Laguna war hero is back in uniform
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Barbara Diamond
Charles Quilter II left Thursday morning for the Iraq War armed with
a laptop.
The retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel, a former fighter pilot, was
called once again out of retirement. Quilter, 61, will serve as the
senior field historian for Marine aviation, based with the 3rd Marine
Aircraft Wing.
He went willingly.
“We got up at 4:30 a.m., packed him up and took him to LAX,” wife
Ann Quilter said. “It’s hard not to get teary eyed, but the Marines
are his passion.
“And what he does is important: making an accurate record of what
the plans were, what worked and what didn’t,” she said. “The military
studies that to make improvements.”
Communications systems were analyzed and improved, she said, from
lessons learned in the Persian Gulf War, in which Charles Quilter
served as the senior Marine aviation historian. He was the senior
Marine reserve in Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
“I will be just a few miles from where I was last shot at,”
Charles Quilter said Tuesday, when he was still awaiting orders. “I
claim the dubious honor of being the last Marine shot at by Iraqis on
the last night of Desert Storm. I was bracketed by a 122-millimeter
mortar that fired a half dozen rounds on either side of the jeep I
was driving back to the command post.”
In the Gulf War, Charles Quilter commanded the historical
collection and wrote a monograph on the 1st Marine Expeditionary
Force, which is presently in Iraq.
“The 3rd wing did not have its own historian in Desert Storm, and
its story did not get published for 10 years, and then it was mainly
from records,” he said. “I felt it deserved better and I hope I can
do this for the wing, which is serving so heroically even as we
speak.”
The Laguna Beach Patriots Day Parade Committee selected Charles
Quilter Patriot of the Year in 1993. He has served as president of
the volunteer committee for four of the past five years.
The possibility of going to Iraq for this War arose at a memorial
service held in late January for Brig. Gen. Jay Hubbard, described by
Charles Quilter as one of the “great Marine combat warriors on land,
sea and in the air.”
Charles Quilter attended the service with his wife. Gerald
Yingling, 3rd Marine Air Wing chief of staff, also attended.
“He approached Annie and asked if I would be willing to come out
of retirement,” Charles Quilter said. “Annie is the daughter of a
Marine aviator, the sister of one and the wife of one. She sucked it
up and said, ‘Yeah.’
“Then he approached me,” he continued. “I looked at her, and she
nodded yes, so I said yes, provided it was in aviation.”
Charles Quilter’s family is the only thing that outranks Marine
aviation in his life. He and Ann have been married for more than 20
years. They have two children, Emily and C.J.
“He is the best they have got,” Ann Quilter said. “They would have
been fools not to have him back, if he was willing.”
Charles Quilter grew up in Laguna Beach with his two brothers,
sons of career Marine pilot Charles Quilter I and the late “Grandma
Wiz,” Elizabeth Quilter, who wrote a column for the Coastline Pilot
under the pen name of Susie Q.
He joined the U.S. Marine Reserves at 17, enlisting at El Toro in
1960, and served for more than three decades.
“I was commissioned in June of 1964 and got my wings in November
of 1965,” Charles Quilter said. “I wanted to be a fighter pilot.”
He served in the Dominican Republic in 1966 and in Vietnam from
1966 to 1968, where he flew 252 combat missions in F4 Phantom jets.
He was released from duty in 1970.
He began flying for Western Airlines in 1972 and then, after it
merged, for Delta Airlines, from which he officially retired March 1.
Charles Quilter was recalled in 1984 to command Marine fighter
attack Squadron 134 in F-4N Phantom II air jets.
He was promoted to colonel in the reserves in 1986 and commanded a
specialist unit of historians and combat artists based in Washington,
D.C. from 1987 to 1993.
He was recalled to active duty in Bosnia in 1994, where he served
as Marine aviation historian.
“I retired in September of 1994, after 35 years,” he said.
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