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Posted By:
Hal Brown
Date Posted:
Dec 10, 2006
Description:
Fantasy of Flight has some pretty impressive hangar flying going on. A book signing was in progress. Jonna Doolittle Hoppes, granddaughter of Jimmie Doolittle, was there signing a book she has written about her famous relative (“Calculated Risk, The Extraordinary Life of Jimmy Doolittle”). She was joined by General Doolittle’s co-pilot from the bombing of Tokyo in 1942, Lt. Col. Robert Cole (he is second from the end on the right).
Sitting at the end of the table was a Navy ensign, Charles Hollingsworth. He probably doesn’t usually get this much attention. His nephew wrote the following letter about Ensign Hollingsworth:
“This is to tell you a short story about the veteran I honored by voting and
placing the sticker on the glass of my vehicle.
The veteran is Charles V. Hollingsworth of Lakeland, FL.
He is my Uncle Charley and actually he and I are closer, rather much like
brothers. He lived with us for a year or so until he turned 17 on April 22,
1941 and conned my Mother (his older sister) to sign him into the Navy. He
served on carriers throughout WWII and was on the Hornet (CV-8) December 7,
1941 and they were still carrying bi-planes! They steamed through the Panama
Canal and around to San Diego where they off loaded the older aircraft and
loaded B-25's and steamed out toward Toyko (sp). Charley pulled the chocks on
Doolittle's B-25 when they took off for the Toyko (sp) raid and Gen. Doolittle wrote
Charley a very nice letter thanking him for that act.
Charley saw nearly all the Naval Battles in the Pacific and after the Hornet's
crew was ordered to abandon ship he jumped overboard and was picked up by a
destroyer and put aboard a cruiser, then after a week or two was returned to
the States for survivor leave and then back to shipout (sp) on the Lexington.
He got out of the Navy in 1946 and came to live with us again and finish courses
from high school to let him start college. He wound up with a Master's and was
a school principal till he retired.
He comes to Mississippi to visit with me a good bit. He is 80 now and still
active. He had many nightmares for the first few years after coming back to us
after the war and only after many years, here lately, has he told me much of
the things that he saw and lived through from 17 to 22 during the war. The
carnage of being a crew chief on planes on the carrier decks for that period
has lived in his mind all these years. He saw the man lose his arm from the
prop of a B-25 during the take off for the Toyko (sp) raid and had pieces of bodies
impact him many times over the years at sea.
He was knocked into the catwalk when the Kamakazie (sp) hit the Hornet and survived
by the grace of God.
Charley starts each day and ends each day with prayers to God and though he
doesn't wear his religion on his sleeve he set a great example to me and to
others by his deeds.”
Frank Ingels
Starkville, MS
Date Taken:
Dec 10, 2006
Place Taken:
Fantasy of Flight
Owner:
Dan Nickens
File Name:
Historic_Setting.jpg - Photo HTML
Full size - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZVMH0000h">
Medium - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZVMH0000m">
Thumbnail - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZVMH0000s">
Category:
4, Fly-In Pic''s
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