Ships
- USS Hornet (CV-8) Captain from 15 June 1942 · Relieved on 26 October 1942
Charles Perry Mason was born on 12 January 1891 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the son of William Charles Mason, a fireman, and Gertrude Rider Mason. He finished high school in Columbia, Pennsylvania, in 1908 and was appointed to the Naval Academy that summer. At Annapolis he played football and baseball and ran track, earning class numerals. He graduated in June 1912 with a class that also produced Daniel Barbey, Elliott Buckmaster, Louis Denfeld, Charles Lockwood, Alfred Montgomery, DeWitt Ramsey and Carleton Wright, several of them future Pacific admirals.
His first ship was the battleship Connecticut. In June 1914 he went with her to Mexican waters during the Mexican Revolution. In 1915 he moved to the light cruiser Chester. In June 1916 he asked for flying duty. He went to Pensacola and on 26 June 1917 was designated Naval Aviator No. 52, one of the Navy's first pilots. He stayed on as an instructor, briefly commanded Naval Air Station Bay Shore on Long Island, and then served in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. In 1918 he went to France as officer in charge of inspecting and testing aircraft at Pauillac. There he flew the first American-built seaplanes with single and twin Liberty engines delivered to U.S. naval aviation in Europe. After the Armistice he sat on the Armistice Commission's heavier-than-air board, which inspected German air stations. The British Admiralty commended him, and so did Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels.
Between the wars he helped build the air arm. He commanded Naval Air Station Key West and qualified as a lighter-than-air pilot. He organized the Pacific Fleet's first seaplane patrol squadron and led its flight from San Diego to the Canal Zone in early 1921. He was superintendent of flight training at Pensacola and organized Scouting Squadron 3. He headed Langley's aviation department and worked on fitting out Saratoga. In 1929 his Pensacola planes dropped food, clothing and medicine to towns cut off by floods in Alabama and Florida. He was executive officer of Langley and then of NAS Norfolk. At Norfolk he helped organize a 1933 formation flight of P2Y flying boats from Norfolk to Coco Solo, 2,159 statute miles, at that time the longest formation flight on record. He helped fit out the carrier Yorktown and became her first executive officer under Captain Ernest D. McWhorter when she was commissioned on 30 September 1937. He was promoted to captain on 1 July 1939, commanded Patrol Wing One at San Diego, and in 1940 became the first commanding officer of NAS Jacksonville.
On 15 June 1942 he relieved Marc Mitscher in command of the carrier Hornet (CV-8), the ship that had launched the Doolittle Raid and fought at Midway. He took her to Pearl Harbor for repairs and new guns and radar. From mid-August he guarded the sea approaches to Guadalcanal, and for a time Hornet was the only working American carrier in the South Pacific. Her planes struck shipping in the Buin–Faisi area, bombed Kahili airfield on Bougainville, and hit beached transports at Rekata Bay.
On 26 October 1942, at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, Japanese dive bombers and torpedo planes found Hornet. Bombs hit her and two crashing dive bombers struck the ship, one into the island and one on the port side forward. She lost power and went dead in the water. Her own planes hit a Japanese carrier and other ships. Damage-control parties worked to save her, but another torpedo undid their repairs and left her listing 14 degrees. Japanese surface forces were approaching and towing had failed, so Admiral Halsey ordered her abandoned and sunk. The live page records that Mason left the bridge at 1650. He was the last man to leave the ship, climbing down her side. All but 129 of about 2,900 men were saved. He received the Navy Cross.
He was promoted to rear admiral and joined Halsey's staff. In February 1943 he became the first Commander, Aircraft, Solomon Islands, at Guadalcanal, commanding Army, Navy and Marine air units in the final phase of the island's defense. Severe malaria and pneumonia sent him home in April 1943. After recovering he commanded the Naval Air Training Center at Corpus Christi and then the Naval Air Intermediate Training Command, which put thousands of new pilots through a fourteen-week course. In May 1945 Rear Admiral Joseph J. Clark relieved him, and he went to Pearl Harbor to command Naval Air Bases, Fourteenth Naval District. He retired on 1 April 1946 after 34 years and was advanced to vice admiral for his combat commendation. He held the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star, and decorations from Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru.
In retirement he settled first in Jacksonville and then in Pensacola, where he became deputy state director of Florida Civil Defense, led the Pensacola Historical Society and sat on the city council. In June 1947 he became Pensacola's 49th mayor. He served until 1957 and again from 1963 to 1965, and the Florida legislature later named him honorary mayor for life. During his years in office the city grew from under 10 to over 17 square miles, gained a new public library and planned a municipal auditorium. He was president of the Early Birds of Aviation and worked with the Boy Scouts.
His family knew tragedy. His son, Lieutenant Charles P. Mason Jr., was killed in a plane crash in Nevada in September 1944, and his daughter-in-law, Cornelia Amos, died in a car crash in 1949. Mason and his wife, Ralphine Fisher, raised their grandson, Charles P. Mason III, who also went to the Naval Academy and became a naval aviator, the third generation to fly for the Navy. Vice Admiral Mason died at home in Pensacola on 15 August 1971, aged 80, and was buried in St. John's Cemetery. Admiral Mason Park in Pensacola is named for him.
Date flag: the live page has his Hornet command ending 26 October 1942. uboat.net lists 27 October 1942.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Charles P. Mason" (and its cited Navy biography and Pensacola sources).
uboat.net, Allied Warship Commanders: Charles Perry Mason.
Live Pacific Ships page (Santa Cruz, left the bridge at 1650).