Title: Stuart Hotchkiss oral history interview, July 16, 1989

Identifier: OH0115   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/10948)

Description: Captain Hotchkiss grew up on Long Island Sound where at an early age he became involved in yachting and international yacht racing. As a Naval ROTC student at Yale University, Hotchkiss received a US Naval Reserve commission and volunteered for active duty in April 1941. After assignment to a minesweeper, he received command of the schooner BOWDOIN and conducted hydrographic studies along the coast of Greenland. In June 1943 Hotchkiss was given command of the COOLBAUGH (DE 217) in which he experienced a violent storm in the Atlantic and participated in convoy and firing exercises in the Pacific. The COOLBAUGH participated in the Leyte Gulf invasion as well as engagements at Luzon and Manila Bay. In August 1945 Hotchkiss took command of the DD 939 (former Z-39) and in November the USS GRIDLEY (DD 380), the latter of which he cruised the Mediterranean. Both the interview and the Stuart Hotchkiss Papers detail the above experiences. Interviewer: Donald R. Lennon.