Charles Priest was born in 1919 and raised in Starke, Florida. He grew up in a family with two sisters, he had no brother(s).

After graduating from Bradford Highschool in Starke in 1939, Charles worked as an index clerk at the State Prison, before he joined the Air Corps (as it was known then) in August of 1943 ... it was time to leave his hometown Starke ... At the time he joined the Air Corps, Charles got married to Mrs Lorraine S. Priest.

After Charles had joined the Air Corps and finished basic training he was assigned to the 390 Bombardment Group. His first mission turned out to be of great historic significance. On 6 June 1944 Charles was part of Operation Overlord ... D-Day. His squadron that day flew in support of the landings on the Normandy beaches.

Charles flew a total of 34 missions between 6 June 1944 and 15 October 1944 ... all but one with the same basic crew (crew 34). During these missions Staff Sergeant Charles Priest was the tailgunner in a B-17 Flying Fortress

Charles' final mission started at 05.34 AM, 15 October 1944, the take off went according to schedule. This was to be a relatively short mission to Cologne (Germany). Charles' flight was to fly the lead position, high element of "B" squadron. Pilot Doug Johnson recalls that they thought it was going to be "a piece of cake". There were no enemey fighters and it looked like flak was going to be light and inaccurate ...

Just before "bombs away", flak became more accurate and #3 and #4 engines were out due to direct hits or fire. They dropped their bombs over their dropzone, notified the Squadron leader and pulled away from the formation. Later when Captain Johnson was using the intercom to inform the crew he got no reply, only the co-pilot, the engineer and himself were onboard, the rest of the crew bailed out already. After the fire continued the co-pilot and the engineer bailed out as well. Just as Doug Johnson was getting ready to bail out himself, he looked at #3 engine one more time ... the fire had gone out and he decided to try and reach a friendly base ...

Doug Johnson remembers "I was down to about 4.000 feet and found myself through some more flak and small arms fire." He realised that he was flying directly over the fighting ground troops somewhere north of Aachen. He finally contacted a P-47 fighter pilot who guided him safely to St Trond in Belgium (Site A92). While walking around the plane, inspecting the damage Doug Johnson was amazed why the plane hadn't blown up. There were about 200 holes in it and fuel was leaking from #3 engine ... Shortly after this he noticed that Charles was still at his post ... the tailgunner had been killed by a burst of flak. Later Doug Johnson learned that his co-pilot had been killed by German civilians, his bombardier was wounded but evaded and his engineer escaped capture and returned to base. The other crewmembers were captured and stayed POW's for the remainder of the war.

These days Charles Priest rests at the beautiful American Military Cemetery of Henri-Chapelle ... He is remembered and honored by his nephew Charles Hinson, who was named after his uncle Charles. He's also remembered by his comrades of the 390th Bomb Group (Museum) and by everyone who visits this website or visits the cemetery at Henri-Chapelle. His final resting place is visited regularly by the In-Honored-Glory webmaster.