From a contemporary press report
Retired Colonel Thomas C. Cock, a medical doctor who is believed to be the last World War II combat veteran to retire from the Air Force, died January 27, 2005, in Washington state. He was 79.
Cock served 45 years in the military, starting — he told United Press International in a 1991 interview — with World War II, which he called the “moral war” and ending as American troops began the buildup for the Persian Gulf War.
Cock started out aboard B-24 Liberators, but after the war, pursued a medical degree.
His son, Thomas Jr., said his father had roles in “many missions, including the care of the Iranian hostages in 1981.”
At that time, he was chief of hospital services at the Air Force hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany, and so supervised the treatment of the 52 American hostages who had been held by Iran for more than a year.
Cock, who joined the Army Air Forces in 1943, retired from the Air Force on November 9, 1990.
COCK, THOMAS CHARLES SR
- COL US AIR FORCE
- WORLD WAR II
- DATE OF BIRTH: 07/24/1925
- DATE OF DEATH: 01/27/2005
- BURIED AT: SECTION 54 SITE 3804
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.
Reviewed by: Michael Howard