Monday, March 18, 2024

'There's a little clown in all of us' | Retired WWII fighter pilot celebrates 101st birthday

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Charles Baldwin might’ve spent most of his life in the clouds, but not even the sky is the limit for the former Air Force pilot.

Baldwin, a resident of AVIVA Granbury, celebrated his 101st birthday on Jan. 27 — but the quick-witted veteran still has a lot of life left in him.

“I never have taken many things very seriously,” he said, adding that his joking nature has most likely led to his longevity, along with his playful advice to “choose your ancestors wisely” and “just keep breathing.”

Baldwin, who was born in Artesia, New Mexico on Jan. 27, 1923, spent around 20 years — both active and reserve — in the Army Air Corps (before it was called Air Force).

As a fighter pilot, Baldwin flew B-47s during World War II in Europe, serving in a total of 51 missions during his active duty.

He said he would've preferred to fly a bomber and “get the drop on the Japanese,” but — as proven with his best friend — not everything goes according to plan.

Baldwin’s best friend also desired to fly in the military, but ended up joining the National Guard instead, along with several of their high school classmates.

“It was kind of a thing to do back then, when you graduated high school,” he explained. “A lot of guys would join the National Guard in order to get a little extra income.”

Unfortunately, the National Guard unit from his town was sent to the Philippines, where they were captured and forced to participate in the Bataan Death March. The Bataan Death March forced between 60,0000 and 80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war to march through the Philippines along a 65-mile route.

“They sent them to the Philippines before the war ever started, so they were there when the shooting started,” Baldwin said. “Of course, they were all either killed or captured.”

His best friend, Baldwin said, was “one of the lucky ones” who made it through the Japanese prison camp.

"After the war, he fortunately made it back and I was talking to him one day,” Baldwin said, reminiscing. “I said, ‘Doug, you wanted to fly so bad. Did you ever wish you'd done that instead of joining the National Guard?’ After going through the hell of Japanese prison camps and all he had to tolerate over there, he said no. He said, ‘I'd do the same thing all over because this way, I made it back,’ and I thought, ‘What a wonderful philosophy for anything that comes up in our lives.’”

Following his time in active duty, Baldwin joined a clothing business with his father. They remained in business until the shop closed in 1964 and Baldwin moved to Lamesa with his high school sweetheart and wife, Peggy.

"My wife and I dated in high school,” Baldwin explained. “She was a freshman, and I was a senior, and after I went off to college, well, that kind of cooled off, but the spark was still there. When I came back from service, we just picked up right where we left off — and the rest is history.”

They had three children together: Judy, Rick, and Russ, and were married for almost 60 years until Peggy’s death in 2005.

“She was a wife in every sense of the word,” Baldwin said. “She was a wonderful woman. I give her credit for raising these kids, really.”

He wasn’t expecting to find a second chance at happiness, though.

“I wasn't looking for a mate or anything,” Baldwin said. “We (Peggy and I) always talked about it, that if one of us passed away, we'd hope the other would find another mate. I wasn't looking. I was perfectly happy, but then I met this woman.”

He was attending a school reunion at Lamesa and was talking with a group of classmates, when someone mistakenly called a woman, Myrna, by the wrong last name, as her husband had since passed away.

She responded that she would answer to any name, to which Baldwin spontaneously replied, “What about Baldwin?”

“I didn't say it, but it came out of my mouth,” he said, chuckling. “God said it. But she said, ‘That sounds like a pretty good name.’”

Judy, Baldwin’s daughter, said her dad told her about seeing Myrna at the reunion and that he described her as being a “cute little thing.”

“I said, ‘Well, dad, maybe you ought to go up to Lubbock and call her,’” Judy said, reminiscing. “And he goes, ‘I’m afraid I might get something started if I do that.’”

Baldwin eventually listened to his daughter’s words of wisdom and asked Myrna out on a dinner date where they split a rack of baby back ribs.

“We live in Alaska, and it's a three-hour time difference,” said Rick, Baldwin’s son. “So we're laying in bed at nine o'clock at night and he comes dragging in to Lamesa at midnight and calls me after his date with Myrna.”

“It was just so nice and wonderful, and it just fit,” Baldwin said. “As much as I love Peggy — which I did love her so dearly — I never dreamed I could ever really be in love with anybody else. But it happened. God had a hand in that.”

Baldwin didn’t waste any time and asked Myrna to marry him a year later.

Rick said, “He told me, ‘You know, I'd hate to live another 10 or so years and look back and say, ‘Man, I wasted the last 10 years.’”

“Myrna and I discussed that, and we said, ‘Well, we don't know how long we'll have.’ There’s no way of knowing,” Baldwin said. “But we decided that we were gonna go for it and I’m so glad we did.”

Judy said when her dad told her he was getting married, she asked how old Myrna was. At the time, Baldwin was 89 and Myrna was 78.

"I told him, ‘Well, dad, I don't think you'll be robbing the cradle,’” she said, chuckling. “We love Myrna, though. We all are really grateful for her. She's a sweet lady.”

Baldwin added, “I've seen so many people who lose their mate and their life is over, but after Myrna and I married I said, ‘You can choose to dwell on loving memories lived, you can cling to sorrow and live in a broken life, or you can cling to sorrow and learn to dance again.’”

Myrna and Baldwin have now been married for 12 years, and still act like newlyweds. During Baldwin’s birthday celebration, they were lost in each other’s eyes as they fed each other cake.

“I’m speechless for the first time in my life,” he said, upon entering The Great Room, where his birthday party was being held. “I’m thankful for God for keeping me around this long, and I’m so blessed.”

Baldwin stays active by walking around AVIVA every day and keeps his mind sharp by reading and playing board games — but only ones that he can win, of course.

“Don't play cards with the man,” warned Baldwin’s son, Rick.

“I enjoy all kinds of games like, Wordle, Mexican Train, dominoes — any kind of game that you can have a winner because I want to win,” Baldwin said, chuckling.

He has also memorized several poems, including “High Flight,” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr., which he recited word for word on his birthday.

A passage from that poem that reads, “Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings” was also used as the inspiration for the title of Baldwin’s book, “On Laughter Silvered Wings” that he wrote detailing his time in service.

Baldwin currently resides at AVIVA with Myrna. He has nine grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.

“God has been good to me,” he added. “I’ve been twice blessed with another woman, and I just keep on getting more blessings every day.”

He leaves readers with this particular advice to help them live longer and retain their youth:

“Don’t take yourself too seriously — because there’s a little clown in all of us.”