Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1952 Lucky Bag:

Charles Edward Andrews, III

Charlie fulfilled one of his greatest ambitions when he entered the Academy. Coming from a year at the University of Maryland, where he won fame on their track team, Charlie was soon to become one of Navy’s finest performers on the cinders, and was elected captain second class year after turning in many outstanding performances as a youngster. Off the athletic field, with his looks and personality, he was a natural when it came time to drag. Academics came easy to Charlie after his fine high school and college backgrounds. You may be sure that Charlie will go far in any branch of the Service he chooses after graduation.

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He was also a member of the 12th Company staff (1st set).

Loss

Charlie was lost when his A3D-2 Skyraider crashed on December 28, 1962 while operating from USS Forrestal. Two other crew¹ were also lost.

Other Information

From an email from Jerrold “Zack” Zacharias on May 4, 2017:

I was on USS Forrestal when we lost two of our classmates in aircraft accidents. I was the Air Wing-8 Operations Officer and also the Air Wing-8 Landing Signal Officer (LSO). Accordingly, I was on the LSO platform assisting the A-3 squadron Landing Signal Officer who was waving the A-3 aboard Forrestal.

Charlie Andrews was flying an A-3D “Sky Warrior”, the largest plane to come aboard a carrier. Charlie was trying to make a night landing on a slight pitching deck. After three unsuccessful passes, The ship BINGO’ed /diverted him to a field ashore in Algero, Sardinia. The field had been alerted as the standby field in case we had to divert planes ashore. However, someone forgot to tell the field to turn ON the field landing lights. Charlie never found the field, ran the aircraft out of fuel and the airplane apparently crashed in the sea and they lost a crew of three. Why they did not bail over land I do not know. Maybe Charlie was afraid that the crash might hurt someone in Sardinia.

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Charles’ father was a public accountant, mother Gladys, sisters Betty and Cathryn, and brothers Douglas and Thomas. In May 1956, Charles was aboard the carrier Shangri-La when his brother Douglas died. Douglas was a Navy ensign whose AD Skyraider plane nose-dived during a practice bombing run into swampy land at Ship’s Point off Albemarle Sound, North Carolina.

Related Articles

John O’Grady ‘52, Robert Allison ‘52, Frederic Davis ‘52, Raymond Tacke ‘52, and John Ellison ‘52 were also on the track team.

References