Lights of Peace Flag for March 2025 Honors 1LT Charles W Morse WWII Army & Air Force Pilot

During the month of March, the 66th Lights for Peace flag to fly at the Fort Taber – Fort Rodman Military
Museum honors the memory of 1LT Charles W. Morse, an Army Air Force pilot who flew a total of 32 mis
sions during WWII while serving in the European Theatre. Morse, who was born in New Bedford in 1922,
served in the United States Army Air Force from 1942 to 1945 and was assigned to the 8th Air Force, 305th
Bomb Group in the 366th Bomb Squadron.
1LT Morse flew the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber from 1942 thru 1945 and took part in a total of 32
missions, flying over 300 combat hours. According to armyaircorpsmuseum.org, the Squadron’s primary
mission was a strategic bombing campaign against Germany targeting submarine pens, docks, harbors and
shipyards as well as automotive factories and marshalling (railway) yards, oil refineries, aircraft factories
and ball bearing factories.
Morse was interviewed at the age of 82, in Cape Coral, FL by Sandra Arnold, for the Collier County “WWII
Capture Living History.” Audio clips were recorded in which Morse explained his experiences while flying
missions during WWII in France, Belgium, Germany and the Balkans.
He recalled his very first mission in which he flew to the South of France. “We didn’t go for ground sup
ports much, our targets were mostly oil, gasoline and a transportation sections where the trains come in.
Then we started to do diversion missions. We’d go to Northern France. That gave the Germans the impres
sion that the invasion was going to be there. Then we started to go in deeper and deeper. We went into
Hamburg. That was a tough target. Hamburg was the 2nd largest city. They were making oil out of coal and
that was one of our big targets. (Our mission was to) stop the Germans from manufacturing machinery
and stop them from driving tanks.”
Morse went on to explain his daily routine. “Each day you would go to the Ready Room and check to see if
your name was on the list to fly the next day. You didn’t know where or when (you were going). You tied a
shoe to the end of your bunk. The CQ came through and told you if you were flying. He’d put a flashlight
on your shoe and say ‘Lieutenant, it’s time to go.’ We’d go to the combat mess hall and then the briefing. If
you got fresh eggs, you knew you were going on a long mission. When I first got there, I was supposed to
f
ly 25 missions.” Morse explained that they got tight for pilots and they increased his missions to 28, then
30. “I got close to 30 and they said 32. When I got to 32, they said that’s enough and sent me home. That
equated to about 300 hours of combat.” 1LT Morse received the Distinguished Flying Cross and four Air
Medals for his service during WWII.
He retired in Cape Coral, FL and died at the age of 82 on April 12, 2004 according to the News-Press.