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Contact Info
Home Town Mount Carmel, PA
Last Address Livingston, NJ
Date of Passing Sep 15, 1966
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
After retiring from the Navy, he worked as vice president in charge of operations for the Grace Steamship Company until 1964.
He was awarded with Navy Distinguished Service Medal during Cold War and twice with the Legion of Merit for his World War II service, once as Director of Planning and Control in the Bureau of Naval Personnel and once as commanding officer of the light cruiser Cleveland.
He is the namesake of HopwoodJunior High School in Saipan, originally the first institution of higher learning in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which was renamed in his honor in the late 1950s when he was Commanding Officer for the Northern Marianas as CINCPACFLT.
He died at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, New Jersey at the age of 67, and is buried with his wife in ArlingtonNationalCemetery.
Description The Battle of Balikpapan was the concluding stage of the Operation Oboe. The landings took place on 1 July 1945. The Australian 7th Division, composed of the 18th, 21st and 25th Infantry Brigades, with KNIL troops, made an amphibious landing, codenamed Operation Oboe Two a few miles north of Balikpapan, on the island of Borneo. The landing had been preceded by heavy bombing and shelling by Australian and US air and naval forces. The Japanese were outnumbered and outgunned, but like the other battles of the Pacific War, many of them fought to the death.
Major operations had ceased by July 21. The 7th Division's casualties were significantly lighter than they had suffered in previous campaigns. The battle was one of the last to occur in World War II, beginning a few weeks before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki effectively ended the war. Japan surrendered while the Australians were combing the jungle for stragglers.
Following the surrender the three Brigades were committed to occupation duties until around February 1946. The 21st Brigade was detached to Makassar in the Celebes Islands to accept surrender of the Japanese forces, release POWs and maintain civil order.