Ships
- USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) Captain from 7 February 1945 · Relieved on 7 May 1946
William Sinton was born on 9 May 1897 and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in the class of 1920. He stayed in the Navy, became a commander on 1 July 1939, and on 18 June 1942 received the temporary rank of captain.
His first wartime command was the seaplane tender Chandeleur. He took her on 19 November 1942 and left her on 21 May 1943, in the period when tenders of that kind kept long-range patrol planes operating from forward anchorages across the Pacific.
From May 1943 to March 1944 he served on the staff of Commander Air Force, Pacific Fleet, as assistant chief of staff for operations. For that duty the Navy awarded him a Gold Star in lieu of a second Legion of Merit. He also received the Legion of Merit for his service in the war.
Sinton took command of the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga (CV-14) on 7 February 1945, while she was on the passage from Ulithi to the Puget Sound Navy Yard. She arrived on 15 February. On 21 January, still under Captain Dixie Kiefer, two kamikaze aircraft had hit her off Formosa. The attack left about a hundred casualties, Kiefer among the wounded, and sent the ship home for repairs. Yard work on the flight deck, the island, and the burned spaces was finished on 20 April 1945. Ticonderoga left Puget Sound the next day, took aircraft and men aboard at Alameda, and sailed again for the western Pacific.
In the summer of 1945 she rejoined the fast carriers for the last strikes against Japan. Her aircraft attacked airfields, ships, and shore targets in the home islands until fighting stopped in mid-August. On 16 August 1945 Sinton wrote the officers and men about what the days right after the surrender would ask of them. In the weeks that followed, Ticonderoga flew occupation patrols and supply flights for Allied prisoners and operated in Japanese waters.
The carrier then spent months carrying American servicemen home across the Pacific. Sinton stayed in command through that work and was relieved on 7 May 1946. He later reached flag rank and retired from the Navy as a rear admiral.