Charlie Vono, Retired Cold Warrior

Charlie Vono, Public Speaker

Gunners Mate 3rd Class Charles Thomas Vono

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Picture me as a boy helping out in our family store, “Vono Jewelers”, on main street (7th Street) in my hometown of Wasco, California. This was my Uncle Chuck’s store. He had bought it from my Mother around 1958, a year or two after my Dad had passed. I was pretty young, but I could sweep the floor, take out the trash, and do other simple tasks.
My Uncle was a very kind man. And he was very good at watch repair. These are not the watches you see so much of today. These are watches where you had to wind a spring daily. They had about a million tiny gears and levers and jeweled movements.
I don’t think Uncle Chuck’s brain worked like mine did. He had some kind of super mutant brain power. This was brought home to me the day I handed him a Soma Puzzle I had struggled with. This array of different shaped blocks was supposed to fit into a cube. I had practiced. So now, if I thought hard and struggled, I could solve the puzzle in about 5 or 10 minutes. Uncle Chuck saw that I had the pieces laid out and I was starting to solve it. He said, “Let me see that.”

I handed him the pieces. About as fast as he could touch the pieces, he had them together in the right way, first time. He solved the cube about as fast as his hands would work. Had he seen it before? Even if he had, and I don’t think he had, the feat was still impressive. I think he had just fixed complicated watches for so long that it was second nature for him to think and solve problems in 3 dimensions.

Why didn’t I ask if he’d seen it before? You never were too sure about any story Uncle Chuck told you. Even when it was 100% accurate, he would have that twinkle in this eye that would make you wonder. I didn’t really understand his story-telling until I joined the USAF and discovered the beauty of the military “War Story” which really didn’t have to be, and was not expected to be, 100% accurate. But it always had to be a good story.

I noticed a couple of things working with Uncle Chuck in the store that I didn’t really understand at the time.

I would see men come into the store to buy jewelry or watches or get a watch fixed. There was something in their eyes, something in the handshake. These were veterans of WWII. They knew and respected a fellow vet. Like I said, I did not “get it” at the time. I only know this now by memory of those days and my experiences now as a former military man.
Also, everyone knew that Uncle Chuck had a temper. There was something boiling inside him and would surface from time to time. The most memorable to me was the time he and I were in the store alone as I swept and he cursed and swore at a watch that refused his efforts to fix it. The sailor’s language, not allowed at home by Mom, I was used to, but
BANG!
The watch had flown across the shop and hit the wall on the other side. I looked at the wall and the watch now resting on the floor and I looked back at him. Then I went back to work.
I remember thinking at the time, I don’t know much about watch repair, but I am pretty sure the owner of that watch would likely not approve of that repair technique. I made a mental note not to act that way when I was an adult. I suppose that was a pretty good reaction for a small boy who was completely oblivious of the forces at work inside my Uncle.
My Dad named me after his brother, Charles Thomas Vono. Many documents show his name as Charles Joseph Vono, but Joseph was his confirmation name. My confirmation name is Michael. So, yes, we both have exactly the same name. You can’t convince me otherwise. Don’t try.
Both Dad and Uncle Chuck served in WWII, Dad was in the Army Air Forces in Europe and Uncle Chuck was in the Navy in the Pacific. WWII was my Dad’s second enlistment in his lifetime and he was not in the Army for the duration. He flew in combat from May to August in 1944. He was a gunner in B-24s and you can find that post at this web site. (Search for “bombs”.)
Uncle Chuck, on the other hand, served in the Navy from 1938 to1952. He was assigned to the ship, the New Orleans, during the fateful Pearl Harbor attack. The New Orleans, being in dry dock and near a crane, suffered less at the hands of the Japanese. And they were able to man their guns. It was the New Orleans where the crew was rapidly passing ammo up to the guns with the Chaplain encouraging the ammo line and famously saying: “Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition!”
As an aside, on the 3rd of March, I gave a keynote address for graduate students in Dayton, Ohio. (This was my last public appearance before COVID-19 shut that down.) I started the talk from the stage of an auditorium with 200 people by getting everyone to sing along with that song. Then I told the Uncle Chuck’s story.
There is a tremendous amount that can be said about Uncle Chuck’s service and his life and his wonderful wife, Aunt Irene. To keep this blog to about 1,000 words, I will have to relate most stories later and focus on the following excerpt from a 6 page hand-written letter Uncle Chuck sent to his wife, Irene, dated Sept. 20, 1945. They had been married a year at this point. (I am trying to be faithful to his handwriting as I type this.)

Just in case you have no idea what battles & engagements I’ve been in I’ll write them down as well as I can.
1. Pearl Harbor Attack. 2. Coral Sea. (In which the Lex was sunk & we rescued 500 survivors). [My note: “Lex” is the aircraft carrier Lexington.]
3. Midway battle which lasted four days, (where we lost the Yorktown.) 4. The invasion of Solomons.
5. Two or three large air attacks off the Solomons.
6. Third Sano.  or Tassafaronga Bay battle [My note: part of the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Solomons], we were almost sunk that night, we lost the Northampton & had 4 other cruisers badly damaged. (Also the New Orleans)
7. After we were repaired, we attacked Wake Island & bombarded the beach. We dueled with Jap shore batteries which rose out of their cement holes, fired & went back under. We received one hit & 60 near misses, also lost one plane & two pilots.
8. We raided the Gilbert & Marshall Islands, & underwent a seven hour air attack the first night. A Jap plane straffed topside, but no one was hit.
9. Invasion of Gilberts, in which we bombarded Makin Island & helped cover the troops landing.
10. Another raid on the Marshalls.
11. Invasion of Marshall Islands in which we knocked out the shore batteries on Maleolap & also their air base. Also sunk one ship & damaged one. We then bombarded Kawajalien [My note: correct spelling is Kwajalein.] and the other small islands around it. [My note: I can’t help but observe that in my 25 years supporting Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles we have bombarded Kwaj about 80 times! But just with instrumented reentry vehicles, not real bombs.]
12. We attacked Truk in the Carolines, went through a heavy enemy air attack. Next day our ship and 3 others chased several units of the Jap fleet. We caught them. Our ship sank a destroyer & a Jap cruiser in broad daylight. We went through the survivors swimming in the water at full speed.
13. Attacked Guam & Palau, had air attacks for two nights. Shot down undetermined number of planes.  (This is on the Kittson)
14. Leyte Invasion. Only one air attack for us on the Kittson.
15. Okinawa, where we had suicide air attacks every day & night. We were lucky. The second time we were there we went through three night air attacks & one day. That completes my engagements. It doesn’t in any way explain the hell & fear I went through, nor the horrible sights I had to witness. And this is the last time I ever intend purposely to talk of it.

A crude map I made of Uncle Chuck’s Pacific Travels
Except for Guadalcanal, I have left out locations within major areas that he mentions
But they are easy to find using google maps

 

After the war, in 1946-7, Uncle Chuck was assigned to the Merrick which accompanied Admiral Byrd on his expedition, Operation Highjump, to the South Pole. After he left the Navy in 1952, Uncle Chuck and Aunt Irene stayed in our house (I was born in 1952, the last of 3 kids) until they found a place. Chuck helped my Dad at his store on 7th Street. In 1955, the store just wasn’t taking in enough profit to cover my family and Uncle Chuck’s growing family and he looked for other employment, even considering rejoining the Navy. The Navy would not take him back given his war injury, but the Feds did fund his schooling to become a watch repairman like my Dad. When my father passed, Chuck returned to Vono Jewelry to help Mom in the store as she was not a watch repairman, buying the store in 1958. Sometimes he would hire me to help out where he could. And that’s where this story started, with a little guy who did not understand even a 10th of the “story so far” for my Uncle Chuck.
Now I know.
Before there was a thing called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, there were men who just couldn’t take any more. Aunt Irene said that Uncle Chuck left the Navy in 1952 because he “…didn’t feel he could take any more sea duty…”. No kidding! I served well and faithfully doing my part fighting in the Cold War. And I rejoice that, in my military career, I never had to see how much I could endure. And then go back and endure more.

And not just the military folks…

I am reminded of a conversation I had a couple years ago with a nice older lady right after church one Sunday morning. It was early December and the subject of the Pearl Harbor attack came up. It was a very innocent conversation, but it triggered something. I could see it in her eyes, horror. Suddenly all the pain of that tremendous conflict came back to her and all her friends and relatives hurt or killed in all of WWII. Her eyes teared up and she began to weep. “So many”, she said. “So many boys. Gone.” There really is no comfort. All I could do was say, “yes”.

As Uncle Chuck enjoyed his life and friends, he found ways to deal. Golf was one of them. He was well known for his golfing, a sport that aggravated so many, but seemed to be his joy. We all felt it was so appropriate that he was laid to rest next to my Dad in 1983 at the cemetery located right next to the Wasco Golf Course.

 

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Do you remember friends and relatives, men and women in the 1950’s and 1960’s who were still suffering from the effects of WWII? If so, please comment below.

Comments

  2. Excellent link above to a great description of the Japanese attack on the New Orleans. You may have to copy and past the link into your browser. Then scroll down to the start of the WWII section. Thanks Craig!

    Reply

  5. All but one of my uncles served in our wars including I, starting from WW I (George), bayonets & artillery made him a chair-bound old man never talking much, WW II, Eddy, first serving from WW II thru the Nam but gung ho American, Andy an artilleryman stuck at the cross roads with some rather determined engineers that ruined the Battle of the Bulge for Hitler but not stop joking all of the time, Ray who went from North Africa to the Pacific where men plating for poker and won got to shoot a jap prisoner, and Mike who never talked about the war as if it never happened. For my dad, a disabled US Army Korean vet and I from the Nam thru Gulf War I never got any of them to open up as a group. But once this enlisted kid became an officer, each on their own pulled me aside nd let it all out. In short without the details, war is hell and that is how it should be for everyone including civilians back home so we never fight another one. The Geneva Convention is what one does after the fighting is over and there are no more prisoners…no more.

    I would have thought fighting the Japanese fanatics (very religious people to this very day) would have been the worst combat one would face. But WW I as the best weapon close in was an entrenching shovel locked in a 90 degree position to cleave a man in two.

    Enough said … PTSD – yes, but in each man they dealt with it in their own fashion but like us all, the ghosts of those no longer are with us every night if one can sleep at all.

    Note: The Afghanistan veterans and some Iraqi warriors have seen more consecutive days of combat then any WW II vet. So time will tell when these already forgotten heroes, men and women, resume a normal life and then the other comes back without notice …

    Good post Charley … it made me call an old comrade and swap stories again tonight. It felt good to be around real Americans again.

    Reply

    • Thank you. I would love to hear similar from our other readers. I know so much of this is out there, but not talked about.

      Reply

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