Daytona Beach WWII veteran receives medals decades after service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A Daytona Beach veteran now has all the medals he earned in World War II thanks to Daytona Beach's Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

University officials said it was their honor and duty to help him receive the well-deserved honors.

They said it was only fitting that the same program that helped train him for his brave work would present the overdue honors.

"I practically hit every island in the South Pacific," retired U.S. Army Air Corps Capt. Richard Charles said.

The 94-year-old said he has vivid memories of his service during World War II.

Charles said he was one of the first pilots to land on the Japanese mainland after its surrender in 1945.

"We didn't know if they were going to shoot us or if they were going to welcome us," Charles said.

But when the war ended, those daring missions became stories untold.

"When we were kids, he would never discuss it," said Charles' son, Bill Charles. "He was like, 'No big deal. That's what we all did at the time.'"

Knowing his father earned a U.S. Army Air Corps medal for flying through combat zones, Bill Charles did some research. That's when he found three more medals in his father's career.

"It made sense at the time, but I knew that he didn't know it," Bill Charles said.

As expected, at first, Richard Charles wasn't big on the fuss

"What the hell are they for?" he said.

Bill Charles soon connected with the university, whose program was part of his father's aviation training in the 1940s.

This week, the university extended the overdue honors and pinned the captain with his medals.

"I signed up to try and do my part, so it sits pretty good with me," Richard Charles said.

He called the belated accolades one of his life's highlights.

"Gratitude. I appreciate it. It's nice to feel that my time wasn't wasted," Richard Charles said.

After the war ended, Richard Charles said he continued flying missions for several years to retrieve the remains of fallen soldiers so they could be returned to their families.

Cox Media Group