Inter-war period At the end of
World War I, Hoskins was serving aboard battleship , the academy training ship, cruising domestic waters as part of the wartime Atlantic Fleet. Hoskins returned to NAS Pensacola in 1928 to serve as instructor, then after a year was assigned to command the Naval Reserve Aviation Base at
Great Lakes, Illinois. He was promoted Lieutenant in 1931 and served as air officer with
Scouting Squadron 6 of until 1934, again flying floatplanes. Hoskins then returned to Great Lakes, serving on the staff of commandant, Ninth Naval District, Great Lakes until 1936. Hoskins was seconded to s air group, commanding nine
SU-4 aircraft during the unprecedented and unsuccessful search. One newspaper reported the size of the
Lexington air search area as "a rectangle of sea approximately 600 miles by 400 miles." A commemorative postcard in the collection of the
National Naval Aviation Museum records
Lexington search group as having "...steamed about 11,000 miles and searched 200,000 square miles with no casualties while conducting the largest and most extensive mass search in naval peacetime history...". In November,
Ranger escorted 20,000
Canadian troops convoy leaving
Halifax, Nova Scotia. Hoskins became
Ranger air officer in April 1941. Steaming exclusively in the Atlantic during his pre-war service on board,
Ranger often served on
neutrality patrol. Between May 1941 and February 1942,
Ranger made four deliveries of
Curtis P-40 Warhawk aircraft transported from NAS Quonset Point to
Accra.
World War II When war was declared against Japan and Germany on December 8, 1941,
Ranger continued transporting needed P-40 fighters to Africa; in June 1942, Hoskins assumed the duties of executive officer.
Operation Torch, the occupation of North Africa, utilized
Ranger as a platform to launch dive bombers, torpedo planes and fighters for air cover. The carrier dodged a torpedo attack from Vichy submarine
Le Tonnant, but
Ranger air groups shot down 16 enemy aircraft and sank three submarines during successful operations with no losses in men or aircraft. In 1943, "Uncle John" was assigned to Washington, D.C. and was later Chief of Staff to the commander of Fleet Air,
Quonset Point, Rhode Island, where both American and British pilots were trained in carrier flight techniques and tactics. Captain Hoskins was awarded the
Legion of Merit for his service at Quonset Point. At roughly 10:00 on October 24,
Princeton was attacked by a
Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" which dropped its single bomb directly through the flight and hangar decks, igniting gasoline stores, disabling fire suppression systems and causing secondary explosions. After battling the fires for some hours, Buracker ordered
Princeton abandoned, leaving behind only a salvage crew; Hoskins offered to stay behind. At 15:24, a massive explosion of ordnance stores blew off a large section of the carrier's stern, killing many and severing Hoskins's right leg just above the ankle. After
Princeton sank, Capt. Hoskins was recovered by a
PBY Catalina and flown to medical care in time to save his life, an experience which would color his later air service.
Peg-leg admiral Hoskins refused to allow his wound to force his premature exit from the Navy, asserting his fitness to visiting friend Admiral
William Halsey: "... the Navy doesn't expect a man to think with his feet. That blast didn't knock off my head." A year later, he was promoted to
rear admiral and given command of
Carrier Division Seventeen. Air Group 81, formerly from
Princeton, asked
Walt Disney to design a mascot patch, "a saber-slinging pirate with an aircraft carrier under one arm and a peg leg firing ammunition like a machine gun", and were for a time known as Peg-Leg Petes.
Korean War After two years as chief of staff to
Commander, Naval Air Forces Pacific Fleet, Hoskins was ordered to command
Carrier Division 3, centered around another Essex-class carrier , and deployed to the
South China Sea.
Valley Forge was anchored in
Victoria Harbour,
Hong Kong when on June 25, 1950, Hoskins was notified of the
North Korean Army's massive attack across the
38th parallel precipitating the
Korean War. Hoskins quickly moved his force to
Naval Station Subic Bay for fueling and resupply and by July 3 was launching the first carrier-based air strikes of the conflict. During the invasion at Inchon from September 14 until September 19, Hoskins's
Air Group 5 made hundreds of daily strikes on enemy targets. Between July 3 and November 19,
Valley Forge aircraft flew 5,000 sorties and delivered 2,000 tons of rockets and bombs. coordinating logistics by air transport for all branches of service where he served until April 1954. Wartime MATS was often responsible for flying wounded service personnel to medical care, protecting life and often saving limbs. During his command, MATS operated for 36 months and over 75 million passenger miles without a single fatality. Hoskins was later decorated with the
Distinguished Service Medal for his command efforts at the outset of the Korean War and the
Silver Star (Army award) for his "gallantry and intrepidity" as commander of his division during the Inchon-Seoul operation. and served until retired in 1957. During his command at Quonset, Hoskins chaired the board of inquiry into the
May 26, 1954 disaster on the (CV-20). In 1955
Republic Pictures released
The Eternal Sea, a biopic taken from Hoskins's life and written by
Allen Rivkin after a story by
William Wister Haines. The film featured
Sterling Hayden as Hoskins,
Alexis Smith as his wife Sue,
Dean Jagger as his friend Thomas Semple,
Hayden Rorke as William Buracker and
Virginia Grey as Dorothy Buracker.
The New York Times noted
John H. Auer's "deceptively simple direction". The reviewer especially praised "... some of the best and most unobtrusive photography of aircraft carrier scenes ever made". Upon retirement, Hoskins was promoted to
vice admiral. He later served for five years as director of the Office of Declassification Policy in the
Department of Defense, managing the activity of declassifying formerly classified materials for public release. Hoskins had a heart attack and died at his home in
Falls Church, Virginia, on March 30, 1964. His funeral was held at the chapel at
Fort Myer and he was buried with full military honors at
Arlington National Cemetery. Hoskins and his wife Sue (née Waters) had two sons and one daughter. ==References==