Ships
- USS Watts (DD-567) Captain, 27 January 1945 – 23 December 1945
Commander Charles Samuel Hart became commanding officer of the United States Navy destroyer Watts (DD-567) on 27 January 1945. The Fletcher-class ship had been laid down at Seattle on 26 March 1943 by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation, launched on 31 December 1943, and commissioned on 29 April 1944. Her first commanding officer was Joseph Benedict Maher, whom Hart relieved.
In the spring of 1945 Watts took part in the Okinawa campaign. For ten days in May, Hart held her on a radar picket station, the outer post where destroyers warned the fleet of approaching aircraft and met those aircraft themselves. Japanese planes attacked again and again. The ship's fire did heavy damage to the attackers. The crew came through unhurt, and Watts came through undamaged. Hart received the Silver Star, in the rank of commander, for his conduct during that operation.
After Okinawa, Watts remained with the heavy ships operating against Japan. On 7 June 1945 she went alongside the battleship Iowa for fuel, in company with the destroyers Uhlmann and Melvin. On 4 July she fueled from Iowa again, this time with Wren and Remey.
Watts reached the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard on 23 December 1945 and began the overhaul that would lay her up. Hart had been in command since 27 January, and on the day of arrival he turned the ship over to James Francis Maynard, who took charge as executive officer. Hart returned as commanding officer on 1 January 1946 and served until 8 February. Maynard again took charge until 2 March. Hart resumed command that day and remained until 12 April 1946, when Watts was decommissioned at the Charleston Naval Shipyard and placed in reserve. During those months the ship had shifted from Philadelphia to Charleston to finish inactivation.
Hart stayed in the Navy and later served as a captain. From 23 June 1965 to 30 June 1968 he was on the staff of Commander Western Sea Frontier, in turn as assistant chief of staff and aide, as inspector general, and as chief of staff and aide. As inspector general he prepared a command inspection manual for the Fleet Air Control and Surveillance Facility at San Diego, then the only command of its kind in the Navy. The Legion of Merit recognized that staff tour.