The following biography was written by Captain Hawkins himself.
“I was raised in the great state of Alaska, and while some folks joke that I was ‘born in the belly of a moose,’ I was actually born of fairly normal humans in Carmel, California on August 1, 1946.”
His father, James Edgar, mustered out of service with the 10th Mountain Division in World War II. His mother, Mary Teresa Reinheimer, left a teaching position in Pennsylvania to join Dad on the West Coast. Both parents were school teachers who in 1950 accepted a federal teaching assignment in Ninilchik, Alaska — on the Kenai Peninsula, about 100 raven-flying miles south of Anchorage. They staked out a homestead and stayed.
Chuck grew up hunting and fishing, roaming the forests, working on fishing boats, planting and harvesting crops.
“I had the makings of a good point man, until…”
In 1964, Hawkins received an appointment to West Point through Senator Ernest Gruening — one of only two senators who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that drew the United States into the Vietnam War. He called it “sort of ironic.”
On June 5, 1968, he graduated and put on the butter bars of a second lieutenant and the crossed rifles of an infantry officer. Already airborne qualified at graduation, he completed the Infantry Officer’s Basic Course at Fort Benning and Ranger School. His first assignment was with the 4th Armored Division in Crailsheim, Germany. When reassignment orders came — one for flight school, one for Vietnam — he chose Vietnam without hesitation.
On March 6, 1970, he reported to Lieutenant Colonel Andre C. Lucas at the 2/506th rear headquarters. Two days later he was on Rocket Ridge leading 2nd Platoon, Charlie Company, under Captain Vasquez.
On May 30, 1970, Lieutenant Colonel Lucas pinned captain’s bars on Hawkins’ collar — an early promotion known as “frocking” — and Hawkins took command of Alpha Company. That is where he earned the nickname “Charlie Oscar,” and it has stayed with him among those he served with ever since.
“The men of Alpha Company were simply the most outstanding soldiers I have ever had the honor of serving with. Some of you didn’t come home, and I miss you the most. You did your duty. You supported your fellow soldiers. You fought like hell. You did not stain your sacred honor. I would serve with you again, anytime, anywhere. God bless all the men of Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry. I love you more than mere words can convey.”
After the Battle of Firebase Ripcord ended on July 23, 1970, Alpha Company went back into the field with 39 men — nine veterans and 30 new soldiers. During the months of August through November, they did more damage to the enemy than any other outfit in the battalion. At the end of November, Hawkins was reassigned as the battalion S-1 (personnel officer). He finished his tour on February 20, 1971.
He continued on active duty until September 1977, commanding two more rifle companies in the 1st Infantry Division, attending the Infantry Officer’s Advanced Course at Fort Benning, and serving on staff at U.S. Forces Command at Fort McPherson, Georgia. He later commanded a fifth rifle company with the Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Infantry Brigade, and helped form the 1st Battalion, 170th Infantry, 29th Infantry Division in Virginia. He retired as a major from the Army Reserve in 1990.
After the Army, Hawkins built a distinguished career in the defense and intelligence community as an analyst, author, and consultant. Over a decade he logged nearly 500 days in China on more than 30 trips, and visited the Chinese-North Korean frontier on numerous occasions. He was a regular part of the U.S. observer team helping Taiwan’s military prepare for potential conflict with Mainland China.
In 2006, the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office published a book he edited: The New Great Game: Chinese Views on Central Asia. He also authored Asia Pacific Security: Observations and Opinions of an American Defense Analyst.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Ripcord and the men who served in that hellish place.”
In his later years, Hawkins was settled on Kent Island, Maryland, though he returned to Alaska with increasing frequency to tend to the old family homestead — a 57-year-old log structure on the Kenai Peninsula that had been in the family since 1950. The cabin door, he said, was always open.
Captain Charles “Chuck” Hawkins passed away in 2019. He is remembered by the men of Alpha Company with admiration and deep affection.
