Dave Cocks
U.S. Marines injured in battle on Iwo Jima were transferred from hospital ships to PB2Y-3 seaplanes in Saipan for transport to Honolulu. U.S. Navy pilot Dave Cocks flew 14 missions, carrying 358 wounded Marines, on the 17-hour mission from Saipan to Honolulu. / Photos courtesy of Dave Cocks
DAVE COCKS
Age: 91
Born: June 3, 1918
Hometown: Eagle Rock (suburb of Los Angeles)
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Navy
Years served: January 1942-December 1945
Rank: Senior lieutenant
Family: Wife Ferne (deceased); three children, Shelley Burchell of Palm Desert, Steve Cocks of Palos Verdes and Ron Cocks (deceased); two grandchildren
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II Wednesday through Sunday through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming tomorrow
U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Norm Friedman of Palm Desert
More
U.S. Navy pilot Dave Cocks, plane commander of a PB2Y-3 four-engine seaplane, transported injured Marines from hospital ships in the Pacific to medical facilities in Honolulu.
“Hospital ships would pick these guys up in Iwo Jima and transport them to Saipan,” Cocks said. “Then we'd transfer them over to my plane. We'd stack 'em up into wire stretchers, five-, six- or 10-high.”
The seaplane could hold 35 passengers, which included space for 25 injured men.
“Some of them were pretty seriously injured,” he said.
Cocks recalled one Marine's particularly gruesome injury.
“Part of his head had been blown open,” Cocks said. “These were just 18-, 19-year-old kids.”
Along with his crew, which included radio men, flight mechanics and co-pilot, a few Navy corpsman accompanied and tended to the injured Marines.
Once the Marines had been unloaded from the hospital ships and put on the seaplane, Cocks and his crew began the 12-hour journey from Saipan to Johnston Island.
“It was an all-night flight,” he said.
On Johnston Island, the Marines had their bandages changed and were fed, Cocks said.
Then it was off for the final leg of their trip — a five-hour jaunt to Honolulu.
Although he only transported the injured, the odor of blood from gunshot wounds, burned skin and other injuries left a lasting impression.
“The smell,” he said. “The (smell of the) burned bodies is absolutely sickening.”
Cocks, who spent a year patrolling the islands of the Pacific in a smaller, two-engine PBY seaplane, returned to San Diego in the spring of 1944 to get “checked out” in the four-engine Coronado.
From June 1944 to April 1945, Cocks made 14 trips from Saipan to Honolulu, transporting 358 injured Marines on the 17-hour journey across the Pacific.
Cocks said he was pretty certain that all the injured men survived the grueling flight.
“As far as I know, I didn't lose anybody,” he said.
Cocks logged more than 2,500 hours of flight time during his tour of duty in the Pacific.
