Charles Warren Hostler (December 12, 1919 – September 28, 2014) was an American diplomat. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain from 1989 to 1993, as a political appointee. He also served as a colonel in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

, an executive with

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it produ ...

and adjunct professor of political science at San Diego State University.

Life and career

Hostler earned a Legion of Merit award from the U.S. and a French Legion of Honor as a result of his service in World War II as a military intelligence officer. He credits his tenure at the

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...

(OSS, the forerunner to the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

) with teaching him "how to survive and helped me excel". Hostler joined the

Reserve Officers' Training Corps The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...

(ROTC) to help pay for college at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. He went on active duty when he graduated in 1942. He worked for the OSS, in part because he was fluent in French. He was assigned to work with the French resistance and root out collaborators. He landed at Utah Beach on D-Day. When Paris was liberated, he went to Romania to smuggle out pro-democracy leaders. In the early days of the Cold War, he "helped train the air intelligence unit of the Turkish military and also served as U.S. military attache in Lebanon, Jordan and Cyprus." Stateside, he continued his education, earning a master's and doctorate in political science from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

and a master’s in Middle Eastern studies from the

American University in Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, au ...

. Hostler also served as a long-time public member appointee to San Diego County's Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) and served as their Chair in overseeing the incorporation of Poway and Santee, which were subsequently approved by voters in 1980. Hostler lived in

Coronado, California Coronado (Spanish for "Crowned") is a resort city located in San Diego County, California, United States, across the San Diego Bay from downtown San Diego. It was founded in the 1880s and incorporated in 1890. Its population was 24,697 at the ...

with his wife when he died from cardiac arrest at a San Diego naval hospital on September 28, 2014, at the age of 94.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hostler, Charles 1919 births 2014 deaths Ambassadors of the United States to Bahrain McDonnell Douglas San Diego State University faculty People from Coronado, California University of California, Los Angeles alumni Georgetown University alumni American University of Beirut alumni United States Air Force colonels People of the Office of Strategic Services 20th-century American diplomats American military personnel of World War II Military personnel from California Recipients of the Legion of Merit Recipients of the Legion of Honour