Robert William John Cocks (Jack) Born: Initiated: April 29, 1921 in Morenci, AZ January 25, 1944 in Coronado Lodge #8, Morenci, AZ, a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Passed: February 14, 1944 Raised: February 22, 1944 Affiliated: June 4, 2004 with Safford Lodge #16 Entered the Celestial Lodge: May 4, 2017 at the age of 96 years, 5 days in Hesperia, CA He was buried in Miramar National Cemetery with Masonic Honors. Obituary for Robert "Jack" Cocks Commander Dr. Robert W. J. Cocks (Jack) Born to English immigrants in a small mining town in Arizona. Jack began working at a very young age. He ventured off to Northern Arizona University in 1940. After his second year he signed up to become a Naval Aviator. He became a highly-decorated dive bomber pilot in the Pacific Theater, World War II. Jack continued his education after the war and achieved two Masters Degrees as well as his Doctorate. He and his College Sweetheart married and had four children. He was also featured recently in the World War II Documentary Film Eleven. He is survived by three sons, six grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren.
Navy veteran Robert Jack Cocks dies at 96 Daily Press By Matthew Cabe, Staff Writer VICTORVILLE World War II Navy veteran Dr. Robert W. Jack Cocks, who safely guided more than two dozen fellow dive bombers onto the damaged Tacloban Airfield during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, died May 4 at his Sterling Inn home. He was 96. Cocks son, Chris Cocks, told the Daily Press the cause was congestive heart failure. Born April 29, 1921, in Morenci, Arizona, Jack Cocks was the son of English emigrants. At 20, during his second year at Northern Arizona University then named Arizona State Teachers College Cocks made a decision that shaped the next 40 years of his life. A pilot flew over the campus in a Navy trainer. It circled the campus, landed in a field and a bunch of people went out to see what the deal was, Chris Cocks said. The Navy was looking for students. He submitted his name, and they started the process that day. On Oct. 25, 1944, Cocks and 27 other pilots conducted airstrikes against a Japanese fleet during the Battle off Samar. According to a statement released by the Navy following the battle, the pilots scored many damaging hits and near-hits, but were perilously short of fuel and elected to land at Tacloban rather than hazard the long return flight to their ship. Only a quarter of the airfield was suitable for landing due to craters left by enemy bombs. Cocks came in first, then spent three hours signaling the incoming aircraft to ensure successful landings. He did so amid nearby snipers and still-exploding bombs. For his heroism, he received the Legion of Merit, replete with the V Device for valor. He was also decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross for a direct hit earlier that day on a light cruiser that was protecting the Japanese battleship Yamato. After the war, Cocks earned a bachelor s degree from the University of Arizona, according to Chris Cocks. He also received two master s degrees and, later, a doctorate in criminal administration from the University of Southern California. He worked for the Los Angeles County Probation Department for many years and launched programs to readjust parolees into the work environment, Chris Cocks said. He started out as a probation officer, but moved up the ranks to deputy chief.
He retired from the Navy on April 29, 1981, after 40 years of service. In October of that year, as a deputy chief, Cocks received a citation from President Ronald Reagan in recognition of exemplary service to the nation in advancing job opportunities in the business sector for disadvantaged citizens and needy youth. Cocks switched to probation work at the federal level before becoming a district court executive at the Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles. He described that as his ultimate achievement, Chris Cocks said. The pillar of his career was to work with those judges. Chris Cocks said his father s military career was never a part of his family life. I knew he was a pilot, but he never talked about it, Chris Cocks said. Even when I was a kid, he d go away for the weekend, but I had no clue he was in military intelligence or that he was a test pilot after he came back from the war. That changed in 2014 when Cocks was interviewed by filmmaker George Retelas and Nevada-based historian Tim Hampton for Eleven, a documentary about 11 surviving members of Carrier Air Group 11, a squadron that served aboard the USS Hornet, CV-12. One man s memories: Victorville, California veteran recalls stories from the Pacific Theater A photo of Robert "Jack" Cocks as a young man. Cocks, a decorated World War II veteran, logged more than 1,400 hours while serving as a Navy pilot aboard the USS Hornet, CV-12.
Robert "Jack" Cocks is a decorated World War II veteran who flew missions off the USS Hornet, CV-12, in the Pacific for the Navy. Cocks watched General Douglas MacArthur wade through the waters off Leyte Island during the general's return to the Philippines. Photos from his flying days in World War II are a small sample of the memorabilia Robert "Jack" Cocks saved from his time in the Pacific. Cocks served tours in Guadalcanal and aboard the USS Hornet, CV-12, off which he flew dive-bombing missions in the Pacific for the Navy.
Article in the Daily Press May 29, 2016 at 12:44 PM By Matthew Cabe, Staff Writer VICTORVILLE Low on fuel, and with 27 Navy dive bombers in tow, 23-year-old Robert Jack Cocks landed his Curtiss SB2C Helldiver on the newly seized Tacloban Airfield located on Philippine island of Leyte. It was early in the evening of Oct. 25, 1944. Cocks and the 27 other pilots spent the day conducting airstrikes against a Japanese fleet led by Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita during the Battle off Samar. Nearly 2,500 American sailors and pilots were either dead, wounded or missing by day s end; the battle is considered the most dangerous of the larger, three-day Battle of Leyte Gulf, which itself is regarded as one the largest Naval battles of World War II, according to a Norwich University study. The (Tacloban) field was clear, Cocks remembered, but it was being worked on that day on the far end with Marston matting... I went in first successful, (and) saw that the crew that was working on that end of the field was too darn close to planes that were coming in too fast. Despite his exhaustion after diving through a veritable curtain of anti-aircraft fire, Cocks leaped from the Helldiver s cockpit at the request of an Army officer in charge at Tacloban and ran toward the 27 incoming planes. I grabbed a sheet or pillowcase or something, Cocks said, and went to the end of the runway and tried to give the standard signals for You re going too fast or You re too high for a good landing, that sort of thing, for, I don t know, three hours. They were coming in regardless, and it was getting dark, too. There wasn t an awful lot of time. Only one-quarter of the airstrip was suitable for landings, according to a statement released after the heroic occurrence, and that was pocked with holes and soft spots left by enemy bombs. There were rumors of snipers still in the vicinity of the airfield, and Cocks unwittingly made himself an easy target as he guided the planes in. By 9 p.m., however, he landed all 27 planes and not one man was lost; he received the Legion of Merit replete with the V Device for valor for his efforts. The LOM and a slew of other medals are encased in a glass frame that hangs on the west wall of Cocks living room at the Sterling Inn; the contents of the room on walls and in boxes could fill a museum and paint a vivid picture of the Pacific Theater. But at 95, Cocks memories of tours in Guadalcanal and aboard the USS Hornet CV-12 as part of Carrier Air Group 11 remain the crucial link to a war that exists more than 70 years in the past. Cocks stood in the sand on Leyte and watched General Douglas MacArthur then field marshal of the Philippine Army return to the Philippines, a moment immortalized in an iconic photo-op.