Laguna war hero is back in uniform

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.