Charles Russell Codman (22 February 1893 – 25 August 1956) was a Colonel of the US Army who served as an aide to George S. Patton during World War II.
Biography[]
Charles Russell Codman was born in Boston, Massachusetts on 22 February 1893 into an old and notable New England family, and he graduated from Harvard College in 1915. He served in the US Army's aviation wing during World War I, and he was awarded a Silver Star and a Croix de Guerre for his bravery in action. After the war, he worked as a wine buyer in France and as a real estate manager in Boston, and he escaped to Lisbon, Portugal during the Battle of France in 1940, leaving on the last plane out of Bordeaux. In 1942, he rejoined the US Army with the rank of Major, and he was assigned as a translator to accompany Operation Torch in November 1942 due to his fluency in French. George S. Patton asked Codman to serve as his aide-de-camp, as he knew his family, and Codman was loyal to Patton throughout the entire war, always staying by his side as his right-hand man. He left the army in 1945 with the rank of colonel, and he ran a real estate business in Boston until his death in 1956.