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Strains of Pomp and Circumstance floated across the Snowflake High School football field as students took their seats in preparation for graduation on the night of May 24. A hush came over the crowd as SHS Principal Larry Titus turned the microphone over to Superintendent Hollis Merrell, who announced the special graduation of Charles “Charlie” Logan David Hall, a 95-year-old World War II veteran and Taylor community leader.
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Hall was driven to the edge of the ramp that the students would soon walk. There he was met by his three great-grandchildren, Tyler Hall, Trinitee Flake and Daiziah McCray, also graduating that night, and United States Army Lieutenant Colonel James Gill.
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Even though his steps were slow and measured, Hall walked to the podium, receiving his diploma nearly 75 years after he left high school to fight in World War II, fulfilling a lifelong dream to finally graduate.
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Hall began his journey into this world on June 23, 1923, in Whiteriver. He was the 10th son of 11 children born to George and Geneva Hall.
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His father, George, worked as Indian Agent in Whiteriver and with schools being in short supply on the mountain at the time, Hall went to Linden Elementary and then transferred to SHS in his freshman year.
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Quite the athlete, Hall lettered in football, basketball and baseball all three years he attended SHS. He was an avid boxer and known throughout the White Mountains for his talent in the ring. He also became the class president of his junior class.
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Gill, who became a part of Charlie’s life 22 years ago when Hall married his mother-in-law, Donna Hancock, said that Hall attended SHS from his freshman year until his junior year. “He had two deferments, one because he was working in the timber industry and the second was because he was still in high school.”
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After Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the war effort began to affect more and more young men. By the time Hall finished his junior year at SHS, he was already 19 years old and a lot of his buddies had enlisted. Before the war ended, well over 16 million men and women were enrolled in the armed forces.
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Determined to be one of them, Hall enlisted with the United States Marine Corp (USMC) to serve in the Pacific Theater on July 27, 1943.
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“Charlie went in on the initial invasion on the Island of Okinawa, the last major battle of World War II,” shared Gill. “Alongside his comrades, Charlie fought up and down the mountains of this strategic objective; most of the time in torrential rain storms.”
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It was a battle that cost the lives of more than 12,000 U.S. service members as well as more than 100,000 Japanese service members. And it was a battle that Hall vividly remembered.
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“While serving on the island of Okinawa, I remember vividly the day the Japanese sent in 350 Kamikaze planes to attack over 1,000 ships in the ocean just off the island. I personally was on one of the ships,” Hall recalled. “I had gone out to get supplies for the marines on the island. You cannot imagine the destruction and horror I witnessed that day as the large ships loaded with ammunition exploded when hit by the kamikazes combined with the return of the fire power from the ships. The sky looked like it was on fire. It was so red that you could not see the sun. The marines alone lost 7,500 lives on this island.”
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For his service, Hall was awarded a number of medals including the Navy Presidential Unit Citation. He was honorably discharged from the USMC on Dec. 27, 1945.
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Returning from the war, there was no way to go back and finish his high school diploma. Life had moved on. Hall married Katie Willis and for the next 54 years, until Katie’s passing in the Spring of 1997, they created a home in Taylor for their eight children and one foster son.
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Even without a high school diploma, Hall was a board member for the Snowflake Unified School District Governing Board for two terms. He was a councilman for the Town of Taylor and bishop for the Taylor First Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints.
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In 1994, Charlie was inducted into the Taylor Town Hall of Fame and was elected Man of the Year by the Taylor Chamber of Commerce in 1998.
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After the death of his wife, Hall found love again with Donna and through that he found his new son-in-law, Gill.
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Gill remembers the first time he met Hall. “I met him just before he and Donna married. We came out to visit, they were getting married the Friday after Thanksgiving. The first thing Charlie does is to get me into the pick up to go fishing at Holly Lake, which is about 10 miles outside of McNary.
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“We talked about life and things,” continued Gill. “It was a day I will never forget. Charlie didn’t know me from Adam and he wanted to show me he would be a good husband.” The next best thing about that fishing trip was the 24-ounce brown trout Gill caught.
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Over the next two decades, Gill and Hall shared the common bond of war veterans. “We talked about what we had seen, our hopes, our dreams, our regrets,” shared Gill. It was in those conversations, Gill learned of Hall’s deep regret in never graduating high school.
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Gill began to reach out and see what it would take to get Hall that diploma. It took four years and the help of Arizona State Representative Walt Blackman to finally get the ball rolling in the right direction.
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Not only did Hall get his diploma, but on May 25, he was again honored when along with his son, Keith Hall, they were given their Quilts of Valor at the Taylor Trapper Days Memorial Service.
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Today, Hall and his wife Donna live in Taylor, where they stay in contact with their 13 children, 52 grandchildren, 155 great-grandchildren and 16 great-great-grandchildren.
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