THE WALL OF FACES

Thank you for your service to our country so long ago sir. The story of your career is inspiring. Your Medal of Honor citation attests to your courage and devotion to your fellow soldiers. As long as you are remembered you will always be with us….

MSGT Charles Ernest Hosking Jr. is buried in Valleau Cemetery in Ridgewood, NJ.

Your sacrifice is not forgotten.

"Greater love hath no man, than that man lay down his life for a friend."

HOOAH

Dear MSgt Charles Hosking, Thank you for your service as a 1st Special Forces Infantryman. Thank you for your MEDAL OF HONOR. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness. Rest in peace with the angels.

He ran away from home as a teenager...


Snake’s Daughter: The Roads in and out of War, by Gail Hosking-Gilberg, University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, 1997...

Charles Ernest Hosking Jr. was a career soldier who fought as a U.S. paratrooper in World War II and then was one of the original Green Berets when the unit was created in 1952. He was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for Valor in the Republic of Vietnam for his actions on March 21, 1967.

Hosking leaped on the back of a Viet Cong prisoner who held a hand grenade. Holding the grenade between him and the prisoner, he gave up his life bearing the brunt of the blast but protected several of his commanders nearby who the VC was looking to take out with the grenade.

Beginnings and Itching to Serve: Hosking was born in May of 1924 in Ramsey, New Jersey. With World War II underway and before Pearl Harbor in 1941, Hosking ran away from home and hitchhiked to Canada. He enlisted in the Canadian’s famous “Black Watch” Regiment trying to get into the fight.

He eventually was tracked down by his U.S. congressman and others and being underage was shipped home. He then tried to join the Coast Guard with his grandfather’s permission but a heart murmur ended that venture as well. Undeterred, Hosking sought out his congressman, he received a waiver and was inducted into the U.S. Army in 1943.

But just serving wasn’t enough. Hosking volunteered for airborne duty and was assigned to Company B of the 509th Airborne Infantry Battalion. He joined them in Italy and served in the Rome-Arno, Southern France, and Ardennes-Alsace campaigns during the war in Europe. Of the 1500 men in the 509th, only 29 would serve the war and go without being killed or wounded. Hosking was wounded by machine-gun fire during the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes.

He missed serving in Korea due to a training accident when a bazooka round exploded and he suffered two broken legs and severe shrapnel wounds that required many months to recover from.

When Colonel Aaron Bank created the new Special Forces unit at Ft. Bragg, Hosking volunteered and served as a demolition or Engineer as well as a Weapons Sergeant on his A-Team. He was assigned to both Smoke Bomb Hill on Ft. Bragg and to Bad Tolz in Germany. He went to different training programs including language training and spoke Czech, German and Vietnamese.

Hosking served three different tours in Vietnam, in 1963, 1965-66 and his final tour in 1967.

On his final tour in Vietnam, Hosking was a sergeant first class in Company A of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces Regiment. He was assigned to the Mike Force. On an earlier tour, “Snake” Hosking developed such rapport with the civilian CIDG strikers, both Cambodian and Chinese Nung, that many came out of retirement to rejoin the unit with the word that “Snake” was back in-country. He was a legend with the men that Special Forces had trained and led.

On March 21, 1967, he was working as an advisor to a Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) battalion in Ðôn Luân district, Phuoc Long Province, when his unit captured a Viet Cong sniper.

Hosking was preparing the VC prisoner to transport to the A-Team’s base camp, when the man grabbed a hand grenade from Hosking’s belt, armed it, and ran towards the 4-man company command group. That consisted of four men, two American and two South Vietnamese officers.

Hosking tackled the prisoner and held him to the ground, using the VC’s body and his own to shield others from the grenade blast. He knew what that entailed. But in an attempt to save the officers’ lives he gave his own. Both he and the Viet Cong prisoner were killed in the ensuing explosion. Hosking was posthumously promoted to master sergeant and awarded the Medal of Honor for this action in 1969. President Nixon awarded the Medal to Hosking’s son Wesley (of Harrisburg IL) at the White House.

MSG Hosking’s risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in the highest tradition of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country

He was buried in New Jersey and the Police Benevolent Association dedicated a monument to him in 2000 in Veteran’s Park on East Main St. in Ramsey, NJ.

Hosking’s daughter Gail who was just 17 when he died, had a hard time coming to terms with the war that kept her father out of the family’s life for so long and his death. But nearly a quarter of a century later, she wrote a book, “Snake’s Daughter”, in which she finally came to realize what a hero her father was.

-By Steve Balestrieri | March 21, 2018