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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

COLONEL CHARLES F. HOY, JR. USAF (RETIRED)
Col. Hoy was born 21 January 1924 in Charleston, West Virginia. He graduated from Charleston High School in 1941 and worked for several local companies while taking college courses at night with the objective of getting in the required two years of college to qualify for entrance into Aviation Cadets in the military. After December the 7th when the requirements changed, he passed the entrance examination for the army aviation cadet program and was sworn into the US Army Reserve awaiting Army aviation cadet call-up in May 1942. He received his commission and wings on 3 November 1943 at William's Field, Chandler, Arizona, as a fighter pilot, flying the P-38.
After completing additional training in California with the 4th Air Force in the P-38 and P-39 aircraft he was transferred to the European theater of operations in May of 1944 where he was selected for a new assignment with the 34th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 10th Group, 9th Air Force, flying the photo version of the P-38...the F-5. He took to flying alone without guns in his new operational role immediately. Shortly after the invasion of Normandy the squadron moved into France and operated from numerous airstrips across France. He flew 53 combat missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with eight oak leaf clusters.
He volunteered to stay in the occupation of Germany and was involved in earliest efforts for acquiring total photographic coverage of Europe for the national data base. He was actually fired upon after the war was over while on three missions to map Yugoslavia, since Tito did not buy the cover story that we were looking for trucks and escaping SS troops. He was involved with the new term, "covert overflying," from the its inception. In early 1946 the 34th PRS was disbanded, and he was assigned flying with the 160th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, flying the F-6 (the photo version of the P-51, Mustang.) He received his regular Army commission in 1946 and became the first military man in Europe to be married to an American by telephone from Germany to the States. In a few months he was joined by his new wife, Doris, and they we remarried in the church, and again by the German Bergermeister, as required by the occupation agreement.
Upon return to the States in 1947, he was assigned to Wright Field, Ohio, in research and development. In 1948 he was assigned on temporary duty to the atomic bomb testing project, "Sandstone," where he received massive exposure to radiation while photographing ground zero after the blast. No follow-up was made on those exposed until after he retired, when he was made an "atomic veteran."
He was sent by the Air Force Institute of Technology to the University of Colorado to study physics and optics in 1948. The Korean War cut his studies short of graduation, and he returned to the Wright Air Development Center in his field of reconnaissance and intelligence. He had a short tour in Korea, with two combat missions testing the new Land-Polaroid aerial camera for night reconnaissance with photo flash bombs in a RB-26. The experimental camera was damaged by flak over the Yalu River and the mission cut short. This made him a strong advocate for an all-weather, day and night, reconnaissance capability. He also was a part of the team advocating aircraft (both manned and unmanned) developed specifically for reconnaissance and multi-sensing. Radar and infra-red were new, and the efforts to develop the U-2, drones, and satellite capabilities were in early development.
In 1953 he spent six months with the 540 Squadron, Royal Air Force, in England as project engineer on the most secret "Project Robin," which involved the installation of a 240-inch, folded optics camera into a British Canberra. This experimental camera had constant shutter problems, but it led to the establishment of requirements for overflight reconnaissance and for an aircraft with the altitude capability to get above the Soviet capabilities.
After returning to Wright Field Col. Hoy was assigned to the Air Research and Development Command in Baltimore and became Chief of the Photo Branch in the Equipment Division. In 1955 he organized a top secret symposium, with his keynote speech read by Brig. Gen. Marvin S. Dernier, on the overall photographic and objectives for multi-sensing capabilities. It was well attended by industry and resulted in increased cooperation between industry and the services to improve the quality of the systems with better film, new sensors, higher quality lenses, and improved acquisition platforms, and avionic systems. The result was emphasis on high-acuity rather than longer focal length lenses, and the firm establishment of requirements for increasing research and development efforts across the board in these areas. He ended the presentation with a movie of an Atlas missile being launched and the remark that "reconnaissance is going out of this world." The Cold War gave priorities to such endeavors.
His first wife, Doris, died in 1955 at Walter Reed Hospital of a brain tumor, leaving him with a son, James, and daughter, Wendy. He remarried, and he and his second wife, Dottie, and family transferred to the Ballistic Missile Division in California, where he was assigned to program analysis. Using his systems integration and programming background he was able to affect the reporting procedures and information exchange between the programs, including starting the standardization of terminology among the several programs-Atlas, Titan, Thor, and the new Minuteman. He was also instrumental in establishing a random access capability for the monstrous computer systems of TRW and IBM for Gen. Shriever's program review. This vastly improved ability to recognize problem areas and facilitated the elimination of duplication of effort. The internal exchange of technical data and capabilities among the numerous systems was greatly enhanced.
He learned the value of the associate contractor concept over the prime contractor contracting procedures. He took this knowledge with him when he was reassigned to the Central Intelligence Agency, Directorate of Science and Technology, in 1960. He was instrumental in establishing associate contracting procedures in the "deep black" overflight and space reconnaissance programs. Many of these systems are now declassified, and space systems are commonplace. Even the U-2 and SR-71 are common knowledge, as are the many satellite systems.
He was payload officer on the first successful satellite system, when the first recovery of any object was made from space, this being the payload bucket of film from the Corona satellite system. It was snagged in the air over the Pacific Ocean in May of 1960, shortly after our U-2 was shot down over the Soviet Union and aircraft overflight became a very risky proposition.
Col. Hoy was selected for the Air War College in 1964-65 and at the same time completed requirements for his Master's Degree in International Affairs. He was assigned at this time to the National Photographic Intelligence Center in Washington and given responsibilities for insuring integration of technology and systems between the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency and improving cooperation between these organizations.
He completed his career with the National Reconnaissance Office in the Pentagon from May 1968 to April 1972 in the overall field of overflight reconnaissance, using his unusually varied background in all facets of aerial reconnaissance collection, distribution, and analysis. He was retired on a 70 percent medical disability after a heart attack.
In addition to his combat decorations, Col. Hoy was awarded the Legion of Merit with an oak leaf cluster, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, and the Air Force Commendation Medal. When classification finally permitted, he was presented a Space Pioneer Medal on 18 August 1985 by Wm. Casey, Director of the CIA.
Col. Hoy retired in Florida near Patrick Air Force Base. His second wife died in 1993. Both his children live nearby, and he has been sharing his golden years with his fiancée, Alexandra "Sandy" Wanman, a very old and dear friend. They have a vacation home in Tucson, Arizona.