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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Sponsor

Honored by:
Ms. Ellen Marie Bartola

Charles J. Bartola has a long history with aviation. Charles started his aviation career at Republic Aviation in Farmingdale, NY, where from 1951 to 1964, he worked on the final assembly line for the F-84G, F-84F, and the RF-84F. After that his next assignment was in the research lab working on the F-105 hydraulics simulator to support development of the F-105. Charles then moved into the engineering drafting department. He supported the F-105 flight operations for flight test engineering.
In 1965, Charles started work at Grumman Aerospace in Bethpage, NY where he was supporting the Lunar Module (LM) operations work being conducted at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In 1966, Charles and his family relocated to Merritt Island, FL to support the LM as the Spacecraft Test Manager (STM) for various launches. As one of many dedicated Grumman and NASA engineers, Charles was part of the support team that devised the solution to bring the Apollo 13 astronauts home.
At the conclusion of the Apollo program in 1973, Charles and his family moved back to New York where he worked at Grumman’s Calverton facility. Here he managed the electronics and test plant (Plant 8) responsible for testing all electronics before installation into such Grumman aircraft as the F-14, A-6E, and the EA-6B.
In 1983, Charles was tapped to support the proposal team and subsequent execution team for Grumman’s role on Lockheed’s Shuttle Processing Contract. He was assigned to manage the installation and check out of the Launch Processing System for the Air Force’s planned shuttle operations being run from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. After three years of support on this program, Charles was called back to KSC to participate in the shuttle payload support contract. With his family back in Florida, Charles worked as the assistant director for the Shuttle Launch Processing System contract.
In 1987 Charles began work on Grumman’s Space Station Integration contract proposal. After contract award, he was assigned to manage Grumman’s logistics operations at KSC for integration testing of the space station components. In 1994 Charles retired after 29 years with Grumman and 43 years in the aviation business.
Charles also fulfilled his lifelong dream of flying by joining the Vandenberg AFB Aero Club with his daughter, where they both learned to fly Cessna 152’s. Upon learning to fly, they joined the Civil Air Patrol after moving back to Florida, supporting the unit located at Merritt Island Airport. Charles was co-owner of a Cessna 172 and owner of a Piper Cherokee 180.