Ships
- USS Claxton (DD-571) Captain, 1943 – 13 May 1944
Commander William Van Hamilton commanded the United States Navy destroyer USS Claxton (DD-571) from 1943 until 13 May 1944. He followed Herald Franklin Stout, who had been her first commanding officer, and he later rose to rear admiral.
Claxton was a Fletcher-class destroyer built at Orange, Texas, and commissioned on 8 December 1942. During Hamilton's tour she served in the South Pacific with Destroyer Squadron 23. The squadron, which came to be called the Little Beavers, patrolled against Japanese shipping in the Solomons, covered the movement of troops, bombarded shore positions, and met enemy ships and aircraft. Its operations from 1 November 1943 to 23 February 1944 earned the squadron the Presidential Unit Citation.
On the night of 1–2 November 1943, in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, Claxton fought with four cruisers and seven other destroyers. That American force met four Japanese cruisers and six destroyers headed for the transports off Bougainville. Torpedoes and gunfire from the American ships turned the Japanese formation back. Two of the enemy ships were sunk and four were damaged in the action. Claxton then took the damaged destroyer Foote in tow and brought her into Purvis Bay on 4 November.
On 25 November 1943, off Cape St. George on New Ireland, Claxton and four other destroyers intercepted five Japanese destroyers that were trying to carry aviation troops toward Rabaul. In the night fight the American ships broke up that force and sank three of the Japanese destroyers. Claxton remained with the squadron on bombardment and screening work through the rest of the Solomons campaign.
On 4 February 1944, while Claxton was shelling Sarime Plantation on Bougainville, an explosion aft, probably from two medium-caliber shells, wrecked her stern and wounded fifteen men. She finished the bombardment with the three guns that would still bear, took temporary repairs at Purvis Bay, and went on to the West Coast. At the Mare Island Navy Yard the damaged stern was replaced during an overhaul that occupied the spring of 1944. Hamilton's command ended on 13 May 1944, the day the yard photographed her in the stream. Later commanding officers of Claxton included Maxim William Firth and Albert P. Stello.