Charles E. Nichols was born and raised on a small farm in Colbert County Alabama to his parents Ollie and Mildred Nichols in the small community of Hatton, a few miles from the small town of Leighton, Alabama. Charlie, as I was called, grew up with his three older sisters. He and his sisters attended school at Hatton elementary and Colbert County High School in Leighton. Though the farm was small, the many work demands never stopped. This included chopping and picking cotton and a multitude of other farm work such as milking cows, feeding the animals and raising and harvesting a large garden. In the summer I had to drive our John Deere tractor as needed to help my Dad cultivate the fields with cotton, corn, wheat and grass for the live stock. In the summer I was called on to help my uncle combine his many wheat fields. Working on the farm with a heavy work load, it convinced me to set my site higher and follow my dreams to the travel and work somewhere that I knew I would be happy doing. After graduating from high school, I would attended Florence State Teachers College near my home, but we could not afford my wish of staying in a dorum there and playing college football.

 Through good advice from my older friends who had been in the military, they convince me to go into the military and possibly attend college after four years in the military. I chose the Air Force and never regretted it. After finishing basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, I was given an assignment in the Strategic Air Command communications center at Carswell AFB in Fort Worth, Texas. Before I could work in the central communications area, a two month back ground investigation had to be conducted before I was awarded my high level security clearance to work in the communication center.

I was assigned to Anderson AFB Guam in the SAC Communication center for my second assignment in 1964. This was a high level important base situated closer to the action in Vietnam. There was always a contentious large traffic flow of military aircraft passing through Guam carrying bombs and live and dead bodies to and from Vietnam. To my advantage, my security clearance had to be upgraded even more for the important Crypto and Top Secret communication traffic I was responsible for handling. The high level clearance paid dividends when I wrote companies to apply for work when I was about to received my discharged from the Air Force. With such a high level security clearance and an honorable discharge, It seem easy to get good job offers as I arrived back home in Alabama. The best offer came from the State Department in Washington. They would fly me to Washington and put me through a series of unusual written and verbal test and physicals. I must have done well on these test, as I was told within a few days that I passed the tests and would be employed as soon as they found an assignment for me. Washington was considered my first assignment. My 13 months there was preceded by my being posted to 10 additional countries over my 30 year career with the State Department from 1966 to 1994.

 After going to Santiago, Chile for my first Overseas assignment with the State Department as a U.S. Diplomat. I met Ms. Betty Fink who worked at Western Electric Company in Baltimore. After we had dated for several months, due to Chilean mirage laws restrictions, we decided to be married by telephone between Washington and Santiago on April 17, 1967. After a couple of years in communication, I managed to change my career cone to General Service and later as an Administrative Officer or Counselor of Administrative. My career proceeded to send us to 13 more Embassy and Consulate assignments in foreign countries.

 I retired at 51 years old but Washington was not finished with me. They ask me if I would come back on a WAE program where I could be called back to do fill in work when needed. I accepted this idea and proceeded to travel to many different countries as directed. I was often chosen to work very closely with the White House staff and resident Ambassadors to handle preparations for the President’s or vice President’s Visit to Summits and to a large embassies.