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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Leader

Honored by:
Jennifer Gagliardi

Charles (Charlie) Nittinger's love of aviation has spanned most of his life. In fact, when recalling his military career, he said that before he could be drafted into service after the start of the Korean War, he took himself to the local post office to enlist because 'I wanted to be sure I?€™d go to the Navy.'

After boot camp in Great Lakes, Il and training in Jacksonville, FL and Memphis, TN, Charlie was stationed at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, where he was Plane Captain (Crew Chief) for the P2V Neptune from 1951-53. He then served at Naval Air Station Oceana from 1953-55 in fighter squadron VF-21 as Plane Captain for the F9F-6 Grumman Cougar. Charlie's qualification cruise took place aboard the USS Midway in 1953 and his first Mediterranean cruise was due to take place aboard the USS Bennington; the ship unfortunately suffered a catapult system explosion that cancelled the cruise and tragically took the lives of over 100 crew members. Charlie was honorably discharged following an unrelated medical issue in 1955 as an Aviation Machinist's Mate 3rd Class. Though not a pilot himself, he enjoyed many recreational flights with fellow Navy sailors during his time in the military and even now, more than six decades later, can correctly identify aircraft types by sound alone.

His passion for flight persists to this day and he often regales his four children and three grandchildren with stories relating to his time working on planes in the Navy or his adventures since. His family honors him on the occasion of his 90th birthday for his lifelong appreciation of aviation and his commitment to always going above and beyond.

An aviation hero to Charlie, Chuck Yeager summed up one of his life-long principles when he said "You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can't, you do the next best thing. You back up but you don't give up."