John W Wilcox, Jr

Naval career

Wilcox was born in Midway, Georgia, on 22 March 1882. He was a 1905 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and was a skilled rifle marksman.

World War I

As a lieutenant commander, Wilcox was the first commanding officer of the armed yacht USS Yacona (SP-617) when she was commissioned on 10 December 1917 for World War I convoy escort and antisubmarine duty in the Atlantic Ocean. He received the Navy Cross for distinguished service during the war as flag secretary on the staff of Commander, Battleship Force 2, United States Atlantic Fleet. By March 1919, Wilcox had been promoted to commander and was the executive officer of the troop transport USS Von Steuben (ID-3017), engaged in bringing American servicemen home from Europe in the immediate aftermath of the war.

Interwar

Wilcox was on the staff of the United States Naval Academy, serving as the school's athletic director, from 1931 to 1934.

From 27 May 1939 to 30 June 1939, while a captain, Wilcox served as acting president of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, between the departure of outgoing college president Rear Admiral Charles P. Snyder and the arrival of incoming president Rear Admiral Edward C. Kalbfus. Promoted to rear admiral, he then became commander of the Special Service Squadron in the Panama Canal Zone until relieved by Rear Admiral H. Kent Hewitt on 3 August 1940. Wilcox was President of the Board of Inspection and Survey from September 1940 to December 1941.

World War II

Wilcox was the newly appointed Commander, Battleships, United States Atlantic Fleet, when the United States entered World War II on 7 December 1941. He came aboard his flagship, the battleship USS Washington (BB-56), in Virginia's York River, to take up his duties on 13 December 1941, simultaneously also taking command of Battleship Division 6. Washington conducted training along the United States East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico until March 1942.

On 25 March 1942, Wilcox became commander of Task Force 39, consisting of Washington, the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7), the heavy cruisers USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) and USS Wichita (CA-45), and eight destroyers. The task force had orders to join the British Home Fleet at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands and thereafter assist the Home Fleet in covering Arctic convoys bound for the Soviet Union. With Wilcox aboard Washington, the task force departed Casco Bay, Maine, on 26 March 1942, bound for Scapa Flow.

Loss at sea

On the morning of 27 March 1942, the second day of the voyage, Wilcox appeared unaccompanied and without a coat on Washington's deck while Task Force 39 was pushing through heavy seas off Sable Island in stormy North Atlantic winter weather. He held a few brief conversations with some of the men on deck before they lost track of his whereabouts. At 10:31, a member of Washington's crew reported a man overboard at 42°24′N 61°34′W and soon thereafter Tuscaloosa sighted a man struggling in the water and took evasive action to avoid running him down. The task force began a search and rescue operation. Mustering of Washington's crew found no one missing from the ship's company or Wilcox's staff, and it gradually became apparent that Wilcox himself had gone overboard.

Wasp launched four SB2U-2 Vindicator dive bombers to assist in the search, one of which crashed astern of Wasp while attempting to land, killing its two-man crew. About 80 minutes after Wilcox went overboard, the destroyer USS Livermore (DD-429) sighted his body floating face down in the rough seas, but the bad weather prevented its recovery, and it was never seen again. Task Force 39 soon suspended its search and resumed its voyage to Scapa Flow.

Board of investigation

Immediately after Wilcox's death, Rear Admiral Robert C. Giffen aboard Wichita took command of Task Force 39. He ordered a board of investigation into the loss of Wilcox to convene aboard Washington on the afternoon of 27 March 1942. It examined 43 witnesses over the next seven days. No one had seen how Wilcox had gone overboard. The heavy seas that morning could simply have swept him overboard, but the board explored other possibilities. Witnesses disagreed on Wilcox's mental state; there were claims that he seemed sad or nervous on the morning of 27 March and that he had exhibited unstable behavior in recent days, but these were balanced by other witnesses who said he seemed of sound mind and that, although he was known to exhibit eccentricities not common among officers of his grade, his behavior otherwise was not unusual on the morning of his death. One witness believed that Wilcox seemed pale and white during his last few minutes on deck and perhaps was ill, leading to speculation that he may have suffered a heart attack while on deck and fallen overboard.

Many rumors circulated in the aftermath of Wilcox's death, including that he had been suicidal and had jumped overboard or that someone pushed him overboard, but none of these ideas could be substantiated. When the board concluded its proceedings on 2 April 1942, it found that no one aboard Washington had been negligent in Wilcox's death and that Wilcox had not died owing to any misconduct of his own.

Decades later, a new hypothesis surfaced based on the reports of Wilcox seeming pale and white while on deck on the morning of 27 March, speculating that he may have been seasick and had rushed to the ship's side to vomit, but had mistakenly selected an area where lifelines were not rigged, falling overboard as a result. But given his extensive sea duty in the North Atlantic during the Great War, this hypothesis seems highly unlikely.

Memorial

Although Wilcox's body was not recovered from the Atlantic for burial, a memorial marker for him is located at Memory Hill Cemetery in Milledgeville, Georgia.