Charles Lyman Penner was born in Brunswick, Maryland on February 1, 1918 to the union of Charles W. and Italene Penner. By 1940, he had graduated the University of Detroit in 1937. He returned home that year and became a salesman for a bakery while his father supported the family as a Chief Engineer for an automobile manufacturing company. Charles enlisted in the US Navy on January 8, 1941 and entered flight school at NAS in Pensacola, Florida. Here he met and married Miss Ida Louise Hannah from Pensacola High School, Class of 1931. The young couple were married on November 24, 1941 while Charles was stationed in Charleston, RI at the time. His wife was the daughter of Malcolm Edward Hannah Sr. and Frances Swaine who owned their home at 1390 North Spring Street. Her father supported the family as a druggist and the proprietor of Hannah's Pharmacy at 198 North Palafox Street (building still there today).
As WWII progressed after Pearl Harbor, he was attached to a night fighter squadron operating in the South Pacific from September 20, 1943 to March 1, 1944. He completed 38 missions and was one of the first pilots to engage the enemy in the area. Many times he had to fly under adverse weather conditions, taking off and landing in complete darkness while the field was under enemy bombing attacks. On the night of January 1, 1944 he intercepted two Japanese dive bombers over the American beachhead at Bougainville. He pressed home a determined attack shooting down one of the enemy planes and severely damaging the other.
Ironically, this action was watched below by a young Navy corpsman stationed with the 3rd Marine Division. Cary Carlson Ward Sr. was a member of the Pensacola High School Class of 1943 and watched this dogfight above his foxhole never knowing who Penner was. This was one of the last battles where the Japanese air force was still considered a formidable issue. They were quickly being demolished as America was flooding the area with more and more pilots, planes, and aircraft carriers. Lt. Penner would receive a DFC for his bravery in protecting Ward and his Marines on the beachhead below!
Penner would return to Pensacola in 1951 where he became a budget analyst at NAS. Ida would pass away in 1963 and was buried in St. John's Cemetery. After serving in WWII and Korea, Commander Penner followed her on May 9, 1974, but was buried in Barrancas Cemetery.
Hannah Pharmacy 198 North Palafox Street
Proprietor and druggist Malcom E. Hannah Sr.
Lt. Charles Lyman Penner
Pensacola News Journal
8-20-44