USAAC 2Lt. Charles Wesley Mankin Jr. was born in Birmingham, Alabama on June 20, 1922, the son of Charles Wesley Sr. (1901-1964) and Elsie Mae Letson (1902-1997). His father spent much of his life as a foreman of a machine shop at a pipe company. His family moved to Pensacola sometime after 1936 and by 1957 Charles Sr. was a supervising machinist at NAS. Charles Jr. would enter Pensacola High School where he excelled in track and football. At 160 pounds, Coach Ernie Priest moved him to the center position with Tommy Loggin and Alfred Pipkin as running backs behind him. Sadly, none of the three would survive WWII.
After high school graduation in 1941, Mankin enrolled and attended Sunflower Junior College in Moorhead, Mississippi. The college changed its name to Mississippi Delta Junior College in 1960 and in 1989 changed once again to Mississippi Delta Community College. Mankin enlisted in the US Army Air Corps on March 23, 1942 and during his flight training he took time off to marry Miss Marie Ann Brown also from the Pensacola High Class of 1941. They were married in Greenville, Mississippi where Charles was going through training with class #1943-B at Napier Field. She was the daughter of a Pensacola lawyer, Clarence James Brown Sr. (1890-1971) and Florence Helen Bobe (1893-1982). Upon completion of his training, Ann came home while Charles was assigned to the 409th Bomb Squadron of the 93rd Bomb Group stationed in Hardwick, England.
On March 2, 1944, a bombing mission was scheduled to strike the railroad marshaling yards at Frankfurt, Germany plus the German air depot at Chartres, France. Mankin was on his 5th mission and along with almost 600 bombers took part in the combined operation. Out of the listed targets, he was ordered to hit the rail yards at Frankfurt. However, en route to his target they encountered enemy antiaircraft flak and his B-24 bomber was hit. Even thought he had time to bail out, his plane blew up before he had a chance for any significant separation. The young Pensacolian was knocked unconscious from the explosion and never pulled his rip cord. Mankin's body was recovered near the crash site just east of Alfred, France. Of the ten crewmen, four evaded capture, five were captured and became POW's with Mankin the only death. His body was recovered after the war and his remains finally returned to his family in July 1949. His burial was conducted with full military honors at Bayview Cemetery in Pensacola. In the meantime, Ann would remarry in 1948 in Pensacola to a WWII Navy pilot, Francis Young Thigpen (1924-2004).
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