A veteran of the second World War and Ohio resident, Corporal Charlie Baker passed away Friday, January 3, at the age of 93. He touched many lives at Kettering’s Holiday at Home parade in 2018 at which he received a standing ovation. Now the people of Kettering mourn their home town hero. His wife, two sons and daughter will be holding a memorial service for him on Monday, Feb. 13 at Southern Hills United Methodist Church in Kettering at 2287 S Dixie Drive.

He was born on a farm in Jefferson Township and never dreamed of being in F company on Iwo Jima, according to Dayton Daily News. He was a junior in high school when he learned that when he and his other male class mates turned 18, they would be drafted to serve in world war two. After he became 18, he found himself on a bus from Cincinnati to Paris island boot camp, a notorious USMC boot camp in South Carolina.

Iwo Jima, before his company took it, was being used by the Japanese as a base to launch air attacks on American bombers. After a bloody fight that took 230 out of 256 people in his company of fellow Marines and a day to secure capture. It was used as an emergency landing site for 2,900 B-29’s and potentially saved 24,000 airmen who would’ve died having to land at sea.

He served from 1944-1946 and was part of the 389,293 of 16 million veterans still alive, unfortunately, now 389,292.