Posted by R. Ren Hart on October 9, 2004:

We arrived at Ft. Lewis in 1958 after flight school. Charlie and Ann had arrived earlier and were established in their home on post, which in those days, for Lieutenants, consisted of a portion of the old WW II wooden barracks which had been retrofitted with a kitchen and partitions for bed and bath rooms. We often got together for dinner and bridge either at their home or ours. Ann was a great cook and even in those early years were adept at entertaining. Those were busy, but happy days. Charlie and I also shared a love of the game of chess and decided one evening that we could probably also set up a chess board along side our bridge table, and make an occasional move when we weren't involved in bidding or playing a hand in our bridge game. But eventually the chess became more interesting than the bridge and the wives put a halt to our multi tasking. It was in December 1959 when Charlie was commanding a rifle company, that the 4th Infantry Division shipped out on Exercise Rocky Shoals for an amphibious landing exercise off the coast of Central California, at San Simeon ... not far from the Hearst Castle. After a few days into the exercise Charlie was fighting his way over the Los Padros Mountains with his rifle company. The Division Objective was inland, on the east side of the mountains, near Camp Roberts. The 4th Division Aviation Company was located at the San Simeon Airfield and was flying, among other missions, 24 hour radio relay missions to insure that the units on the East side of the mountain could communicate with the units on the West side of the mountain. One night, I was flying radio relay when I heard Charlie's distinctive voice come over the radio and I learned that his call sign was Red Dog 6. By 3 AM, getting sleepy and bored circling at 5,000 feet I decided to send Charlie a message through the division net that I was on. I said over the radio, "Message for Red Dog 6, Papa dash Kilo Four (P-K4), End of message". I had not said who the message was from, but I knew Charlie would recognize the Algebraic Chess Notation for my usual opening chess move of Pawn to Kings fourth square. It was several weeks later when were back at Ft. Lewis when Charlie called me and said, "Do you realize that I had been fighting my way over the mountain for three days without sleep and finally found a moment to catch a couple of winks when my radio operator shook me awake to tell me that I had to go to division headquarters to pick up a coded message. It took me an hour to get there and the only thing that stupid message said was P-K4! I knew who that was, and I'll get even! Charlie and Ann were always fun to be with. We had some great times and he will be missed. Charlie, my friend, when we meet again one day, we'll finish our game we started 45 years ago. Meanwhile, rest in peace until I get there.

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