Submitted photo Charles Jackson is one of five siblings to serve in the military.
CORTLAND -- Charles Jackson was born in Richford, Vermont, right up near the Canadian border.
He joined the service early in 1955 because the government was going to take away the GI Bill, which was due to expire in 1956. Following in his older brothers' footsteps, Jackson joined the Navy.
"Our family was kind of a Navy family. There were five boys and, counting me, four boys were in the Navy. One was in the Army, he was the oldest. I'm the youngest," Jackson said.
Jackson's military occupational specialty primarily concerned maintaining and helping to install electrical equipment. His ship was the USS Antietam, which was primarily on the East Coast, and in South America and Greece. Even in the Navy, Jackson displayed great talent with electronics, and received a letter of commendation from his commanding officer.
One aspect of his time in service he really enjoyed was when he got to share his knowledge.
"The ship that I was on was put out of service as such, but they were set up for schooling the new recruits and pilots, and my last two years were spent doing some training on handling the electronics. I wasn't a professor or anything," Jackson said.
However, his skill, knowledge and willingness to share those with others were utilized.
"I enjoyed the food, and just sightseeing," he said of all his travels
Jackson said that after graduating from college, one of his brothers who was working in Ohio wanted to know what he was going to do, and he had not really decided yet, so he asked him for suggestions.
"Well, I can fix you up here in Ohio," his brother said.
"I worked for him at Taylor Winfield. The company no longer exists, but the product is still being manufactured," Jackson said.
He worked for a total of 37 years for the company, where the skills he learned in the Navy served him well.
"I was an electronics specialist. At Taylor Winfield, I was in charge of the steel mill type of equipment, the electrical end primarily, but I ended up selling the product to the world, and I mean to the world. Asia, England, India, Belgium, France, Scotland," Jackson said.
When he came to Ohio on a Christmas break, he met his wife, Roz, on a blind date on New Year's Eve.
Jackson recently returned from a trip called the Honor Flight, which takes veterans from Columbus to Washington, D.C. and back in one day. He was one of 71 veterans on the plane.