A letter from Carl J. Steele, EM1, a plank owner, to the DESA NEWS describing COOLBAUGH's involvement in 1944  rescue operations of crew members from the USS SUWANNEE .

Dear Don,

I have been a members of DESA for about four years and enjoyed reading about other ships in the DE fleet. Now I want to tell our shipmates about the USS COOLBAUGH (DE 217), its war record, and the heroic action taken by the commanding officer Lieutenant Commander S.T. Hotchkiss USNR and Robert L. Wicks, CPhM USNR.
My battle station was topside, so I was one of the untrained assistants that helped, and we also buried the dead. My source of information came from: Office of Naval Records and History, Ships’ Histories Section, Navy Department. USS COOLBAUGH (DE-217) reported to Pacific Fleet on 14 Jan. 1944.

AWARDS

As commanding officer of USS COOLBAUGH (DE-2 17) Lieutenant Commander StuartT. Hotchkiss, USNR, of East River, Connecticut was awarded the Legion of Merit for the outstanding performance of duty during the Invasion of Leyte from 17 October 1944 to 28 October 1944. His smart ship handling in rescuing downed pilots from the sea, the rescue of ninety-one survivors from a suicided "Jeep" carrier, and fueling under battle conditions was instrumental to the efficient operation of the Southern Carrier Task Unit off Leyte Gulf. However, this positive action in thwarting a Japanese submarine attack was the primary factor for the award of the Legion of Merit.
Robert L. Wicks, CPhM, USNR, of Baltimore, Maryland, was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his outstandingly meritorious service. On 26 September 1944, the USS SUWANEE (CVE 27) was hit by a Japanese suicide plane, and 91 of it’s survivors were rescued by the USS COOLBAUGH (DE2 17). The men rescued were all badly burned and suffering from shock. It was only because of Wicks’ tireless and continual work for a period of two days under extremely adverse conditions, his devotion to duty, his organization of the untrained assistants under him, and his apparently inexhaustible store of energy, that he saved and lives of many men who otherwise would surely have been lost.
Robert L. Wicks, CPhM, USNR, of 7401 Haford Rd., Baltimore, Maryland, was later awarded the Bronze