Regan is July Veteran of the Month
Charles Regan was born in Houston, Texas and graduated high school in San Antonio. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1962 and received his oath from his father, a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and commanding officer of the San Antonio recruiting office. Regan attended the Naval Training Center in San Diego, Calif., was transferred to the Naval Air Station in Miramar and attached to Fighter Squadron VA-91 as a plane captain. He later transferred with VF-91, a F8U fighter squadron supplying air support in the Gulf of Vietnam and Laos, to aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ranger CVA61, and sailed out of San Francisco patrolling off the west coast. Regan served as a plane captain on F8U Crusader aircraft on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, a job for the “Roof Rats,” the “most dangerous job on earth.”
He traveled to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Subic Bay, Philippines; Hong Kong, China; Yasuko, Japan; and the South China Sea. He transferred to Memphis, Tenn., to attend “A” school in aircraft engine mechanics. After graduation, he transferred to the Naval Air Training Center in New Iberia, Louisiana where he was assigned to VT-27 as a TS2A aircraft mechanic, a training squadron for multi-engine propeller aircraft pilots. Regan moved to Corpus Christi, Texas when the base closed until his discharge in 1968. In 1974, he enlisted in the SEABEES Reserve in McAlester. He was an equipment operator and learned to operate heavy equipment. He made drills at the Navy Base, McAlester, and Gulf Port, Mississippi. He was honorably discharged in 1980 and says his favorite assignment was New Iberia, Louisiana.
Regan resides in McAlester, where he has worked on a pipeline, in a funeral home, and in the Kibois organization. His family is Dr. Jason Regan and spouse Stacie (PharmD), granddaughter Reese, and grandson Rhett. His full-blood Choctaw grandmother was an original enrollee who lived in Stigler.
The Choctaw Nation holds our Veterans in the highest esteem and appreciates their sacrifices and contributions to preserve our freedoms and the way of life we hold dear.