Ships
- USS Flint (CL-97) Captain from 31 August 1944 · Relieved on 5 October 1945
Charles Raymond Will commissioned the light cruiser Flint (CL-97) on 31 August 1944 and had her until 5 October 1945. He took her from San Francisco into the last year of the Pacific war. NavSource lists him as a captain and gives no higher final rank.
Uboat.net and Find a Grave agree that he was born on 26 April 1895. Neither page gives a birthplace. Find a Grave memorial 49363655 records his burial at Arlington National Cemetery and his death on 14 May 1969, aged 74.
Not stated on the pages that could be saved. NavSource's class column for him reads USN, not an Academy year. Uboat.net dates his rank as commander from 1 July 1939 and temporary captain from 17 June 1942.
DANFS names Captain C. R. Will at the commissioning on 31 August 1944 and does not name him again. NavSource dates the command from that day to 5 October 1945, and uboat.net gives the same span. Under that command she reported to the Third Fleet at Ulithi on 27 December 1944, screened Task Force 38 through the Luzon strikes and a kamikaze attack on 21 January 1945, screened Task Force 58 off Iwo Jima from 21 February, helped fight off air attacks before Okinawa from 18 to 22 March, bombarded the Okinawa beaches for the 1 April landings, stayed off the island until 13 June aside from upkeep at Ulithi, and from 1 July screened the last strikes on Japan and joined the bombardment of the east coast of Honshu. On 24 August she lay off Nii Shima as a rescue and homing ship, and she was in Tokyo Bay from 10 to 15 September, then on surveillance of central Honshu until 21 September. He was relieved eight days before she loaded homeward-bound servicemen at Yokosuka on 13 October.
NavSource ends the command on 5 October 1945 and names Captain Elwood Dixon Poole next. The cemetery record is the only later date fetched: death on 14 May 1969, burial at Arlington. No duty between the relief and that death was on the saved pages.