Dr. William G. Hook served aboard the Calvert from 1943 to 1946 as the Assistant Medical Officer. According to his grandson, Eric Hook (USAF), Dr. Hook answered the call after the war broke out, left his private practice in Danvers, MA and entered the US Navy as a LT in 1942. He reported aboard the Calvert sometime in early-to-mid 1943.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eric Hook has provided a number of other photographs of the Calvert’s officers and crew from his grandfather’s collection, available on the WWII Group Photos page. Additional photographs of the Calvert’s medical staff are also available here.

Dr. Hook can also be seen in the 1944 film footage at the 04:47 – 04:55 mark and at the 16:50 – 22:30 mark.

Here is a photograph of Dr. Hook with the Japanese and Korean prisoners brought aboard the Calvert following the invasions at Saipan and Tinian.

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Many thanks to Nick Valcik for providing the following information and photographs on his grandfather’s WWII service, including time served aboard the U.S.S. Calvert during the invasion of Makin, Gilberts Islands in the Fall of 1943.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. John Hus Valcik was a USN surgeon assigned to 2nd Marine Division Fleet Marine Force during World War II. Throughout the war Dr. Valcik served on number of ships and stations, including the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station Hospital, the Aleutians, the S.S. Mormachawk (see more below), the S.S. Paul Revere, and the U.S.S. Calvert.

Dr. Valcik boarded the Calvert in Hawaii at the end of October 1943, just prior to the Calvert’s departure for the Gilberts campaign. He participated in the initial landing at Makin Island on Nov 20th acting as a beach commander and beach party surgeon.

With “Makin Taken” by the 23rd of November, he and other members of the Calvert’s beach party and several boat crews (including my grandfather, Sterling Funck), assisted at Tarawa. While on the beach at Tarawa, while directing triage and logistics, and with heavy fighting still in progress, he was knocked unconscious and injured. According to his grandson Nick, all Dr. Valcik remembered was one minute he was on the beach and then he woke up in the hospital. He was transferred to the USS Solace (AH-5) for treatment and transported back to San Diego U.S. Naval Hospital in time for Christmas, 1943.

During invasions the Calvert’s enlisted mess area was organized into a surgical ward to accommodate the wounded if they were brought aboard for triage. We’re not certain that the following photographs were taken aboard the Calvert, but my grandfather believed that they were as he remembered how the Calvert’s mess hall was reconfigured into a surgical ward during invasions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the war Dr. Valcik practiced medicine in Decatur, TX. He was also on the inactive Naval reserve list and Army inactive reserve list until he died in 1986.

Additional photographs and information, including photographs taken aboard the S.S. Mormachawk, all provided by Nick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photographs taken aboard the S.S. Mormachawk, provided by Nick Valcik. More on the Mormachawk “Hawk” at Wikipedia.