Charles Sanna: Submarines and Swiss Miss

From Find A Grave.

Born:  9 Nov. 1917, Philadelphia, Pa.

Died:  13 March 2019  Fitchburg, Wis.

Buried:  Resurrection Cemetery  Madison, Wis.  (Where comedian Chris Farley is buried.)

In July 1941, with war raging in Europe, he applied for and received a commission in the U.S. Navy and was sent to diesel school at Penn State.  After Pearl Harbor, he was assigned to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, where he oversaw construction of submarines.  Sitting across from his desk was his boss' secretary Margaret (Peggy) McGee, who became the love of his life.

In February 1944, he was ordered to duty in the Pacific Theater where he spent the remainder of the war at Pearl Harbor as Officer-In-Charge of Submarine Repair and Alterations.  In November 1945, Lieutenant Commander Sanna returned to Portsmouth, Maine, and in January 1946 married Peggy.

For more information on his non-military life, see my Cooter's History Thing blog for this month.

--GreGen