Ships
- USS Enterprise (CV-6) Captain from 21 December 1938 · Relieved on 29 May 1940
- USS Enterprise (CV-6) Captain from 29 May 1940 · Relieved on 21 March 1941
Charles Alan Pownall was born on 4 October 1887 in Atglen, Pennsylvania. After high school he won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating and taking his ensign's commission in June 1910. His early years were spent in the battleships Mississippi and Missouri and the destroyers Ammen and Reid, and in 1914 he took part in the Veracruz expedition.
In World War I he commanded the patrol vessel USS Vedette, escorting troops and supplies through submarine- and mine-infested waters off Europe, and earned the Navy Cross. In the 1920s he became the first commanding officer of the destroyer John D. Ford, then made the leap to aviation: he was designated a naval aviator in 1927 and served as navigator of Saratoga and air officer of Lexington before staff duty with the Battle Fleet's aircraft squadrons.
From December 1938 to March 1941 he was the captain of the new carrier Enterprise, the ship's second commanding officer, broken only by Captain Douglas's four-hour command on 29 May 1940.
In World War II Pownall led the fast carrier task group built around Yorktown, raiding Tarawa in September 1943 and earning the Navy Distinguished Service Medal in the Gilberts. After raids on the Marshalls in late 1943 and early 1944 were judged insufficiently aggressive, Admiral Nimitz replaced him with Marc Mitscher. He then commanded Naval Air Forces, Pacific Fleet and later the Naval Air Training Command, earning the Legion of Merit.
From 30 May 1946 he was Commander Naval Forces Marianas and naval Governor of Guam. A 1948 clash with the Guam Congress, in which he replaced members with his own appointees, led President Truman to move the island out of Navy control, making Pownall Guam's last military governor. He retired a vice admiral and died on 19 July 1975.