Nickname(s) Chuck Rank Staff Sergeant Name Charles Grant | Years of service 1942-1945 Other work Fabricator Service/branch United States Army | |
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Allegiance United States of America Battles/wars World War II
Battle of Normandy
Operation Market Garden
Battle of the Bulge Died 1984, San Francisco, California, United States Unit E Company, 506th Infantry Regiment Battles and wars Operation Overlord, Operation Market Garden, Battle of the Bulge, World War II | ||
Staff Sergeant Charles E. Grant (1922 - 1984) was a non-commissioned officer with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army during World War II. Grant was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by Nolan Hemmings.
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Youth
Grant was born in 1922 in Pennsylvania. He completed four years of high school and graduated. After graduation, he had an occupation in fabrication of metal products. Chuck enlisted with the paratroopers on August 18, 1942 in Los Angeles, his hometown.
Military service
Grant trained at Camp Toccoa under Herbert Sobel. Like many of the men from Easy Company, he made his first combat jump on D-Day as part of the Allied invasion of France. On September 19, 1944, in the Netherlands, he was wounded while helping to destroy an 88mm gun.
In Austria, Grant was named 2nd platoon Staff Sergeant. In July 1945, while driving a jeep with two members of 2nd platoon, Grant came across several dead soldiers: two Germans, a British major, and the major's driver. A drunken replacement from "I" Company had shot them, and Sergeant Grant was shot in the head when he confronted the man and attempted to disarm him. Grant survived because of the quick actions of Ronald Speirs and Jack Foley, who rushed him to an aid station. The medic there told them that Grant would not survive. However, Speirs, not willing to lose Grant, loaded him on a jeep and drove to Saalfelden, where he found a German brain surgeon who was able to operate. At first the doctor thought operation would be useless as Grant would surely die from the shock of operation. Herman 'Hack' Hanson, Grant's best friend, threatened the doctor with his gun, and the doctor eventually operated and saved Grant's life. The doctor was amazed and said Grant was the toughest man he had ever seen.
Later years
Grant recovered slowly from the gunshot wound to his head, and he occasionally had some problems talking and his left arm was partially paralyzed. He lived in San Francisco, owning a little tobacco shop. He attended several of the Easy Company reunions with his wife and became 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment's representative in the 101st Airborne association. He died in 1984.