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<em>Charles Robert “Chuck” Domeck</em> came to West Point well prepared for its rig­orous academic, military, and physical envi­ronment. Raised in Wauseon, OH, where his family settled in 1941, Chuck had been born in Detroit, MI, to Carl and Elsie Domeck on 18 Feb 1932. After graduation in 1955, Chuck served in the Corps of Engineers in various assignments before leaving the Army after 13 years to pursue a successful career in the nuclear power field. After battling a se­rious illness for several years, Chuck joined the other side of the Long Gray Line on 21 Mar 2008 at the Ohio Veterans Home in Sandusky and is buried there.</p>
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Chuck described himself as a “scrappy” child. He remembered his Detroit childhood as one of “getting into trouble.” He seemed not to have taken academics seriously until he had an awakening to learning from teach­er Alice Money in Wauseon, who taught him to love mathematics and homework. By the time of his graduation from Wauseon High School, he was a first class scholar, win­ning a scholarship to Bowling Green State University in 1949. There, studying math and science, he became a “slave to the text­books” and served in the marching band.</p>
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In 1950, Chuck took his Congressman’s examination for West Point, was given an appointment and entered with the Class of 1955. His marching band experience made Beast Barracks an easy time, because he not only could march and drill but could keep up with physical training as well. After Beast Barracks, as the academic year began, he chose Portuguese because it was the closest language to the Latin that he had studied in secondary school. Because of his good study habits and inquiring mind, Chuck did very well academically at West Point, making the Dean’s List and wearing academic “Stars.”</p>
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Chuck’s West Point sports career was very active. He won a monogram in B-Squad wrestling but dislocated a vertebra in his neck and had to wear a neck brace for six weeks. The neck brace was reminiscent in its shape to the “necessaries” in the bar­racks “sinks” (bathrooms), so he acquired the temporary nickname of <em>Myer Sniffen</em>, the manufacturer of the facilities. His regu­lar nickname, however, was “The Dome.” He also played B-Squad football for two years. During his formative years, Chuck developed a love for the Christian religion and firmly believed “that God was in con­trol of this world, and He holds us secure in his hands.” He played the Cadet Chapel chimes and taught Sunday school.</p>
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Chuck chose the Engineer branch be­cause it just about guaranteed he would at­tend graduate school and obtain a master’s degree. Upon graduation, he headed for the usual Army schools for new second lieuten­ants and married Phyllis Erney of Wauseon. They then reported for duty in Giessen, Germany, to the 18th Combat Engineer Battalion in early 1956. The mission of his unit was “to blow up railroad bridges to slow down the Russian tank battalions.” After serving as supply officer, he transferred to the 814th Float Bridge Company in Hanau. According to Chuck, “that was my best as­signment in 13 years in the U.S. Army.” His unit was capable of spanning the Rhine River with a float bridge in just over two and a half hours. In 1958, Chuck took command of the 814th.</p>
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In 1959, Chuck received orders to at­tend the University of Michigan College of Engineering in Ann Arbor, MI, and earned his master’s degrees in both nuclear and civil engineering. He subsequently was assigned to the Army Reactors section of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Germantown, MD. Chuck tells us, “My major responsibilities were two nuclear fuel assembly improvement programs.” In 1963, he attended the Engineer Officer Career Course at Ft. Belvoir, VA. Besides nine months of study, Chuck and Phyl had “plen­ty of time to renew acquaintances with class­mates and friends from earlier assignments.” His next assignment was to the Republic of Viet Nam in 1964.</p>
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After a 12-week course in Vietnamese at the Defense Language Institute at Monterey, CA, Chuck reported to the Military Assistance Command, Viet Nam. Chuck designed barracks for the MAC-V teams de­ployed in country and received the Bronze Star Medal for his Viet Nam service. Chuck then was assigned to West Point to teach mathematics and considered making teach­ing a full-time career. During the summer of 1966, however, Chuck was interviewed by several nuclear power companies and sub­mitted his resignation to pursue a civilian career in the nuclear power electrical gen­erating field. The Army denied his resigna­tion, and he remained at West Point for two more years. Somewhere along the way, in the 1980s, he and Phyl eventually drifted apart, divorcing in 1989.</p>
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Finally, Chuck’s resignation was approved, and he left to pursue his civilian career in a key position at the Toledo Edison-Davis-Besse nuclear power plant near Oak Harbor, OH. He also worked at the nuclear plant in Indian Point, NY, for a while; at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania; and at the Watts Bar facility on the Tennessee River. According to his brother Gordon, “When his health began to fail, he lived in a group home near Toledo for four years and had been a patient in the Ohio Veterans Home for nearly one and a half years.” Gordon goes on to tell us that Chuck believed that the detrimental govern­ment policy against nuclear power genera­tion made it “more difficult and costly to use this energy source.”</p>
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We all miss you, Chuck, but we know you are with the Great Master of us all. God bless.</p>
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—<em>Autobiography, Reunion Books, family, and classmates</em></p>