A General in Town

While Air Force Col. Chester A. Charles returned from active duty in WWII, his wife Marion bought the family a home at 410 Chicago from Edith Sherman. Edith was an author. First a home economics columnist, then a children’s author, her Mistress Madcap series earned her enough money to build her Sea Girt cottage in the late 1920s.

With over 5,000 pilot hours and 25 years of aviation service, Chester A. Charles was an aviation pioneer. He was initially a cavalry man in World War I, and as the “aeroplane” was first used in monitoring troop movements, he was selected to join the Signal Corps, eventually learning to fly observational missions.

In 1919, when the war ended, he continued to fly for the newly formed Civil Aeronautical Authority on mapping assignments, mapping the United States and its fledgling aviation routes over the next 10 years.

In 1937, he took over management of DuPont Airport in Wilmington, Delaware. All the while, he maintained a position in the Air Corps reserves where he trained flyers, and attended the Command and Staff College. By 1939 Chester was promoted to Commander of the New Jersey National Guard Observation squadron as a Major.

By 1942 he was Commander of the Fort Dix Army airbase and back in full time service, as the US entered the Second World War. His wife Marion was an active member of the Womens' Home Defense fund, raising money for the troops.

Chester was assigned Southwest Pacific as the Air Forces Observational Commander, Anti-Submarine Wing Commander. After the development of the B-29 long range bomber, he became Commander of the Bombardment group.

When United States Marines, backed by Army and Navy forces began pushing west into the Pacific after the Japaneese attack on Pearl Harbor, their objectives were to retake territory conquered by Japan and get close enough to attack their home islands. Victory through airpower was arguably more important in the Pacific than in Europe. Each island victory raised anew the question of the next intermediate goal. The islands were typically tropical jungles, and the Japanese forces dug in. By the summer of 1944 the Allies developed a strategy of using multiple approaches to Japan, helped by the improvement of the range of Charles’s bombers.

In the Central Pacific, Navy and Marine Corps units with Army assistance, were "island-hopping" westward from Hawaii, taking the Gilbert Islands in a costly campaign in November 1943 and the Marshall Islands in January-February 1944.

US Navy image shows the dense fighting conditions and a wrecked US personnel carrier on Guadalcanal

But they were also headed there from the southwest. Colonel Charles led the Air Forces in the South and Southwest Pacific Islands. He supported the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, which had taken Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands and Bougainville in 1942-43 and, operating with Australian forces, he had cleared northeast New Guinea and the Hollandia area of Netherlands New Guinea by May 1944. These victories brought American forces to the inner defense line of the Japanese Empire, and earned Charles his Bronze Star for heroic service in a combat zone. With the recapture of the Philippines and the launching of atomic weapons from Tinian Island, the Japanese surrendered. V-J Day on Sept 2, 1945 began the end of Chester Charles’ combat duties.

By 1946 he returned to the US and had a short assignment running the Air Force Base in Charleston SC. Then he was named Commander of McGuire Air Force Base, and moved to Sea Girt. His wife and daughter had their father back.

In 1949, Chester was promoted to Brigadier General and deputy Chief of Staff of the NJ Dept. of Defense. In 1950, the Air Force was finally separated from the Army, and he was made Air Commander of the State National Guard. By 1951, the family sold 410 Chicago to the Clark’s and moved to 623 Chicago Blvd. where he lived out his retirement with wife Marion.