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Contact Info
Home Town Gainesville, FL
Last Address 113 Gator Trail Melrose, FL 32666
Date of Passing Jan 14, 2017
Location of Interment Forest Meadows Memorial Park West - Newberry, Florida
Charles Wesley Larson II, passed away on Saturday, January 14, 2017. He was born in Gainesville and a graduate of P.K. Yonge and the University of Florida. A 24 year career Naval Officer retiring with the rank of Commander.
He was preceded in death by his daughter Sarah Claire Larson, and is survived by his wife Sarah Gaskins Larson, two sons, Charles Wesley Larson III, and Kevin Lee Samuel Larson, six grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
Funeral Services will be private. Arrangements by MILAM FUNERAL AND CREMATION SERVICES, 311 South Main Street, Gainesville, FL 32601,
(352) 376-5361.
Published in Gainesville Sun from Jan. 22 to Jan. 23, 2017
Executing "Honey Do" lists and looking for jobs around the house. Driving my John Deere lawn mower tractor around the woods and neighborhood. In short, not much.
Other Comments:
Gainesville (FL) Area Chamber of Commerce September 1977 - September 1984
Kissimmee(FL) Chamber of Commerce September 1984 - May 1985
Putnam County (FL) Chamber of Commerce May 1985 - January 2010
Vietnam War/Counteroffensive Phase IV Campaign (68)
From Month/Year
April / 1968
To Month/Year
June / 1968
Description This Campaign period was from 2 April to 30 June 1968. The Naval air and gun fire support to operations such as Operation Silver Mace gave ground units the needed firepower while AirForce units were moved to air operations over Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam. From 7 to 18 April, ground, air, and naval units from each of the American services, the Vietnamese Navy, and the Vietnamese Marine Corps conducted Silver Mace II, a strike operation in the Nam Can Forest on Ca Mau Peninsula. The enemy avoided heavy contact with the allied force, but his logistical system was disrupted.
Enemy air defenses caused aviators more concern for by 1968 the Communists had developed a defensive system that was well-armed, coordinated, and supported. On the ground throughout North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and Laos, the enemy trained skyward thousands of small arms, automatic weapons, and antiaircraft artillery. North Vietnam alone contained 8,000 weapons of many calibers, concentrated around key targets. Beginning in early 1965, surface-to-air missiles (SAM) were added to this defensive arsenal, and by early 1968 over 300 SAM sites dotted the North Vietnamese countryside. The entire defensive system was tied together with a sophisticated network of communications, air alert stations, and early warning, ground control-interceptor, and fire control radars. New and replacement weapons and ammunition were amply supplied by sympathetic Communist countries. The loss in Southeast Asia of 421 fixed-wing aircraft from 1965 to 1968 attested to the strength of these defenses. The aviators killed, missing, or made prisoner totaled 450. The operating environment was especially dangerous in North Vietnam, where 382 Navy planes were shot down, 58 of them by SAMs.
Although only accounting for eight of the Navy's aircraft during this three-year period, the North Vietnamese air units posed a constant threat to U.S. operations, thus requiring a diversion of vital resources for protection. The enemy air force varied from 25 to 100 MiG-15, MiG-17, MiG-19, and MiG-21 jet fighters. The country's jet-capable airfields included Gia Lam, Phuc Yen, Cat Bi, Kep, Kien An, Yen Bai, Son Tay, Bai Thuong, Hoa Lac, and Vinh. The U.S. Navy engaged in its first air-to-air encounter of the war on 3 April 1965, when several MiG-15s unsuccessfully attacked a flight of F-8 Crusaders near Thanh Hoa. On 17 June, two Midway F-4 Phantoms registered the first kills in the long conflict when they downed two MiG-17s south of Hanoi.
