Charles W. Mapes Biography-1
Lt. Charles W. Mapes (1918 – 1988)
Charles Mapes was born in Cameron, Missouri in 1918. By the mid-1930s, he was married, and had moved to San Bernardino California, where he was the successful manager of Men’s Shoes at the Harris Company department store. In March of 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps Reserves. After completing basic flight training at Chino CA, he was transferred to Douglas Army Air Field Arizona in November 1943 for advanced training, and was a member of Class 44-A (along with Donald Kitzman). After graduating on January 7,1944, he became an Instructor at Douglas.
I could not find any articles referring to Lt. Mapes being at Luke Air Base (about 240 miles from Douglas).
Mapes was a pilot in the China-Burma-India theater ("Over the Hump") during WW2. He returned to San Bernardino in 1946, and continued to work at the Harris Company. Charles was very active in the community, and was elected as President of the Argonauts Club, a leading charitable group in town.
In 1949, Charles graduated from San Bernardino Valley College, and was then accepted in the Hastings College of Law at UC Berkeley.
There is no further public information about his career after 1949, other than a second marriage in 1956.
Charles died on January 5, 1988 in Redway, California.
Charles name is the first one engraved on the Holux watch; I assume that he may have been its original owner.