USN Pilot Charles Woodward Nelson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 28, 1918, the son of Bernard Stanley Nelson (1888-1955) and Mary Lockett "Mamie" Hutson (1884-1982). His father graduated from Tulane University in 1907 with a degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. He supported his family as chief engineer for the A. M. Lockett Mechanical Engineering Company in New Orleans. After high school Charles enrolled and attended Tulane University, graduating in 1939. He then enlisted in the US Navy in New Orleans in 1940 and was sent to NAS Pensacola for flight training. Here, he met and married Harriet Elizabeth Kent (1920-2001) in 1942 in Tallahassee, Florida thus becoming an adopted son of Pensacola. Harriett had graduated from Florida State College for Women in 1940 and became a teacher at Pensacola High School. They were married in 1942 where Charles had become an instructor at NAS after he earned his wings.
Then came the war and their idyllic life in the quiet coastal town of Pensacola changed drastically! Charles was shipped off to the USS Yorktown and assigned to the VT-1 Squadron of torpedo bombers in the South Pacific. In June 1944, American forces prepared to capture the island of Saipan and nearby Tinian. Both islands would provide airfields close enough to bomb the Japanese homeland into oblivion. This the Japanese could not allow to happen! In response they sent their fleet to oppose the landing and destroy the Americans. Therefore, the USS Yorktown and its task force set sail on June 20, 1944, to meet the oncoming enemy fleet in what would become the battle of the Philippine Sea.
By the time the enemy was finally located that day, the Americans only had enough fuel for a one-way trip, which meant none of their planes would be returning. But war is war, and the order was issued to strike the enemy wherever they may be found regardless of the consequences. Nelson took off from the Yorktown while another Pensacolian was doing the same off the USS Wasp. Thomas Franklin Stanley, Pensacola High Class of 1940 lifted into the darkening sky never realizing that he and Nelson would both be at the bottom of the Pacific within a few hours. But neither faltered in their duty! Fearlessly, Nelson and his division of torpedo bombers arrived overhead and selected a Japanese aircraft carrier and began their attack. Nelson endured intense antiaircraft fire as he led his planes down through the clouds at high speed, holding his course through the hell fire from the carrier, a battleship and a screen of several cruisers and destroyers. He dropped his torpedo on a course straight and true until he was hit by the anti-aircraft fire. His plane went into a steep bank, burst into flames, and crashed into the sea where he and his crew were never seen again. None of his squadron returned that day!
For his bravery in such a pivotal battle, he was awarded the Purple Heart Medal and the Navy Cross. Following his death, Harriet opened a private nursery school in Norfolk, Virginia along with Mrs. Stuart Weller Roberts. Mrs. Roberts’ husband was a Navy pilot killed in action on June 19, 1944, the day before Nelson. Harriet was also the niece of the renowned Professor E. R. Smith of Tallahassee, Florida. She would remarry John Marshall Arbuckle (1918-2000) in Tallahassee in 1946 before passing away in 2001.
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