Posted on 09/09/2004 7:48:53 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
Charles B. (Chuck) Earnhart, May 15, 1918 - September 1, 2004.
The other day, one of my best friend's dad passed away. Most knew Chuck as a good and gentle hog farmer or real estate agent from the tiny town of Hohenwald, Tennessee. But few knew how much he did for the people of Great Britain or the United States.
At the age of 21, Chuck loved to fly and already had his private pilot's license. He loved to fly so much that on his very first date with his future wife, Janice, he took her to fly in his own airplane. Janice was impressed and smitten frm the beginning.
When the war started on September 1, 1939, Chuck knew that he was destined to fly and fight in the war. He was one of about 300 young pilots who went to Canada and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. About half of those 300 paid the ultimate sacrifice defeating Nazism. Chuck was quickly sent through flight school and the RCAF recognized him as an outstanding pilot and sent him to learn to fly the fighters.
By early spring of 1940, Chuck had mastered the Spitfire, Typhoon, and Hurricane fighter airplanes and by the time the Battle of Britain was in full swing, Chuck was flying two and three multi-hour missions each day. Before the U.S. entered the war, Chuck's airplane had been shot up several times and shot down once, parachuting safely down in England. But Chuck gave back better than he got racking up 4 1/2 kills (the 1/2 was a shared kill with a wingman).
Chuck joined the US Army Air Corps as soon as they came to England and was eventually assigned to fly the P-47D Thunderbolt, but he sorely missed the nimbleness of the Spitfire and flew escort for the bombers over Europe for the next two years.
In his official flight log, Chuck flew three missions on June 6, 1944 for a total of 11 flight hours. Because of the ruggedness and bomb carrying payload of the P-47, Chuck's main job was close air support of troops and ground attack.
On June 28, 1944, the odds caught up with him and on a strafing mission over Belgium at an altitude of only 50 feet, a lucky shot to the engine forced Chuck to crash land his plane. His unit listed him as MIA. The people of a nearby village rushed to his aid and were able to rescue the injured and unconscious airman and hid him in their small village.
When the Germans came, they were furious and demanded that the villagers turn him over. The villagers played dumb (despite the fact that they were obviously the ones who rescued Chuck) and the Germans executed two young men in their anger but they did not tell where Chuck was.
Over the next several weeks while the Allies advanced and Chuck healed enough to move around, he learned of the sacrifice of the two young men desite their efforts to not bother him with their deaths. Chuck promised that they had not died in vain and vowed to make their sacrifice worth it. When the Allied advance was close enough to him, Chuck lierally walked through the front lines and back into friendly hands. For that he earned the right to wear a small patch in the shape of a pair of boots.
It was six months after he was shot down before he was allowed to fly again and before the end of the war, in addition to the Purple Heart earned in the crash, he had racked up four more combat kills, a Distinguised Service medal four Air Combat medals (one for each 25 combat missions), and several other medals from the people of Great Britain (please pardon me if I get them wrong). Chuck was never officially recognized as an ace despite the fact that he had 8 1/2 kills because of his service in two different services.
Being a true hero, he never said a word about this injustice so several years ago I tried to get official recognition for that feat but as many of you know, a fire at the St. Louis military records archives destroyed a large number of veterans records and apparently Chuck's were among them and I came to a dead end.
Before his death, Chuck had expressed his desires that no extraordinary means be used to extend his life and on September 1, 2004, Chuck passed quietly away at home with those he loved near him. He was an humble Christian and there is no doubt that he is heaven with those who went before him. He was buried with military honors next to Janice who had passed away 11 years earlier. He is survived by his adopted son, Robert and Robert's two daughters.
Chuck was one of the men about whom Winston Churchill spoke when he said, "Never have so many owed so much to so few".
And I pray that we never forget.
Thank you for taking hte time to read this.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . . Up, up the long, delirious burning blue John Gillespie Magee, Jr. |
Yep. You're right. Thanks for posting that.
http://www.skygod.com/quotes/highflight.html
...decribes the origins of this poem. Coincidentally, the author was himself a WWII Spitfire pilot who perished only weeks after authoring the poem.
Thanks for posting this. What an excellent story.
We are surrounded by heroes, and we usually don't even know it.
Nope. But my local TV station used to play it at least once every day when I was growing up. It is burned into my memory.
Wow, what a wartime record! We owe so much to Chuck Earnhart and his generation. I am sad that I never met Chuck.
Great Story...
THANKS for the Link
From Spitfires!
That’s Chuck!
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