Ships
- USS Marshall (DD-676) Captain, 9 May 1945 – 15 December 1945
Charles Holovak was a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy. From 9 May 1945 to 15 December 1945 he was captain of the destroyer USS Marshall (DD-676), a tour that ran from the last months of fighting in the Pacific through the ship's inactivation after Japan's surrender.
Marshall was a Fletcher-class destroyer, laid down on 29 April 1943 at the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Kearny, New Jersey, launched on 29 August 1943, and commissioned on 16 October 1943. She was named for Lieutenant Commander Thomas W. Marshall, Jr., who was killed when the destroyer Jacob Jones was torpedoed off Cape May, New Jersey, on 28 February 1942. Sinclair Best Wright commanded her at commissioning.
By the time Holovak took her, Marshall was a veteran of the fast-carrier war. In June 1944, during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, she received an assist credit for two Japanese aircraft shot down, and she stayed with the Pacific Fleet through the campaigns that followed. His own command began on 9 May 1945, while the fleet was still preparing for further operations against Japan.
Japan surrendered in August 1945, before the planned invasion of the home islands went forward. Marshall then inactivated. In December 1945 she was decommissioned and placed in the Reserve Fleet at San Diego. Holovak's command ended on 15 December 1945.
The destroyer returned to commission on 27 April 1951 and that August joined Task Force 77 in the Sea of Japan for the Korean War. That later service lay outside Holovak's time as captain.