ROGER CHARLES

CHARLES Roger Gavin Charles (Age 76) After the fullest of lives, Roger passed away suddenly in Alexandria, VA on Thursday February 17, 2022. The son of Delmon and Frances Charles, Roger grew up in Williamson, WV where he earned his Eagle Scout and was valedictorian of his high school class. In 1963, he entered the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he made lifelong friends, took up boxing, and declared himself 129 pounds of twisted steel and dynamite. In 1967, he was commissioned in the Marine Corps and, in 1968, deployed to Vietnam as an infantry officer. All told, he spent three years of his life deployed overseas, in combat and training exercises. Most of his career of twenty two and a half years in the military was spent in the DC area, where he was stationed at Quantico, Headquarters Marine Corps and the Pentagon. He retired in 1990 as a Lieutenant Colonel. A student of history and human nature, Roger earned a master's degree in National Security Studies from Georgetown University, which served him well when he undertook a second career as a journalist specializing in military and national security affairs. He worked for a non-profit news agency, National Security News Service, before embarking on freelance projects. Under the leadership of Dan Rather and Mary Mapes at CBS News, he was instrumental in the uncovering of the Abu Ghraib scandal, which garnered Peabody Awards for the team. Later dramatized in the film "Truth," Roger was astonished to see himself portrayed with verve by Dennis Quaid. He committed his post-military life to complex investigative work that spanned the Vincennes' shootdown of an Iranian passenger airliner to the Oklahoma City bombing. In 2012, with co-author Andrew Gumbel, he published "Oklahoma City," a book about the 1995 bombing of the federal building. Roger was also active in veterans' groups and enjoyed many reunions with fellow Annapolis graduates and friends from his Vietnam battalion 1/27. With his mentors and friends David Hackworth and Eilhys England, he co-founded Soldiers for the Truth, a non-profit advocacy group dedicated to raising awareness of veterans' issues. Within a year of a chance meeting at a party in Georgetown, he married Mary Lee Carr, with whom he celebrated 46 years of marriage in July 2021. In 1975, they settled in Alexandria, where they raised their daughters: Katherine Genevieve, Virginia Eileen and Ellen Frances. He relished the role of dad and was a champion of his daughters, unstintingly backing their wildest dreams and launching them into the world. Roger is survived by his wife and three daughters; another daughter, Madeleine Louise, predeceased him. In addition to his immediate family, he leaves behind his extended family that includes many brothers- and sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews whose company he greatly enjoyed. Mentoring and encouraging others was a passion: his capacity for friendship was boundless, and he carried friends forward from every epoch of his colorful life. He was a steadfast support to his parents as they aged, and a devoted guardian to his younger brother James, who died in 2011. He kept alive the memories of his younger sister, Leigh Anne, who died in infancy, and another brother Thomas, who died at age 23. Mary Lee, Katie, Ginny and Ellen are grateful for the love and support of so many friends and relatives who have expressed their condolences and shared fond memories of Rog. We welcome more anecdotes from the life of this consummate raconteur. Friends may call at the Everly-Wheatley Funeral Home, 1500 West Braddock Road, Alexandria, VA from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday February 24, 2022. Funeral service will be held at Blessed Sacrament Church on Saturday February 26 at 11 a.m. Private interment at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to Carpenters' Shelter (https://carpentersshelter.org/) and Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation (https://www.mcsf.org). Friends may call at the Everly-Wheatley Funeral Home, 1500 West Braddock Road, Alexandria, VA from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday February 24, 2022. Funeral service will be held at Blessed Sacrament Church on Saturday February 26 at 11 a.m. Private interment at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to Carpenters' Shelter (https://carpentersshelter.org/) and Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation (https://www.mcsf.org).