Charles Richard “Chuck” Wilson was born in Missouri, December 16, 1921. He attended Citrus Junior College in the Los Angeles area, majoring in mathematics. He worked at North American Aviation for a brief period before enlisting in the Army Air Corps on April 11, 1942.

Wilson received a reserve commission on April 29, 1943. He flew a wide variety of aircraft during flight training, including the BT-9B, BT-13A, BT-15, PT-17, AT-6A/C/D, AT-11, AT-23B. Later, he transitioned to the L-5, BC-1A, C-45F, P-39, P-40, P-51 and B-26. He received advanced training in the B-17F/G. The crew photograph shown above was taken during training in Tennessee. Wilson is in the front row, second from the left.

His B-17G was hit by flak on his first bombing mission over Germany, on February 16, 1945, near Gelsenkirchen, located in the northern part of the Ruhr Valley. Gelsenkirchen was a center for oil refining and coal production. They were able to drop their bomb load on target, but, eventually, had to ditch over the North Sea. He was the co-pilot.

The crew survived, but was captured. Chuck Wilson was a POW in Stalag XIIID in Nuremburg, and Stalag VIIA in Moosburg. He was liberated on April 29, 1945. He continued in active military service for a short period after World War II, serving as a flight instructor, flight inspector and check pilot.

After separation from active service he flew a variety of small civilian aircraft, working as a corporate pilot, flight instructor and technical advisor. He was killed in a crash at sea on October 10, 1953, off the coast of the Galapagos Islands, only 32 years of age. At the time he was flying a spotter plane for a fishing fleet. Chuck Wilson was a resident of San Diego, California.

Link to the collection's Descriptive Finding Guide.

Images from the collection on Flickr.