Vollmer, Charles B.

Description

Charles Belknap Vollmer was born on April 19, 1921, in New York City, New York, his father, Edwin, was 32 and his mother, Thelma, was 29. He had a brother Phillip and a sister Natalie and in Rye his family lived at 281 Rye Beach Ave.

Charles was a Rye High School Graduate, Class of 1939 and was a portrait photographer before entering the Navy in October, 1941.

Charles served on the USS Mississippi BB-41 from December 31, 1941 until June 30, 1943.

On 9 December, two days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Mississippi departed Iceland, bound for the Pacific Theater. She reached San Francisco on 22 January 1942, where she conducted training and escorted convoys along the west coast over the following seven months.

Beginning in May 1942, the original 5-inch/51 caliber guns of the secondary battery were removed to make room for anti-aircraft machine guns.

On 6 December, she escorted a convoy of troop ships to Fiji, returning to Pearl Harbor on 2 March 1943.

Her first major combat operation began on 10 May, when she left Hawaii to support the liberation of the Aleutian Islands.

She bombarded Kiska on 22 July, and the Japanese garrison withdrew from the island a few days later. After the conclusion of the campaign, Mississippi returned to San Francisco for an overhaul.

In December 1942 he wrote home.

Dear Friends at Home:

It was a joy to receive your Christmas present. It made me feel tremendously happy to know that we
were not forgotten at home. Of course,
the cookies and candies are gone already and my shipmates (U.S. S.
Mississippi) join me in a hearty
“Thank You.”

Merry Christmas and Happy New
Year to you all.

CHARLES B. VOLLMER

He married Kay Dreaper on December 24, 1944, in Escambia, Florida.

By July 1945 Charles now 24, was a photographer’s mate, third class, USNR , whose wife, Mrs. Kay Vollmer, was living in Mears, MI.. He was serving aboard a seaplane tender which had returned to the states with Naval aviation personnel who had been operating from England. He had just completed serving seventeen months in the Atlantic.

After his service, in 1950, Charles and Kay had started a family and had two children. They were now living in Boulder Colorado and Charles was a member of the Window Washers Union.

Charles Belknap Vollmer died on March 14, 2001, in Nipomo, California, at the age of 79.