The Harrington man is one of a dwindling number of WWII veterans who can still tell their story.

Born in 1921, Charles turned 18 in 1939 and joined the Australian Merchant Navy shortly after.

It began a period of service which stretched over the majority of World War II and saw him involved in major theatres of war such as the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Philippines Campaign.

It also included a period stationed at Darwin, where air raids were a daily occurrence.

"They'd come over every day and then start the night bombing," Charlie explained.

"You never got hit but they landed awfully close."

Japanese bombs weren't the only threat to the soldiers' lives, with the local wildlife also a danger.

"There were crocodiles swimming around after the offal after meals," Charlie said about Darwin Harbour.

When a soldier painting the side of a ship fell from the scaffolding, he disappeared into the water below.

"He just didn't surface," Charlie said.

"We don't know what happened to him, whether a crocodile just grabbed him and dragged him down, that's what we surmised."

Charlie's role in the Navy saw him man mounted guns on the decks of the ships fighting the Japanese in the Pacific.

Bombing runs were a constant threat, as were kamikaze planes towards the end of the war.

In 1943 Charlie was discharged medically unfit from the Australian Navy, after being blown down a hatch and peppered with shrapnel.

However Charlie felt he had more to contribute, and rejoined the war effort with the American Navy.

It was a period of service which Charlie enjoyed.

"It wasn't their personalities, it was the money they paid me," Charlie exclaimed.

He was getting paid 100 pounds a month, "fantastic money" which helped him to pay off his parents' house.

It was in 1943 that Charlie also met his future wife Faith.

After two years, the couple decided to get married while Charlie was on a brief break from the Navy.

They married on a Saturday and Charles was back at sea on Monday.

"She was very nearly the youngest war widow in NSW," Charlie said.

The couple celebrated their seventieth anniversary last year.

It was a milestone Charlie admitted he was lucky to get to.

"There was so many close calls, I'm lucky to be here," he said.

"We had bombs drop either side of the ship."

He remembers the heavy workload he was under as part of the American force that liberated the Filipino city of Tacloban Leyte in 1945.

Manning the mounted guns for days on end took their toll as they came under constant aircraft fire.

"You couldn't hear nothing," Charlie said, explaining that concussions were common for soldiers on the guns.

"Your ears used to bleed."

Sleep depriviation was an issue as well, with the soldiers working shifts of four hours on duty, followed by four hours off.

"We were battling just trying to get to sleep, we were half dead.

"It wasn't enough time to get to sleep properly. That was the biggest part that used to worry us, because you were so tired."

In an attempt to steal any rest they could, soldiers would sleep around their guns.

"I don't know how many air raids I went through, I lost count."

Although he doesn't remember being scared, he still carries dark memories from the war.

"You're that occupied with what you're doing, you don't have time to get scared.

"I don't want to talk about the things that I did see. It upsets you, in a way. Even today."

While World War II was a significant chapter in Charlie's life, it is far from the only one.

He remembers well the official opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge on March 19, 1932.

As a member of the Second St Johns Boys Scouts from Cardiff in Newcastle, Charlie was in the front row when Francis De Groot famously rode up on horseback and slashed the opening ribbon.

"I was very close to it when De Groot - the mad man with a sword - slashed the ribbon on the harbour bridge," Charlie said.

"I was no further from here to the front door away."

Young Charlie watched in amazement as the police arrested De Groot and tied up the ribbon again - "there was big knot in it where they tied it" - before the Premier of New South Wales Jack Lang then recut the ribbon.

It was a different time, Charlie acknowleged.

Not long after that Charlie, then 12, rode a brakeless bicycle from La Perouse to Newcastle, recounting how the road between Sydney and Newcastle was all dirt once he crossed over the Hawkesbury Bridge.

"I don't think too many 12 year old kids could do that today," Charlie exclaimed.

Faith and Charlie moved to Harrington in 1982 after long and varied careers.

"I sailed past so many times in the war years and I never knew this place existed. I never thought I'd end up living here," Charlie said of Harrington.

Seventy years on from his service, he has a simple philosophy regarding war.

"In war time, you're just lucky if you come through it and unlucky if you don't," he explained.

"I was one of the lucky ones."

lachlan.leeming@fairfaxmedia.com.au