Name: Charles Benson Earnhart, age 86
Date of Birth: May 15, 1918 in Fort Mills, SC
Date of Death: September 1, 2004 in Hohenwald, Lewis Co, TN
Date of Funeral: September 5, 2004
Burial Site: Swiss Cemetery, Hohenwald, Lewis Co, TN, USA
Parents: Jacob and Lottie Whiteside Earnhart
Spouse: (1)Janice Earnhart (deceased); (2) Ellen Hartman Earnhart
Survivors: wife; sons, Mickey, Robert, Jeff and Hans Foerster; daughters, Susan Jernigan, Ruth Wright, Ellen Boeke, Heidi Merryman, and Julie Mayberry; brother Bill Earnhart; sister, Doris Horner; 14 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren
Preceded in death: parents; first wife; sister, Lillian Kennedy

from the website, American Air Museum in Britain

Chuck Earnhart enlisted at the end of 1939 in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in Canada, thus well before the entry of the US into the war. After flying a number of missions on Spitfires and shooting down 4 enemy aircraft and damaging another on the ground, he joined the 8th Air Force in England. He followed training on P-47 Thunderbolts and was assigned as a pilot in the 356th Fighter Group / 359th Fighter Squadron. Force-landed due to Flak damage near Zemst-Laar, Belgium on 28 June 1944 in P-47 # 42-25508. Missing Air Crew Report – MACR 651. Reported as Missing in Action (MIA), but managed to evade capture with the help of Belgian patriots. Reaching secret camps in woods in the Belgian Ardennes, he was liberated by American troops and was back in England on 10 September. Returned to his unit 14 September 1944. Ended Tour of Duty in October 1944, but asked to fly additional missions. Had to wait 6 months before he was allowed to fly combat missions again. He flew some missions in the Spring of 1945 during which he shot 4 enemy fighters. His total “kills” (8½) would have assured him Ace status, but he never was awarded it, the official reason being that the credits were obtained in different Air Forces and that he had scored 5 in neither one. His family tried to have that corrected but his records were destroyed in the 1973 fire at the National Archives and his Ace status never was officially recognized.