World War II Honoree

Charles Henry Chase

Branch of Service

U.S. Army

Hometown

Maine

Honored By

Pearl Thomas

He joined the 101st Airborne as Executive Officer of the 506th Parachute Infantry. He parachuted with his outfit into the Normandy Beachhead in dark, early hours of June 6, 1944, several hours prior to the beach assaults. Fought across France and later parachuted into Holland and then in the snow bat Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. Major General Maxwell D. Taylor, commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division, 'Screaming Eagles', selected him to become his Division G3. He remained in this job through the seizure of Berchtesgaden and then commanded the 506th Parachute Regiment until it was deactivated in December 1945. Among his awards were the Silver Star Medal, Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, Bronze Star Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Combat Infantryman's Badge, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with four stars for Normandy, Rhineland, Central Europe and Ardennes=Alsace, with arrowheads for the Normandy and Netherlands airborne assaults, Knight Fourth Class Military Order of Wilheim (Netherland), Belgian Croix de Guerre with Palm, French Croix de Guerre with Palm, Officer of the Order of the Crown (Belgium), Belgian Fourragere, Netherlands Orange Lanyard and the Master Parachutist's Badge with two Stars.