Even at "five or six" years old he loved airplanes. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Charles remembers his father, a postal inspector, bringing home a Ford tri-motor model airplane. He also recalls seeing a zeppelin from World War I on tour. Charles graduated in 1937 from CE Byrd High School in Shreveport where he was president of the Model Airplane Club. At Centenary College he entered the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Charles joined the U.S. Army Air Corps on July 31, 1940, and began training as an air warrior. He then became an instructor, serving at Brooks Field in San Antonio and at Foster Field in Victoria, Texas. At Kelly Field he trained British pilots to be instructors, and taught in an instructors school at Randolph Field, both in San Antonio. Promoted to major, he was awaiting overseas assignment in Lincoln, Nebraska when the war ended. He was placed in charge of setting up a ground school for non-commissioned officers. "They just wanted to get something for everybody to do twenty-four hours a day," he recalls of war's end. After his discharge, Charles entered the University of Texas, where, he says, about 20,000 veterans had enrolled. He took engineering and business and graduated in 1949. He worked for Industrial Steel Structure Fabricators in Shreveport as a sales engineer, and was vice-president of the company when he retired in 1984.