ship suffered no material damage. For his conduct that day he received the Silver Star.
On 25 March 1945, while he was still in command of Lewis Hancock, the Navy gave him the temporary rank of captain. He turned the ship over on 15 May 1945. He later retired as a rear admiral. Searles died on 6 April 1996, at the age of eighty-nine, and was buried at San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery in Gustine, California.