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NOTE: if you've read Part's I & II already, scroll down for Part III new content as of May 26, 2017.

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“Extraordinary Heroism Under Fire” - That was the headline of a Marin Independent Journal feature on Marin County Fire Chief Charles R. Reilley on May 2, 1959. With thanks to reporter Jane Lowrey from the Marin Independent Journal, some of what follows below is based on her research and interview with him.

We've expanded the story, based upon research from other sources such as old newspapers, government websites, and Wikipedia. This helps place additional context around his history, including the times Charlie lived in, such as fighting in World War I in Europe. 
​
​We welcome any other information or photographs anyone can share about Chief Reilley, or his family.

Biography Part I
By Tom Forster
September 27, 2015

Discovering the history of Charles R. Reilley was one of my favorite ‘finds’ while working on the Marin Fire History project. As of 2015, I had 39 years in the fire service, and had always enjoyed learning about fire service history. Sadly, as a Marin native I had never heard of Charles R. Reilley in all that time. I have now learned much more about this amazing man, including that my grandparents were at his retirement dinner in San Rafael in 1962.  

​Why would most of the leaders of the Marin County Fire Service and many other community leaders totaling over 200 people attend his dinner and pay tribute? Who was this man and what did he do? Let's take a walk through his life and times, from his birth in 1897 to his passing in 1971.

One day in 2013, retired San Rafael Fire Chief Bob Marcucci called and said he had received a shoebox full of family memorabilia about a former Marin County FD Chief named Charles R. Reilley. The box had been passed down through Reilleys’ family, and wound up with Bob courtesy of a neighbor - Reilley’s grandnephew, Dennis Perolini of San Rafael.

We contacted retired Larkspur Fire Chief and Marin Fire History group member William “Bill” Lellis, to ask if he and his wife Janice would be willing to scan the material, to which he agreed. A few weeks later we could all see what had been found. That information, combined with additional research, led to writing this biography on Charles, with Part I focusing on his early life and family, up until he joined the Army. Part II covers his military service, Part III will cover his life after WWI, and eventually getting hired as the Marin County Fire Chief; and Part IV will conclude with the remainder of his career and life up until his death in 1970.

Charles Russell Reilley Jr. was born in Victor, Colorado on January 3rd, 1897, the second of six children born to Charles Sr. and Mary Ellen Reilley. The couple married in 1894, and moved to Victor a short time later, where Charles Sr. would make a living as a miner. Victor was a booming mining town in the southern Rocky Mountains. It was only three years old, founded shortly after gold was discovered nearby. 

The town began in 1891, and was named after the Victor Mine, which may have been named after an early settler, Victor Adams. In 1894, the Woods brothers discovered gold when they began digging the foundation for a building, which resulted in the creation of the "Gold Coin Mine." The gold rush boom then began in earnest in the region. At that time 8,000 people lived in Victor.

Although Victor's fame was overshadowed by that of its neighbor, Cripple Creek, many of the best gold mines of the Cripple Creek district were located at Victor, including "Stratton’s Independence Mine and Mill", and the "Portland Mine." Half of Battle Mountain's gold was extracted by the Portland Mine, which was called the “Queen of the District." 

Miners lived a rough life unless they hit it rich, with many living in tent cities, or houses made with a wooden frame covered in sacking and coated with a form of cement. Families of ten and more often lived in houses no bigger than a small bedroom of today, and were very lucky if they had a wooden floor. While we don’t know for sure, this was probably the only type of housing available to the Reilley family.

Most miners worked twelve-hour shifts, despite the difficult and always exhausting labor. Management rarely thought shorter hours would save lives. Two twelve-hour shifts seemed reasonable and economical to mine operators, who more often than not required the miners to pay to board at the mine facilities. A twelve-hour shift allowed those boarding houses to use one bed per every two miners, since one could sleep while the other was working. Boarding house meals were generally the bare minimum of food available, and the miners were charged for them, whether they liked the food or not. 

Management not only made miners pay for their bed and board, but they made them pay for their equipment, the candles they used, the dynamite, and even for sharpening tools that belonged to the company.
Many a miner could wind up at the end of the month having little left of his paycheck after all was deducted. 

Single miners working for companies often had bunkhouses to live in, and sometimes several families would share the bunkhouses. These conditions were harsh, but city slums at that time were often worse.
The women mostly slept indoors, and the men on the porch when the weather allowed, if they had one.
Once mining towns established themselves, the housing often was improved, but they could become ghost towns overnight if the minerals being mined ran out. Miners were therefore not inclined to put a lot of resources into better housing. 

As the mines were dug deeper, they became more dangerous, and the work more difficult, creating conditions for owner and labor conflict. A few years later, the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) began to organize workers in a fight for shorter workdays and standard wages. The workforce became heavily unionized after the Western Federation of Miners conducted a strike in 1894. 

In August 1899, the entire Victor business district was destroyed in a five-hour fire. The town had about 18,000 residents at the time. This was not an uncommon occurrence in the towns of the time - wooden buildings without any sort of fire prevention improvements often caught fire and burned down.

A second mining labor strike in 1903 had such an impact that it came to be called the Colorado Labor Wars. At this point, the amount of available ore to mine had declined significantly, and mining was further slowed as the result of the violent strikes. The Colorado Labor Wars involved a struggle between the WFM and the mine operators, particularly the Cripple Creek Mine Owners’ Association (CCMOA), during the period from 1903 to 1904. 

Like so many other fights between the miners and the owners of the mines, this was a brutal and bloody period. The Colorado National Guard, often informally called the militia, also met a nearly simultaneous strike in Colorado’s northern and southern coalfields with a military response. The state government, with one exception, sided with the mine operators in these battles. Additional participants in Colorado's labor struggles included private contractors such as the Pinkertons, the Baldwin Felts, and Thiel detective agencies, various labor entities, and employers' organizations.

Two scholars who studied American labor violence concluded, "There is no episode in American labor history in which violence was as systematically used by employers as in the Colorado Labor War of 1903 and 1904." The WFM’s Union Hall in Victor still stands today, with telltale bullet holes left intact. One of the primary aims of the union movement was to have an eight-hour workday for miners.

In the middle of all of the labor conflicts, future world heavyweight boxing champion William Harrison “Jack” Dempsey worked as a “mucker” in the Portland Mine in Victor. Dempsey practiced in the Victor Firehouse, and a few years later would practice in Nevada with the young lightweight boxer Charles Reilley, Jr.

Born William Harrison Dempsey in Manassa, Colorado, he grew up in a poor family in Colorado, West Virginia, and Utah. The son of Mary Celia (née Smoot) and Hiram Dempsey, his family's lineage consisted of Irish, Cherokee, and Jewish ancestry. Because his father had difficulty finding work, the family traveled often, and Dempsey dropped out of elementary school to work. He left home at the age of sixteen. Due to having little money, he frequently traveled underneath in the carriage of train cars, and slept in hobo camps. 

Desperate for money, Dempsey would occasionally visit saloons and challenge others for fights, saying, "I can't sing and I can't dance, but I can lick any son of a bitch in the house." If anyone accepted the challenge, bets would be made. According to Dempsey's autobiography, he rarely lost these barroom brawls. 

Because he occasionally fought under the pseudonym "Kid Blackie" until 1916, Dempsey's complete boxing record is not known. It is believed he had at least 83 fights, with 65 wins, of which 51 were by knockouts. He had eleven draws, only six losses, and one no contest.

Like Dempsey, Charles Reilley, Sr. also worked as a mucker. Muckers basically cleaned up the debris from mining, shoveling broken ore or waste rock into orecars or orebuckets. Retired Larkspur Chief Bill Lellis, once an avid ice hockey player, would tell you that in hockey a Mucker is synonymous with a Grinder, describing a player who is tough and hardworking, with a willingness to "do the dirty work" and "dig out the puck". The descriptions are often used together, as in "He's a Mucker and Grinder."

Following the brutality and violence of the 1903 Colorado Labor Wars and the loss of three of their children to diptheria, the Reilley family moved away and settled in the mining town of Goldfield, Nevada. Diphtheria back then was a major cause of illness and death among children. The disease was given its official name in 1826 by French physician Pierre Bretonneau, who called it diphtérite. 

The origin was the Greek word for “leather” or “hide,” describing the coating that appeared in the throat. Complications of diphtheria included heart rhythm problems, sepsis, organ damage, and breathing issues that were often severe enough to cause death.
There was no effective immunization until the 1920s. Diphtheria rates dropped dramatically in the United States and other countries after widespread vaccination. 

Charles Reilley, Sr. started work in the Goldfield Mines in 1904. Gold had been discovered there in 1902, the year the town was founded. By 1904 the Goldfield district produced about 800 tons of ore, valued at $2,300,000, 30% of the state's production that year. This remarkable production caused Goldfield to grow rapidly, and it soon became the largest town in the state with about 20,000 people.

Sadly, Charles Reilley Sr. passed away the following year. Then another Reilley child was also lost to Typhoid Fever, leaving only Charles Jr., his younger brother William, and his mother Mary Ellen. Charles had to become ‘the man of the family,’ while only nine years old.

​With his father and three siblings now dead, a very young Charles Reilley started delivering newspapers after school to help support his family. He had hoped to play baseball during his school days, but remarked he “…neither had time nor opportunity.” 

Meanwhile, labor disputes continued in Goldfield. In December 1907, Nevada Governor Sparks, at the insistence of the mine owners, appealed to President Theodore Roosevelt to send Federal troops to Goldfield, on the ground that the situation there was ominous, that destruction of life and property seemed probable, and that the state had no militia and would be powerless to maintain order.

President Roosevelt on December 4th, 1907, ordered General Frederick Funston, then commanding the Division of California, at San Francisco in the Presidio, to proceed with 300 Federal troops to Goldfield. The troops arrived there on December 6th, and immediately afterwards the mine-owners reduced wages and announced that no members of the Western Federation of Miners would thereafter be employed in the mines. 

By the 1910 Census, the population of Goldfield had declined to 4,838. Part of the problem was the increasing cost of pumping brine out of the diggings, making them uneconomic. By 1912, ore production had dropped to $5 million and the largest mining company left town in 1919. 

A few years later, Charles Jr. had to leave school at fifteen years old to earn more money to support the family. He started an electrician’s apprenticeship program in Nevada, and earned two dollars a day, all of which “…went into the family treasury.”

No doubt influenced by Jack Dempsey and the popularity of boxing back then, in his teens Charles developed a very strong desire to become a professional boxer. Boxing as a lightweight, he tried to “make a little money” when he was 19, “…but I didn’t have anything left by the time I paid the Doctor…”, Charles said with a laugh to reporter Lowrey.

After completing the Electrician’s apprenticeship in four years, he worked for the Vanadium Corporation of Colorado, a firm that mined and processed uranium. The Uravan mineral belt of Colorado and Utah supplied about half the world's radium from 1910 to 1922, and vanadium and uranium were byproducts. Madame Curie used the region's radium for her pioneering medical research in the early 1900’s. Later, the Manhattan Project scientists would use the region's uranium in the atomic weapons that ended the war with Japan in World War II. 

Meanwhile, by 1915, Americans were paying much more attention to the brutal war in Europe. The sinking of the British cruise liner Lusitania and the loss of 1,198 people including 118 Americans led to a new "Preparedness" movement in the eastern United States. This helped lead to a change in the sentiment about going to war against Germany. 

In the spring of 1916, 12,000 American troops were sent over the Mexican border to pursue Pancho Villa, after he led a raid on Columbus, New Mexico. Also in 1916, unrelated to the war, the National Park Service, Boy Scouts, and beginning of what would become the Cub Scouts were formed; the toggle light switch was invented, Norman Rockwell’s first Saturday Evening Post cover artwork was published, and the Chicago Cubs played their very first game as a team.

But the war of course was the major event impacting millions of people across the world, and it was about to change Charles R. Reilley Jr.s' life in a big way. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917, and was sent to Camp Lewis in Washington State for boot camp and training. 

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PART II -
Charlie Goes to War, The Story of Chief Charles R. Reilley, Marin County Fire Department, continued:
by Tom Forster
August 7, 2016

World War I began in 1914, but America did not join the fight until April 6th, 1917. Many Americans were not in favor of the U.S. entering the war, preferring the country remain neutral. A series of events over the next three years led to the decision to fight, including one with an interesting local connection to Marin and Sonoma counties.  
 
On January 19th, 1917, British naval intelligence intercepted and decrypted a telegram sent by German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German Ambassador in Mexico City. The message promised that Germany would help Mexico recover the territory it had ceded to the United States following the Mexican-American War, in return for Mexican support in the war.
 
The territory that had been lost or sold as a result of the Mexican-American War in 1846-1848 included “Alta California”. Marin and Sonoma Counties were in the upper northwest corner of this Mexican territory (see graphic.) Mission San Francisco Solano, located in what today is the Town of Sonoma, was the 21st, last and northernmost mission built in Alta California. Mission San Rafael had been built in 1817.
 
The Sonoma Mission was the only one built in Alta California after Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821. The Alta California Governor wanted a robust Mexican presence north of the Bay, to keep the Russians from moving further inland, after they had established Fort Ross in Sonoma County on the Pacific coast.
Two years after the Mexican-American War of 1846-48 was over, and the Alta California territory was ceded, California joined the Union as the 31st state.
 
Other causes of America’s entry into “The War to End All Wars” included Germany’s violation of the Sussex Pledge, a promise made in 1916 to the United States. After a year of unrestricted submarine warfare on merchant ships, Germany had agreed to give adequate warning before sinking merchant and passenger ships, and to provide for the safety of passengers and crew. The pledge was upheld until February 1917, when unrestricted submarine warfare was resumed.
 
After German submarines attacked several American merchant ships, sinking three, President Wilson requested that Congress declare war on Germany, which it did on April 6th, 1917. These causes and many others resulted in approval to join the allies that included Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and Japan in the fight against Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Charles R. Reilley Jr. (Charlie) enlisted in the U.S. Army in Jungo, Nevada in the spring of 1917. Jungo was located in Humboldt County, Nevada, between Winnemuca, and Sulpher, Nevada. The town was named for Jungo Point, a surveyed mountain peak located eleven miles away.
In 1888, the town was a stage stop on a mail route, and later a station on the Feather River Route of the Western Pacific Railroad. At it’s peak, Jungo offered a hotel, general store, filling station, post office, and blacksmith's shop, mostly in support of mining. Jungo was also called "Jumbo Town" after the local mine, and this is what Charlie listed as home on his draft registration card.

After enlisting, he was sent to boot camp at the new Camp Lewis in Washington state, later to be named Fort Lewis. The name honored Captain Meriwether Lewis, the commander of the 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark expedition. Camp Lewis was part of the 1917 national military camp building program, the largest public works project in America since the Panama Canal.

A race against time was underway, to quickly prepare American troops to fight. The Army had only about 100,000 regular soldiers in 1917, and needed hundreds of thousands more to fight in France. The enlisted men for Camp Lewis were mostly draftees from eight states: Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and the Alaskan Territory.
An effort was made to keep the men from each state together. All men would have to be processed, clothed, armed, and trained in a relatively short period of time.
 
Sixteen camps for the National Army (consisting of drafted men), with wood-frame construction, would be built in various locations around the country, including Camp Lewis. In only 90 days, a city of 757 buildings and 422 other structures was built in Washington, with everything lighted and heated to house 60,000 men.
The first recruits moved into their new barracks on September 5th, 1917, exactly two months after the plans had been handed to the contractors. 37,000 officers, cadre, garrison, and trainees were on the post by the end of December. Camp Lewis was the largest military base in America at the time.
 
The barracks buildings for lodging the troops were two-stories, with a mess hall and kitchen on the first floor. Heat in the barracks came from coal stoves, while the officer’s quarters were steam heated, with boilers in each building. Latrine and shower buildings were placed in between the barracks. The hospital structures had better quality materials, and also received steam heat from a central plant.  
 
The 91st Division Army recruits like Charlie learned close drill with endless marching, studied military traditions, and practiced bayonet and hand-to-hand combat.
The soldiers practiced shooting at rifle and machine gun ranges, had mock battles in trenches, and experienced chemical gas attacks in special rooms. The 91st was nicknamed the "Wild West Division." This nickname referred to the many former cowboys who were now soldiers, and the overall western influence given the regions they came from. 

The young recruits, however they were trained, were very inexperienced in life, let alone in fighting a war overseas. Historian Byron Farwell described many of the new Army recruits as “...ill-educated and unsophisticated...,” with “...no conception of the size and diversity of the world.” Many could not read or write, and some did not speak much English.

How wars were fought at the time had changed dramatically. Many Army veterans of the era had served in conflicts in the Philippines and the Spanish-American War. General Pershing, for example, had recently led the difficult mission to capture Pancho Villa in Mexico. 
The concepts of trench warfare, coordinating attacks with artillery fire, working with aircraft, and the challenges of modern command and control were all new concepts to the Army in 1917.  

The environment in Western Washington State also provided the 91st Division soldiers with many challenges. In March, Charles Burton, a Soldier in Headquarters Company, 364th Infantry wrote home: "It has been snowing and raining for the last week. It will snow an inch or two, then rain for an hour or so and melt it all off, then repeat the performance. It is the funniest weather I have ever seen. I wish it would get dry in this country sometime. I think this would be a good country to live in if it would dry off and stay that way for a while." 

​While the weather was not popular with the recruits, it was in fact a very realistic training environment for what they would soon face in France. The army also believed that sports contributed to a soldier’s well-being, and would help prepare them for battle. Boxing was very popular at that time, with former world lightweight champion Willie Ritchie (real name Gerhardt Steffen) serving as a camp boxing instructor. Baseball and football teams were formed, sometimes including professional players who had been drafted or enlisted.
 
The National Progressive Movement had a powerful influence in the Army. The war mobilization for this conservative group created an opportunity to make men “more moral.” President Woodrow Wilson also created a Commission on Training Camp Activities (CTCA) to create camp and community recreation. The CTCA directive included the elimination of "alcohol and vice" and instead championed healthy recreation.
 
As an alternative to what the Army viewed as attracting off-duty soldiers to the “dens of vice” in nearby Seattle, the Camp Lewis Amusement Company was formed to design and build a recreation center with theatres, restaurants, billiard halls, ice cream parlors, tailors, and a bank.

Charlie underwent training at Camp Lewis to become an Army engineer, most likely due to his previous training as an electrician. He eventually became a Sergeant in the 316th Combat Engineers, a unit of the 91st Division.
The following description of what an Army Engineer did comes from a recruiting brochure at that time:
 
“The engineer often receives a part of his training in civil life. He must, however, also have specialized knowledge for Army service. He solves problems of camp location and drainage; constructs cover for the men in the trenches; erects field fortifications; creates obstructions for the enemy and clears them away for his own division; builds railroads, bridges and repairs roads, does all pioneering work, and, in short, actually performs and superintends all construction plans of all the army. Army engineers built the Panama Canal.”

In August 1917, the War Department issued a manual titled "Infantry Training", outlining training guidance for all divisions in the United States. The plan outlined sixteen weeks of drill and training concentrated at the individual, squad, and company levels. Upon successful completion of the first sixteen weeks, units were supposed to progress to battalion and higher level exercises.

Although the manual briefly mentioned open warfare, it stressed that “training for trench warfare is of paramount importance,” requiring each Fort to build a system of trenches for training. This more defensive focus caused a debate on how to properly train and focus the modern American Army.

​General Pershing wanted training to focus on the basics of the infantry: the rifle and the bayonet. He also advocated for training on open warfare tactics as opposed to the defensive, trench warfare mindset. 
He was able over time to influence a change in the philosophy, and in January 1918, the Army general staff issued another manual titled "The Training and Employment of Divisions, 1918."

The first line of the manual stated “All training behind the line must be specially directed towards offensive action.” 
This regulation stressed three types of warfare that soldiers must train for: 1) the initial attack against well-organized and long established positions, 2) attacks against improvised defenses following successful assaults on the original main positions, and finally, 3) “open warfare.” 

Five months after the United States had declared war, the original 91st Infantry Division was activated. They had trained with the battle cry of: "Powder River! Let'er Buck!" from September 5th, 1917 until shipping out, in June 1918, for France. After departing Camp Lewis, the Division, 27,000 strong, was examined and re-outfitted at the staging area, Camp Merritt in New Jersey, and sailed for France in early July, 1918. After four years of a bloody fighting along the Western Front, the entrance of America’s forces into the war marked a major turning point.

America’s "doughboys" like Charlie traveled on troop ships to France. These ships were often crowded and uncomfortable, with bunks stacked several layers high, and men and equipment crammed into tiny spaces.
The soldiers came up on deck only once or twice a day, usually for exercise or a lifeboat drill. Many had never been to sea before, and often became sick from the pitching and rolling of the ship - one can imagine the cumulative mess and smells.
 
The troop ships sailed in convoys, with groups of twenty-five or thirty camouflaged vessels, protected by the U.S. Navy. The convoys regularly zigzagged through the water, making them more difficult targets for German submarines. The tactics worked, with only a few American troop ships sunk during the war.

The origin of the term “doughboys” is not clear. 
Historians note it was in use as early as the 1840s. 
One explanation was that "doughboys" was first used during the Mexican–American War, after U.S. infantry forces were usually covered with chalky dust from marching across dry terrain in northern Mexico, giving them the look of unbaked dough. Another possibility of many was that doughboys were so named because of their method of cooking field rations of the 1840's and 1850's, baking doughy flour and rice biscuits in campfires.

By August 1st, the 91st Infantry Brigades had gathered at Montigny le Roi in France, and the Artillery Brigade at Camp de Souge and Clermont-Ferrand. The American soldiers then underwent a month of constant drilling, with long hours of marching, until they were declared ready for actual combat. On August 29th, Major General William Johnston assumed command of the Division, and a few days later, on September 7th, the 91st was assigned to the reserve of the First American Army during the St. Mihiel offensive.

As United States forces became engaged in the battles in France, Army doctrine continued to shift further towards open warfare, mainly due to the influence from General Pershing. In October 1918, the War Department issued Training Circular No. 12 titled "Combined Training of a Division." This pamphlet continued the push for open warfare tactics and included a discussion on extended order formations, or flexible formations with smaller units, and increased distance between troops.

​The Allied forces, now reinforced with the American troops, began pushing back the German army after a long period of stalemate. At St. Mihiel, General Pershing, commanding the U.S. First Army, launched a massive American offensive and recaptured the city. From there the American troops moved to an area between the Meuse River and the Argonne Forest. It was here that over 300,000 troops, including the 91st Division, mounted one of the final offensives of the war. 

Before covering that battle, here is a quick review of the fighting environment that soldiers were dealing with.
The Americans would help end the war by moving away from what was a stalemate after several years of trench warfare, the use of poison gas, and constant shelling. Technological developments in engineering, metallurgy, chemistry, and optics had produced weapons deadlier than ever. 

As General Pershing intended, the open warfare doctrine required troops get out of the trenches and move forward to meet the enemy. To do so successfully, they had to cut through rows of barbed wire and other barriers before using their rifles, pistols, bayonets, and hand grenades to capture enemy positions. Improvements in technology included tanks, machine guns, and aircraft, and improved coordination of artillery fire helped make the advances possible.

Small victories usually meant only a few hundred yards of gain, with many casualties and lives lost. Wounded men often laid in filthy conditions in dirt or mud, with open wounds, until death occurred. Those who survived and were evacuated still dealt with terrible sanitary conditions before proper medical care occurred. Between the troop offensive attacks, they were targeted by enemy snipers, pounded with artillery shells, or bombed with poison gas.
 
Airplanes had been rapidly improved, with the now light and highly maneuverable planes attacking each other aggressively, in what became known as "dogfights."
Pilots who were shot down often died, typically trapped in falling, burning planes, with no parachutes. Germany also used a fleet of huge dirigibles, or zeppelins, and large bomber planes to drop bombs on British and French cities. Britain retaliated by bombing German cities.
 
Back on the ground, the tank proved to be one answer to breaking out of trench warfare. This British invention used American-designed caterpillar tracks to move an armored vehicle equipped with machine guns and sometimes light cannon. The early tanks worked well on firm, dry ground, but had slow speed, regular mechanical problems, and were vulnerable to artillery fire.
Tanks often moved forward through machine gun fire, barbed wire, and across trenches, and were usually unstoppable by most of the existing weapons.
 
Chemical warfare had first appeared when the Germans used poison gas during a surprise attack in Flanders, Belgium, in 1915. At first, gas was just released from large cylinders and carried by the wind into nearby enemy lines. Later, phosgene and other gases were loaded into artillery shells and shot into enemy trenches. The Germans used this weapon the most, realizing that enemy soldiers wearing gas masks did not fight as well. All sides used gas frequently by 1918. The use of gas was a scary development that caused victims a great deal of suffering, and often death.
 
Both sides used a variety of big guns on the western front, ranging from huge naval guns taken off ships and mounted on railroad cars, to short-range trench mortars. The result was a war in which soldiers near the front were seldom safe from artillery bombardment. The Germans used super–long-range artillery to shell Paris from almost eighty miles away. Constant artillery shell blasts created vast, cratered, moonlike landscapes where beautiful meadows and woods once stood.
 
Perhaps the most significant technological advance during World War I was the improvement of the machine gun, a weapon originally developed by American Hiram Maxim. The Germans recognized its military potential and had manufactured large numbers that were ready to use in 1914. They also developed air-cooled machine guns for airplanes, and improved those used on the ground during the war, making them lighter and easier to move. The weapon’s full potential was demonstrated on the Somme battlefield in July 1916, when German machine guns killed or wounded almost 60,000 British soldiers in only one day.
 
At sea, submarines attacked ships far from home ports. In order to locate and sink German U-boats, British scientists developed underwater listening devices, and underwater explosives called depth charges. Warships became faster and more powerful than ever before, and used newly invented two-way radios to communicate.
The British naval blockade of Germany, which was made possible by developments in naval technology, really brought the war home to the German civilians.
The blockade caused a famine that finally brought about the collapse of Germany and its allies. Starvation and malnutrition continued to take the lives of German adults and children for years after the war.

Now back to the Meuse-Argonne battle, where the 91st Division, including Charlie, was fighting. They had gathered for the offensive on the west bank of the Meuse River. Leaping off, the Division quickly broke through two German lines and penetrated a third, advancing about five miles. The enemy was driven from the strong point towns of Very, Epinonville, Gesnes, Eclis-fontaine, and Tronsol Farm. General George J. Cameron, Commanding General, Fifth Corps, paid high tribute to the Division in an order to General Johnston:
​
"At a time when the divisions on its flanks were faltering, and even falling back, the 91st pushed ahead and steadfastly clung to every yard gained. In its initial performance, your Division has established itself firmly in the list of the Commander-in-Chief's reliable units. Please extend to your officers and men my appreciation of their splendid behavior and my hearty congratulations on the brilliant record they have made."
 
Despite the fact that this offensive was the Division's first full-scale entrance into combat, it captured more artillery, machine guns, and prisoners, and advanced a greater distance under fire than many Divisions that had much more combat experience. 
 
On October 16th, the 91st Division, along with the 37th Division, was named as part of the armies in Flanders, which, under King Albert, were about to launch the final crushing drive of the enemy in Belgium. The 91st attacked the Germans in the early morning of October 31st. Although the enemy had been ordered to hold the heights between the Lys and the Escaut Rivers to the death, the 91st broke through the defenses on the very first day, and by the evening of November 1st, they were on the outskirts of the town of Audenarde.

On that day Charlie's heroism was exceptional, and he was later recognized with the Distinguished Service Cross. First for "repeated acts of extraordinary heroism" in action at Audenarde, Belgium, on November 1st, and later on November 10th. His rank at that time was Sergeant First Class in Company F, 316th Engineers. 

On November 1st, Sgt. Reilley "...voluntarily accompanied a patrol into the city of Audenarde, when it was still occupied by the enemy, obtaining important data on destroyed bridges, and attacking an enemy patrol three times their number. He also captured a German spy, while the latter was attempting an escape. On the same day, he forced a sniper to cover, thus saving the life of his captain, who was about to be fired upon."

On November 2nd the town was secured, and the Division pushed on to capture Welden, Petegem, and Kasteelwijk in rapid succession. On November 10th, Charlie "...swam the Escaut River, braving the fire of enemy snipers on the opposite bank, and tied a rope to an enemy barrel bridge, thereby making a cross-over for the infantry..."
​
Also on the morning of November 10th, with the 182nd Infantry Brigade in the lead, the 91st Division crossed the Scheldt River near Eyne. They drove forward through town after town, and had advanced beyond Moldergem when the order came to cease firing. In recognition of the superb courage and fighting ability the 91st Division had shown, Major General Jean De Goutte, who had resumed command of the Sixth French Army, issued an order which read, in part:
 
“I have found the same spirit of duty and discipline freely given in the 37th and 91st Divisions, United States Army, which brings  about valiant soldiers and victorious armies. Glory to such troops and to such commanders. They have bravely contributed to the liberation of a part of Belgian territory and to final victory. The great nation to which they belong can be proud of them."

The 91st Division had an outstanding record overall, capturing 2,300 German prisoners, 400 machine guns, and a large number of field guns and tanks. This came with a loss of 1,100 killed in action or missing.  Five division soldiers earned America’s highest honor, the Medal of Honor. Many more like Charlie were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the next highest honor bestowed.
 
By that time, widespread revolution at home was sapping the strength of the German army, and their soldiers had begun to desert in droves. Finally, after more than four years of a nasty war, the Armistice was signed on a railway car in a French forest, "at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month," also known as 11:00am on November 11th, 1918, on a railway car in a French forest. 

The Armistice was an agreement to end the war, also known as the Armistice of Compiègne, named after the location in which it was signed. It was a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not formally a surrender. The war was not officially over until the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The Allied Powers of America, Great Britain, Japan, Italy, Russia, France, Belgium, Serbia and Montenegro had been victorious. 

Overall, more than two million American soldiers had served on the battlefields in Europe, and roughly 50,000 had died. It was quite an accomplishment for a country with only about 120,000 men in the entire army two years prior. Another 63,114 servicemen died of disease, many of them during the influenza pandemic that started towards the end of the war. Compared to the American Civil War or World War II, the losses in World War I may seem relatively small. However, the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) only actively fought for about eight months. Therefore, the rate of attrition and deaths during this time was the same as W.W. II.
 
The new fighting technology had also made the war more terrible and complicated than ever before. The United States and all other countries involved felt the effects of the war for many years afterwards. For example, France was badly damaged, with 1.4 million men killed, not counting other casualties. In addition, the major flu epidemic that started in Western Europe late in the war killed millions of people in Europe, and then spread elsewhere around the world.

On January 2nd, 1919, the first group of American soldiers sailed for home. Charlie spoke French with some fluency, and was asked to serve as a "Billeting Officer", seeking lodging for troops and officers entering France from Belgium. Division Headquarters was the last to leave France, sailing on April 6th. The final demobilization of the 91st Division was completed at camps in California, Washington, and Wyoming by May 14th, 1919. In Charlie's case, he was not discharged from the Army until October, 1919.

The World War I Audenarde American Monument is located in the town in Belgium (also known as Oudenaarde). The monument is made of golden-yellow limestone, bearing the shield of the United States flanked by two stone eagles, standing at the end of a small park. It commemorates the service and sacrifice of the 40,000 American troops who fought there as units attached to the Group of Armies commanded by the King of Belgium.

The inscription on the Audenarde Monument reads: "Erected by the United States of America to commemorate the services of American troops who fought in this vicinity October 30th – November 11th, 1918." ​American casualties from fighting in this region are buried at the Flanders Field American Cemetery in Waregem, located ten miles to the west.

In addition to his award of the Distinguished Service Cross, The French awarded Charlie and his division the French Croix De Guerre, and Belgium awarded the division the Belgium War Cross. He also received the World War I Victory Medal, with three Campaign bars attached, for the: Ypres-Lys, Meuse-Argonne and the Defensive Sectors.

Following this terrible war, Charlie shared that he could no longer hunt or kill anything. "My background won't allow me to hunt," he said, "...to kill is to kill, I have nothing against the sport, I just can't."

​Footnote: In 1969, the year before Charlie died, local newspapers noted that fellow soldier Charles Buehn of Novato visited at Reilley's home on a Sunday, 51 years after the war. Mr. Buehn was a member of the 316th Engineers ammunition train in World War I, and had stood on the bank of the Escaut River while Charley swam across under machine gun fire.

Coming in Part III - Charlie returns from the war and restarts his career. 

Marin County Fire Chief Charles R. Reilley in the dispatch room at Woodacre in 1959.

Victor, Colorado, circa 1900.

Originally the Fire House in Victor, Colorado where Jack Dempsey practiced, today this is used as Victor Town Hall.

A miners shack made out of bottles, in Goldfield, Nevada.

The WFM Logo, following their organization in 1893.

Gold miners at work inside a shaft in Goldfield, Nevada.

Striking miners in Victor being guarded by the Militia.

Striking miners being forced and deported across the state line.

A young Jack Dempsey.

A drilling contest held in Goldfield, Nevada.

While these are not gravestones of the Reilley children who died, they do illustrate the common loss of children at very young ages to diseases such as diphtheria

Gold miners in front of a mining head frame in Goldfield, Nevada.

Charles R. Reilley Jr. as a young man.

Pancho Villa

Camp Lewis, later named Fort Lewis, in Washington State, where a young Charles Reilley Jr. went to what we would know today as boot camp.

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A graphic showing the Mexican territory of Alta California prior to the Mexican-American War of 1846-48.

The coded and fateful Zimmerman Telegram.

President Woodrow Wilson.

The Jungo, or Jumbo Town Hotel, where Charlie probably enlisted.

Men enlisting in the Army in New York City.

Road grading and construction in 1917 at Camp Lewis.

The Fire House at Camp Lewis.

An aerial view of Camp Lewis.

Charlie's Unit, the 316th Engineers, Company D, at Camp Lewis. Charlie served in Company F.

Soldiers from Utah at Camp Lewis, part of the Wild West Division.

The supporter of the shield is a bald eagle with its wings outstretched. From the eagle's perspective, it holds a bundle of 13 arrows in its left talon, (referring to the 13 original states), and an olive branch in its right talon, together symbolizing that the United States has "a strong desire for peace, but will always be ready for war."

The "Great Seal of the United States" is a bald eagle with its wings outstretched. From the eagle's perspective, it holds a bundle of 13 arrows in its left talon, (referring to the 13 original states), and an olive branch in its right talon, together symbolizing that the United States has "a strong desire for peace, but will always be ready for war."

Thirteen uniformed U.S. Army soldiers from Companys B.C. & E. of Charlie's 316th Engineers, posing around the entrance to a dugout observation post at Camp Lewis, WA, on Apr. 24, 1918. Some of the men wear overalls, some hold picks and sledge hammers, and one holds a pipe in his hand. Photographer Marvin D. Boland.

John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948) was the general in the United States Army who led the American Expeditionary Forces to victory over Germany in World War I, 1917–18. Based at the Presidio, most of his family perished in a fire in their home on the base in August of 1915. We will feature this tragic fire on our site soon.

American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) troops boarding a ship for transport to Europe in WW I.

Technological advances such as tanks, machine guns, airplanes, and the use of poison gas made World War I a very nasty battle.

Trench construction diagram 1914.

Climbing out of the trenches and going 'over the top' to attack.

AEF troops firing a machine gun.

An AEF soldier in full gas mask regalia.

AEF troops attack in the battle for St. Mehiel.

Devastated landscapes were widespread across Europe after several years of fighting.

French Major General Jean Degoutte, who recognized the outstanding fighting by the 91st Division.

The Allied representatives at the signing of the armistice. Ferdinand Foch, second from right, seen outside his railway carriage No. 2419 D in the forest of Compiègne.

The Audenarde Monument.

A huge parade of American Expeditionary Forces in Washington, DC in September, 1919 celebrating the end of the war and victory.

*** See the slide show below for the actual Distinguished Service Cross documents for Charles Reilley, and more photos on World War I. ***

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Part III: 
Charlie Reilley Promotes to Marin County Fire Chief

by Tom Forster
May, 2017 

When Charlie Reilley returned from World War I, he first went back to Nevada, where his mother still lived.
He later moved to California, where he met his future wife Alice Fountain, while she was working in a department store in San Francisco. They were married on St. Patrick's Day in 1923, and moved to Marin County in 1925, settling down in Point Reyes. Alice was originally from Louisiana, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. John Fountain of Keatchie, a small rural town near Shreveport. Charlie then went to work as an electrician for the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in Point Reyes  for roughly 20 years.

The roots of the RCA operation in Point Reyes began with the arrival of Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi in America in 1899. Born in Bologna, Italy, in 1874, he was an inventor credited with the foundational work for all future radio communications, later receiving the Nobel Prize for physics. Marconi first began experimenting with Electromagnetic Waves (Radio Waves) in 1894. His first success in sending and receiving Morse code without the use of wires happened in his parents attic, initially transmitting across the room. 

Three years later, Marconi had increased the transmission distance to 15 miles, and had proven that man-made and natural obstacles did not interfere with the radio waves. Soon after arriving in the U.S., he established the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, a commercial radio business, aided by a series of successful patent lawsuits against his competitors. 
He transmitted radio signals across the Atlantic in 1907. This accomplishment eventually gave America and Europe regular wireless, commercial communications, and eventually was used on a much wider scale worldwide.

In 1909, Marconi was awarded the Noble Prize for Physics, jointly with Karl Ferdinand Braun, "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy." Three years later he would be credited by the British with helping save the 712 survivors of the Titanic disaster due to the new radio system. The U.S. government, however, felt the opposite. In their view, the limitations and patent driven control of Marconi's system contributed to the loss of life on that dark night.
​This became the start of what would eventually become a takeover of his company in America.

By 1912, Marconi had aquired, through a lawsuit and merger, over 70 land-based radio stations and more than 500 ship-board installations. One was Station KPH, San Francisco’s first radio station. In order to achieve a powerful enough signal to cross the Pacific Ocean, a new, stronger station was built on the Marin County Coastline. All of Marconi’s transoceanic radio stations were “duplex”, or geographically separated complexes for transmitting and receiving. The geographic separation was necessary since the noise of transmission obstructed clear reception. By 1914, Marin had a new transmitting station in Bolinas overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and a new receiving station in Marshall, on the hill overlooking Tomales Bay.
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These two locations formed the "KPH" Pacific Rim radio station, and were the foundation for the most successful and powerful ship-to-shore communications of that era. KPH also broadcast news, weather and other general information to the shipping community, including relaying business and personal messages to and from ships. Station operators monitored the international distress frequencies for calls from ships in trouble. The business became a big success.

However, World War I and the recognition of the strategic importance of radio communication led to the U.S. government securing control over the business. In 1920, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) was formed, after buying the holdings of the American Marconi Company. RCA soon sold the majority of undeveloped land at the Marshall site, retaining only 62.7 acres surrounding the station buildings.

After being hired by RCA, Charlie's initial career after the Army would be spent supporting the operations in Bolinas, Marshall, and Point Reyes. In 1923, Marconi developed a short-wave beam system. This was used for more effective long distance communication, and for guiding ships safely into port even in dense fog. The operation at Marshall (which was a long-wave station) was relocated across Tomales Bay to the Point Reyes Peninsula for better short-wave reception.

The Marshall station, which is now a State Historic Park, was replaced by a new Art Deco-designed facility located on "G" ranch, near what is known today as North Beach in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. With the decline of Morse code, and improved ship and satellite technology, the station was retired in the late 1990s. The combination of the transmitting (Bolinas) and receiving station (Point Reyes) may be the last intact Marconi-era coast stations in North America.

In the early 1930's, Charlie Reilley became a member of the Point Reyes Volunteer Fire Department, and he later also joined the neighboring Olema Volunteer Volunteer FD. Both worked closely with the Tamalpais Forest Fire District Wardens, one of whom was based in Point Reyes. The TFFD was a small but proud organization that began in 1917, primarily designed to protect the wildland areas in Marin. 

TFFD employed fire wardens, often responding alone out of their home with their own personal pickup truck, for relatively low pay and some reimbursement of expenses. The 1930’s included a gradual transition in their apparatus, with the district purchasing slightly larger trucks and making some necessary modifications.
These were primarily heavy duty ‘pickup‘ trucks, or 1-to-1.5 ton trucks with small pumps, fire hose, hand tools, and a water tank added. However, district funding was very minimal, with little support for more features. After all, the 1930’s were dominated by the Great Depression, and war was feared to be on the horizon.

By the late 1930’s, two major events hit the district hard. First, the original and long-time Chief Fire Warden Edwin Burroughs Gardner died in 1936. His son Edwin F. Gardner became the next TFFD Chief. Second, In 1939, the State Legislature changed some statewide regulations concerning special districts. Somehow in this process the TFFD was dropped from the State approved special districts list, but never notified. It was apparently a mistake, with the State bureaucrats believing that TFFD no longer existed.

Almost two years later, the Town of San Anselmo considered dropping out of the forest fire district, in large part because the City of San Rafael had recently dropped out to save money, by not paying the required forest fire district fees. The rationale was that the incorporated communities were already paying for their own fire departments, and had no need to pay for a service covering the unincorporated areas.

When the San Anselmo Town attorney dug into how to withdraw from the district, he discovered the mistake the State had made. Updated legislation was then hastily drawn up and implemented to make TFFD legal again by early 1941, but with several more communities now not wanting to pay for the operation of the district,  plans were made to shift the fire protection services to the County.

Curiously, the extra fees for some of the Marin County incorporated communities would continue until 1969, when the unincorporated communities governed by the County, and the state covered all MCFD costs. Over 55 years later, a similar and controversial tax called the State Responsibility Area (SRA) fee would return, but that's a story for another day, and one still being litigated in the courts.

Throughout their history, TFFD was really at a great disadvantage to do much about working structure fires, due to their apparatus, equipment, and training being focused on grass, brush, and timber fires. So, when homes also burned they were sometimes criticized for doing what appeared to be little to save them. This pattern would continue for the first few decades of the Marin County FD.
 
​Given severe financial limitations and other issues, the Tamalpais Forest Fire District ceased operation and dissolved as an organization in June of 1941. The new Marin County Fire Department began on July 1, 1941.
​The existing TFFD staff, facilities, and equipment were all transferred to the County, including the role of Fire Chief E.F. Gardner. In effect, it was the same department with the same budget, staff, and equipment. Just the governance had changed. Five months later, Pearl Harbor was attacked, and America entered World War II.

Locally, Civil Defense became the priority until the war ended, and even afterwards, as the Cold War with the Soviet Union ramped up. MCFD began handling, in practical effect, a broader mission through the 1940's, but with the same equipment and limitations. Building new fire trucks for local government during war time was generally prohibited, due to the war effort needing all the materials needed, such as steel, motors, and rubber.

Meanwhile, Charlie Reilley was hired in 1945 as a Fire Warden in Point Reyes for the four-year old Marin County Fire Department (MCFD), and then as a Deputy Sheriff in 1950. He promoted to Fire Chief of the Marin County Fire Department in February of 1951.

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Authors note: What follows is a very brief, related history of the Marin County FD from their start in 1941, until the early 1950's. This is to provide the background on what Charlie Reilley was faced with in early 1951 when he promoted to Fire Chief. All of the MCFD Fire Chiefs will eventually have biographies, and the department history will be expanded on for the MCFD history page. Thanks to MCFD historians Pete Martin and Greg Jennings, both retired Senior captains, for sharing photographs.

Looking back on the first nine years of the department, if ever there was an FD set up to take a fall, it was MCFD. This is a brief look at the very difficult first decade in their history, and in Part IV how Charlie Reilley would go on to improve the foundation of what became and remains one of the finest fire departments in California.

The start of World War II within the first six months of the birth of the new department, in the opinion of the author, must have contributed to a rough beginning. Public and government attention and worries were focused on civil defense by necessity. In Marin, a possible invasion by the Japanese was part of the fears. The war of course required that most resources be put towards military needs.

For example, no domestic cars were produced at all in the U.S. during World War II, most resources were rationed, such as tires and rubber, and getting new fire trucks and equipment was not allowed or difficult at best. Marin County already had multiple military installations and bases that would now grow. Sausalito soon had a major ship building operation through the Bechtel company, called Marinship.

Another related factor impacting MCFD was the growth in Marin County’s population, both during and after World War II. This meant, among other things, more homes being built in unincorporated areas that included wildland interface. The County population increased by 63% from 1940-1950 , with the census in 1950 recording a total of roughly 87,000 people in the County.

This growth in retrospect would suggest that MCFD evolve into a broader mission, what is called “all-risk” today, rather than primarily handling forest, brush, and grass fires. However, as is often the case with change in organizations including FD's, "old habits were hard to break," and the necessary political and community support and funding was not there. In fact, a public conflict over funding happened two months after the start of MCFD.

As a stand-alone fire district, TFFD was a small and relatively simple organization. Getting things done was far easier in many ways. MCFD, on the other hand, operated within the much larger organization of County Government, and the former TFFD employees needed to adapt to this new complexity.
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In the larger organization, MCFD competed for limited public funds and personnel needs with other County departments, such as the Sheriff’s office and Public Works. Budgeting, policies, and procedures, including spending approvals, had to work within the much more complex County bureaucratic system. This alone would prove to be a difficult change for MCFD management, eventually resulting in an ugly audit by the end of the decade.

In addition to World War II and it's many local impacts, the 1940's also included MCFD leading the fight to extinguish one of the largest known wildland fires in Marin County History in 1945, the Mill Fire, originating in Carson Canyon. Also in the first nine years, the department went through four fire chiefs, and in addition one acting Chief from the U.S. Forest Service.

The first Fire Chief, E.F. Gardner, served for less than three months. He resigned after a decision by the Marin County Board of Supervisors (BOS) about salaries. Gardner, previously the TFFD Chief, believed the TFFD Board had approved pay raises in concept before dissolving the district earlier that year. He was working two jobs at the time 'to make ends meet', the other being general manager of the San Geronimo Water Company in Woodacre.

Chief Gardner advised the BOS that given a pay increase he could serve full-time as the MCFD Chief, but without one he'd choose to only serve in the water company role. He also felt the other fire wardens all needed raises.
The BOS declined to approve any increases, even with Gardner offering to give up some of his pay to give his men a raise. The BOS said the $56,360 annual budget could not afford raises or any other increases, and Gardner resigned.

Assistant Fire Warden Lloyd de la Montana, Gardner's brother-in-law, became the next Chief in November of 1941. ​He had previously worked as a fire warden with TFFD for 11 years in Point Reyes, transferred into MCFD when it formed, and then promoted to Assistant Chief Fire Warden. He and his wife moved to Woodacre, and Americo Giambastiani took his place as the Warden in Point Reyes and Inverness. Giambastiani would later serve as the MCFD Assistant Fire Chief in the 1960's.

Lloyd de la Montana lost his right arm when he was very young due to a hunting accident, and could not use a prosthetic due to the amputation being too far up his arm. He served for a little over five years before having to step down due to extended illness.

After leaving MCFD in early 1947, he did some ranching for a few years, and then worked as a field deputy in the County Assessors Office. In 1951, he was promoted by the BOS to run the County Farm in Lucas Valley, serving until it closed in 1963. Look forward to a biography on Lloyd coming in the Marin Fire History project.

Following Chief de la Montanya's resignation as County Fire Chief, Charles Smith of the U.S. Forest Service was appointed Acting Chief for two months before becoming unavailable. The next MCFD Fire Chief was Samuel Mazza, who started in July of 1947, and tragically died at a large grass fire on September 2, 1948 at the Rogers Ranch in Nicasio. Chief Mazza had been up all night at a bad house fire in Tomales, where a fatality occurred with an elderly resident. Mazza and his men had been working the Nicasio fire all day without any sleep.

At one point Mazza left the Nicasio fire scene to help get food for the firefighters, and on the return trip became ill. His son was driving when the Chief asked him to pull over, saying he was in pain. He was having an heart attack, and when resuscitation efforts failed he passed away. He was a native of Marin, born in 1887 at Tocaloma, near what is now Samuel P. Taylor State Park .

The next Marin County Fire Chief was Camillo Mello, a former Dairy Rancher who had served as Assistant Chief under Chief Mazza. Camillo viewed his role as managing the non-emergency operations of MCFD, while his Assistant Chief Jimmy Nettro headed up the the firefighting operations.

A year into his tenure, Mello was confronted with a series of arson fires in the San Anselmo region. Investigations with San Anselmo Fire Chief Nello Marcucci revealed a sad story of a World War II battle veteran and current Marin County FD Fire Warden encouraging teenagers to set fires for work. The teenagers were part-time summer employees of MCFD, only called into action for fires.

​When 30-year old Warden Robert Pagani was convicted, the sentence was light, due in part, one assumes, to his Army service and the psychological impacts of the war. He was sentenced to eight months in County Jail, with four months having already been served, and had to pay some restitution to a fire victim, along with serving probation for several years.

Meanwhile, one of the hardest systems for Chief Mello to adapt to was that of County budgeting, and properly following the policies and procedures. The County had a full-time Auditor, Leon de Lisle, who conducted an audit two years later that would prove to be the beginning of the end for Chief Mello's tenure. In addition, Mello had publicly opposed 1) a request from the BOS to consider outsourcing County fire protection to the California Department of Forestry (CDF), an option to save money, and 2) consideration of the formation of fire districts in unincorporated communities like Sleepy Hollow and Inverness.

The headlines of December 19, 1950 in the Independent Journal read "County Fire Department Accused of 'Unorthodox' Financial Procedures." The charges in the Audit included work being done on employee vehicles in the FD shop; not keeping proper inventories; a reluctance to complete purchasing inside the County and spending more procuring materials and equipment outside; ordering equipment first and then making the required requisitions months later; failing to anticipate and budget items properly; and not following County policies and procedures in general.

County Auditor de Lisle went on to accuse Mello of being a man "...who makes no pretense of being a fireman...", and stated that he was not qualified for the job. 
The Marin County Grand Jury then reviewed the report, and wrote their own harsh report. Mellos' 58-page response to the Grand Jury report disputed all charges, and attempted at length to explain that they were improper or inaccurate.

The two-month old dispute was over on Feb 19, 1951, when the Board of Supervisors fired Mello, two weeks after Mello had fired Assistant Chief Nettro without BOS authorization. The BOS both reinstated Nettro and then made Warden Charlie Reilley the Acting Fire Chief.
He would be made the full-time Chief a short time later. The BOS still considered the CDF option for several more years, although a formal proposal was never sought. Public controversy for MCFD continued throughout the 1950's, especially with what the primary mission should be - fighting vegetation fires or structure fires? This would not be a settled question for many years.

In parallel during multiple controversies that had accrued from the first decade, Charlie would go on to quietly rebuild the Marin County fire department by the time of his retirement in 1962, at 65 years old. He distinguished himself both as a fire chief and a leader in Marin County, and MCFD went on to great success. He was once a hero in war, and also became a quiet hero in his last career.

"All great and beautiful work has come of first gazing without shrinking into the darkness."   - John Ruskin

Sources: San Anselmo Herald, Marin Independent Journal, Petaluma Argus-Courier, Oakland Tribune, California Digital Newspaper Collection, Marin County Fire Department Historical Archives, Library of Congress.

Coming soon in our final Part IV, Charlie's career as Fire Chief and his retirement.

A young Guglielmo Marconi in front of his early equipment.

The wireless radio control room of the Titanic, with Marconi equipment.

An older Marconi in a radio room.

An early photo of the Marconi Receiving Station, offices, and residences in Marshall.

The original Radio Communications of America logo.

The KPH Building on the old "G" Ranch.

A 1938 article in the San Anselmo Herald

Tamalpais Forest Fire District staff circa 1937.

A World War II Fire Prevention poster.

December 7, 1941

P-40 Fighters at Hamilton Field in Novato in 1941.

Battery Townsley, a 16-inch gun at Fort Cronkite in Southern Marin.

Applicants for work at Marinship in Sausalito.

San Anselmo Herald, June 19, 1941.

Tamalpais Forest Fire District

An article on Chief Gardner's resignation, September 1941.

Marin County FD staff, circa 1950's. Charlie Reilley appears to be standing in the back row on the far right. Photo from MCFD Archives, courtesy retired Senior Captain Pete Martin.

Marin County FD fire apparatus, circa early 1950's based upon what looks to be the newest truck on the far right.

Lloyd de la Montanya in 1959.

March 4, 1950

The Chief of the Olema VFD at the time of the letter would go on to be the Marin County Fire Chief in the 1960's, Louis Bloom. Dec 11, 1950 article

(l-r) Fire Chief Charlie Reilley, Bill Humphries holding the high pressure water gun, and Dick Pedroli by the booster line admire a newly completed fire truck at Woodacre in December, 1954. Photo from MCFD Historical Archives.

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