CHARLES W. GUNNELS, JR., CDR, USN
Charles Gunnels, Jr. '41
Lucky Bag
From the 1941 Lucky Bag:
CHARLES W. GUNNELS, JR.
Sandersville, Georgia
A faithful son of Dixieland from 'way down in Georgia is our "Rebel." Truly a Southern gentlemen, he is easy going, soft spoken, and intelligent . . . his opinions are immutable ... he is prolific in his ideas . . . and he accomplishes a great amount of work with a surprisingly small output of effort.
Bill has always had a fondness for traveling. He early forsook the land of cotton and began seeing the world by donning the Navy Blue. Coming to Annapolis was a follow through. South America, with its gold mines, tropical jingles, and pretty senoritas, ever holds a great attraction for Bill.
"Four years together by the sea where Severn joins the tide,
Then by the service called away, we're scattered far and wide."
Yet still some day when the long sea trek is over and retirement is the reward of years of patient endeavor, Bill hopes to return to his beloved Southland and live an unhurried life, lounging amongst the magnolias and sipping mint juleps.
Plebe Outdoor Rifle; Battalion Boxing 2, 3.
The Class of 1941 was the first of the wartime-accelerated classes, graduating in February 1941.
CHARLES W. GUNNELS, JR.
Sandersville, Georgia
A faithful son of Dixieland from 'way down in Georgia is our "Rebel." Truly a Southern gentlemen, he is easy going, soft spoken, and intelligent . . . his opinions are immutable ... he is prolific in his ideas . . . and he accomplishes a great amount of work with a surprisingly small output of effort.
Bill has always had a fondness for traveling. He early forsook the land of cotton and began seeing the world by donning the Navy Blue. Coming to Annapolis was a follow through. South America, with its gold mines, tropical jingles, and pretty senoritas, ever holds a great attraction for Bill.
"Four years together by the sea where Severn joins the tide,
Then by the service called away, we're scattered far and wide."
Yet still some day when the long sea trek is over and retirement is the reward of years of patient endeavor, Bill hopes to return to his beloved Southland and live an unhurried life, lounging amongst the magnolias and sipping mint juleps.
Plebe Outdoor Rifle; Battalion Boxing 2, 3.
The Class of 1941 was the first of the wartime-accelerated classes, graduating in February 1941.
Loss
Charles was lost on April 27, 1957 when the aircraft he was aboard crashed into a mountain near Tokyo.
From a now-private Facebook post formerly at https://www.facebook.com/notes/uss-Shangri-La-cva-38/1957-shang-history/10150521474034393/:
At 1330 on April 27, the OOD at NAS Atsugi telephoned the ship to report that the SNB-5 with three Shangri-La crewmen aboard was overdue. The plane had departed NAS Atsugi enroute to Komaki Air Base on a proficiency training flight. Aboard the aircraft were Shangri-La's Operations Officer, Cdr. Charles Gunnels; Medical Officer, Captain Elmer Johnson; and Lt(jg) James Fryer of HU-1. Also aboard was a first class photographer from a shore station in Japan. A wide search was initiated by U. S. Naval, U. S. Air Force and Japanese Defense aircraft and ships of the U. S. Navy and the Japanese Maritime Defense Force. The next morning, Shangri-La sent thirty members of the Marine Detachment to join ten men of SAINT PAUL (CA-73) to search the mountain area on Izu Peninsula. By mid-afternoon, search parties located the wreckage of the SNB near the crest of Amagi-Sammuaka Mountain on Izu Peninsula. There were no survivors.
Other Information
He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He was survived by his mother, brother, and sister; his father died earlier in April 1957.
He was also survived by three daughters and four sons. (Information from July 1957 issue of Shipmate.)
He became operations officer of USS Shangri-La (CVA 38) in June 1956, while the ship was in Yokohama, Japan. He "formerly performed duty for the Bureau of Aeronautics at Washington, D.C."
For some reason Charles, and the other men lost in the crash, are not included on the In Memoriam page of the USS Shangri-La (CVA 38) 1956-1957 cruise book.
Photographs
From the 1956-1957 cruise book of USS Shangri-La (CV 38)
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
April 1941
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