Legionnaire shares how fallen son's memory is kept alive

On Memorial Day in 2010, U.S. Air Force Maj. Charles A. Ransom spoke at his First Baptist Church in Midlothian, Va., about how the holiday isn’t for outdoor barbeques but to honor veterans who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Less than a year later, Charles, 31, was killed in action in Afghanistan.

“Not a day goes by that we don’t have Charles on our minds. I wake up with him on my mind,” said Willie Ransom, father of Charles and The American Legion’s national sergeant-at-arms and Department of Virginia’s Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Committee chairman. “When you serve in the military you’re serving for a purpose – to serve your country. He served his country and died for his country because he was a patriotic person.”

Upon graduating from high school, which Willie said Charles was voted “most likely to succeed,” he attended Virginia Military Institute (VMI) where he was elected vice president of the Class of 2001. After graduating from VMI, Charles served with the 83rd Network Operations Squadron out of Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. While there, Charles shared with his father, a retired Army master sergeant, that he was going to make a career out of the Air Force.

“He liked the service because I was in the service, his older brother (Stephen) was in the service (Navy, retired in 2011), so he took that same route,” Willie said. “He was a go-getter. He was dedicated to the military. And he was unselfish.”

Willie spoke with personnel that worked for Charles at Langley Air Force Base and said on holidays, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, he would let his servicemembers spend dinner with their families. “He would work in their place. It was really honorable of him to do that,” Willie said. “Charles was an all-around good guy.”

Two years after Charles was killed on April 27, 2011, at Kabul International Airport from an Afghanistan pilot who opened fire, American Legion Post 186 in Midlothian was named in his honor. The post has remained without an honoree since its charter in 1938. Charles was a member of Post 186, which Willie also belongs to, and became the first servicemember of the post to be killed in action.

The naming of the post to Major Charles A. Ransom Post 186 made Willie “feel proud.” A sign with the new post name was donated by the VMI Class of 2001 and hangs on the outside of the post home, while a picture of Charles hangs on a wall inside. And on May 4, a ceremony will be held at his gravesite at Midlothian First Baptist Church where post members will place the American Legion emblem next to his headstone.

Charles was posthumously awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, Purple Heart and Bronze Star. Those medals, among many other items such as his VMI diploma, pictures of him while deployed, U.S. burial flag and even the first living room suite he purchased in 2001, are in a memorial room dedicated to Charles at the home of Willie and Marysue, his mother.

“Once you lose a child like that, and when you lose someone that you really love, and we love both our sons, (the memorial room) is just something that we have to keep him going and his memory alive,” Willie said. “By being in the church like we are, we keep his memory alive when we think about verses in the Bible. We have no problem keeping him alive because he will always be in our hearts No. 1.”

Another way Willie is keeping his son’s memory alive is by being an American Legion service officer at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Va., and working with servicemembers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. “I felt that I could do more than just sit on the side and say, ‘Thank you for your service,’” Willie said. “So I got involved about 10 years ago doing claims for veterans,” including claims for veterans of the Vietnam and Korean war.

“I feel that God gave us all a mission in life to help others so this is my mission on earth now is to help others because I’ve been blessed, retired from the Department of Defense and then the military, so now I’m trying to bless someone else.”