During World War II, Charles Wood’s ship was subjected to several submarine attacks.

Wood, 89, of Franklin Township recalled one in the Mediterranean Sea. The ship ahead of his spotted a periscope peeking out of the surface of the water.

The ship started shooting at the periscope. The submarine came to surface.

“I could see the German soldiers trying to come out of there, but they came and just blasted that thing and sunk it. There was no fooling around with them,” Wood said. “We got through it.”

He graduated high school from Houghton Academy in Houghton, N.Y., in 1943, during the height of the war. His father served in the U.S. Navy during World War I, and advised his son to join the U.S. Merchant Marines.

Wood joined, went to basic training and became a licensed radio operator.

He served on six ships during the war, primarily in the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Aegean Sea, the Black Sea and North African ports.

His ship arrived with a load of supplies at the beachhead at Caen, France, about three weeks after D-Day in 1944. German planes would fly over every night.

“Really, at night was the most dangerous for us,” Wood said.

Soldiers would shoot at the planes, but folks on the ground had to be careful of falling shrapnel.

“You had to stay under cover,” Wood said.

One odd incident occurred when his ship was pulling into harbor. Whoever was steering the ship got the wrong directions, and when it swung around, it struck a Navy ship. This left a three-foot hole near the top of the ship.

Wood said the crew unloaded the cargo and sailed back across the Atlantic.

“We didn’t have any storms, fortunately,” Wood said.

Despite the breadth of experiences in the service, Wood does not dwell on them.

“You just sort of put these things out of your mind,” Wood said.

He said there were some close calls during the war.

“But, I was never harmed at all, or injured during the war,” Wood said. “The Lord has been good to me.”

He said the most damage he sustained was to his hearing. On the ships, his room was located on the top deck of the ship, right under the gun turrets, which created a lot of noise when fired.

“It was like being inside a drum,” said Wood, who uses hearing aides today.

He was honorably discharged in 1946.

After the war, Wood went to college. At the time, merchant mariners were not considered veterans, so he did not receive benefits from the GI Bill and had to work his way through school.

He graduated from Syracuse University in 1951, majoring in finance and accounting. He became a public accountant for 14 years.

One of his clients, Campus Sportswear Company, was planning on going to the stock market and wanted Wood to help them out. He went to work for them and he eventually became the chief financial officer, retiring in 1989.

After that, he and his wife built a house on 3 acres in Forward Township, and they stayed until they no longer could take care of it.

“Arthritis got the best of me,” Wood said.

They moved to their condo in Franklin Township in 2011. Wood said it is nice because the condo company takes care of things like lawn care and snow shoveling.

He married his wife, Gwen, in 1946. They have two daughters and seven grandchildren. They also have 16 great-grandchildren.

“And one more on the way,” Wood said.