Charles Calhoun was born April 20, 1925, in Ocean City, Maryland, and lived very close to the coast throughout his childhood. His grandfather was a commercial fisherman who taught Calhoun how to fish as a boy. He joined the United States Navy in 1943 at the age of 17 and was trained as a torpedoman. He served on the in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II. He participated in many of the bloodiest battles of the theater, including the battles of Leyte Gulf, Luzon, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. The "Lunga Point"'s crew received the Navy Unit Commendation for "extraordinary heroism and action against enemy Japanese forces in the air, ashore, and afloat" following a kamikaze attack on the ship. Calhoun was honorably discharged from the Navy on February 21, 1946.