Page 34 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2021- Online Magazine

Charles Baldwin A Pilot, a Poet, and
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth and
danced the skies on laughter silvered wings …;”
he line from the famous
poem by John Magee, Jr.
Tis a favorite of Charles
Baldwin, and On Laughter-
Silvered Wings is the title of
a book he penned about his
experiences as a fighter pilot in
the European Theater in WWII.
Just a few months from now, Mr.
Baldwin will celebrate his 100th
birthday. The gentleman is a
history buff and has experienced
firsthand so many of the events
the rest of us have only read
about.
Charles’ dad worked for a
chain of dry goods stores and
moved his family to Brownfield
shortly after Charles was born
in Clarendon in January 1922.
He still remembers watching the
34 Lubbock Senior Link
a Pleasure
by Jane Bromley
brick being laid Japanese while deployed in the
on the streets Philippines. Instead, he and his
of Brownfield. unit sailed to Scotland aboard
When the store the refitted British luxury liner,
closed in 1929 the RMS Aquitania. “I was seasick
because of the the whole way.” The squadron
Depression, met up with their unit in Belgium
Charles’ dad and soon began flying missions
and grandfather to assist in the Battle of the Bulge
opened a – the largest and bloodiest single
Baldwin’s battle fought by the U.S. in World
clothing store War II.
in Artesia NM.
That’s where Later, the P47s were moved to
Charles and his a base near Aachen, Germany.
sister grew up. As the Allies advanced, the
strategy was to get the fighters
He graduated closer, so their trips would be
from Artesia shorter. “By that time, the battle
High School line was moving fast,” so they
in 1939 and moved again to an airstrip near
attended UNM Koblenz. On April 21, 1945, the
for two years. unit made their final move to the
He enlisted in large German airbase at Kassel
CPT (Civil Pilot and continued air assaults until
Training) in the the German capitulation. In all,
Air Corps Reserves and later the fighter pilot had flown 52
joined the Army Air Corps as missions.
an aviation cadet. He was called The area around Kassel was
up to active duty in 1943. After wooded and mountainous.
basic training at Sheppard Field During their time off, Charles
in Wichita Falls, he was sent and his buddies were able to
to the University of Wichita,
Kansas, then to SAAC Field in
San Antonio. His flight training
continued at Vernon TX, Garden
City KS, Victoria TX, Richmond
VA, and finally, Wilmington NC
where he trained on P47s. (The
P-47 Thunderbolt’s primary
armament was eight .50-caliber
machine guns, and it could also
be equipped with rockets or
bombs.)
He had hoped to be sent to the
Pacific because so many of his
Artesia buddies (25-30) had
been killed or captured by the