This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Shaun Thomas (Underdog), OSC
to remember
Adair., Charles L., RADM USN(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Tyler
Last Address Annapolis, Maryland
Date of Passing Jul 02, 1993
Location of Interment U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery and Columbarium (VLM) - Annapolis, Maryland
From 1943 to 1945, Admiral Adair took part in the planning and execution of every major amphibious operation in the Southwest Pacific Area while serving on the staff of Rear Admiral Daniel Barbey, Commander Seventh Amphibious Force.
After duty in OpNav and BuPers, he commanded the attack cargo ship Marquette, served on the CinCPacFlt staff, and then in the office of the Comptroller of the Navy, William Franke. He retired in 1956.
RADM Adair had lived in Annapolis since 1974. He died of pneumonia on July 2, 1993 at the Anne Arundel Medical Center. He had Alzheimer's disease.
Other Comments:
To view award citations, click on the ribbons in the Ribbon Bar box.
Admiral Adair graduated from the Naval Academy in the class of 1926. Following assignments on board the Mississippi, Toucey, Blakeley, and Patoka, he studied communications at the Naval Postgraduate School.
From 1935 to 1938, he served as radio officer on the staff of Destroyer Squadrons Six and 14. After a staff assignment at the Naval Academy, he reported as flag lieutenant to Admiral Thomas Hart, Commander in Chief Asiatic Fleet, and was in that job when World War II broke out.
He moved to Corregidor and then escaped to the Dutch East Indies as senior man on board the schooner Lanikai, sailing by night and hiding by day.
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Mariana and Palau Islands Campaign (1944)
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
November / 1944
Description The Mariana and Palau Islands campaign, also known as Operation Forager, was an offensive launched by United States forces against Imperial Japanese forces in the Mariana Islands and Palau in the Pacific Ocean between June and November, 1944 during the Pacific War. The United States offensive, under the overall command of Chester Nimitz, followed the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign and was intended to neutralize Japanese bases in the central Pacific, support the Allied drive to retake the Philippines, and provide bases for a strategic bombing campaign against Japan.
Beginning the offensive, United States Marine Corps and United States Army forces, with support from the United States Navy, executed landings on Saipan in June, 1944. In response, the Imperial Japanese Navy's combined fleet sortied to attack the U.S. Navy fleet supporting the landings. In the resulting aircraft carrier Battle of the Philippine Sea (the so-called “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”) on 19–20 June, the Japanese naval forces were decisively defeated with heavy and irreplaceable losses to their carrier-borne and land-based aircraft.
Thereafter, U.S. forces executed landings on Guam and Tinian in July, 1944. After heavy fighting, Saipan was secured in July and Guam and Tinian in August, 1944. The U.S. then constructed airfields on Saipan and Tinian where B-29s were based to conduct strategic bombing missions against the Japanese mainland until the end of World War II, including the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In the meantime, in order to secure the flank for U.S. forces preparing to attack Japanese forces in the Philippines, in September, 1944, U.S. Marine and Army forces landed on the islands of Peleliu and Angaur in Palau. After heavy and intense combat on Peleliu, the island was finally secured by U.S. forces in November, 1944.
Following their landings in the Mariana and Palau Islands, Allied forces continued their ultimately successful campaign against Japan by landing in the Philippines in October, 1944 and the Volcano and Ryukyu Islands beginning in January, 1945.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
June / 1944
To Month/Year
November / 1944
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories From 1943 to 1945 he took part in the planning and execution of every major amphibious operation in the Southwest Pacific Area while serving on the staff of Rear Admiral Daniel Barbey, Commander Seventh Amphibious Force.