Bettie Page by Charles West 1

"Brigadier General Charles J. West, Jr., AUS (Ret), passed away after a long illness on 18 June 2008 in Bath, England. He served in three wars as a distinguished citizen-soldier. He entered The Citadel in 1939 and won the Star of the West Medal. He served on active duty in the US Army as an infantry officer in the Pacific Theater from May 1943 to Sept. 1946. As a captain, he was an aide-de-camp to General of the Army Douglas MacArthur. While serving as the adjutant, 107th Infantry Regiment, New York ARNG, West began a career as an executive with Time-Life. During the Korean War, he was recalled to active duty and again in 1957. During the Vietnam War, he served as a lieutenant colonel in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations in the Pentagon specializing in special operations which required temporary tours of duty in South Vietnam. For 18 months, Colonel West served on the White House Staff, under President Nixon, as Chief of the Safeguard Support Group. The Safeguard Missile served as a bargaining chip with the USSR during discussions that led to the ABM Treaty. Colonel West was released from active duty in late 1970 and worked as a management consultant. He was promoted to Brigadier General in 1973 and continued to serve on short tours of duty with the Army Staff until his retirement from the US Army Reserve in 1978. He was a founder of the Company of Military Historians as well as an antique dealer in his retirement in Wilton, Conn. In the mid-1990s he moved to Bath, England. General West was awarded the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, Joint Service and Army Commendation Medals, the Combat Infantryman Badge, Parachutist Badge, Army General Staff Badge, the French Croix de Guerre, Philippine Legion of Honor and the Vietnam Cross of Honor." -citadelalumni.org

A Letter From Charles West Jun. 2006:

Word has reached me in England where I now live that a film has recently been released in America called The Notorious Bettie Page. What a load of rot! Bettie Page is not "notorious"; she never was notorious. Bettie was always "glorious", and she will ever be.

Bettie and I first met in the early 50s when she was posing for a group of amateur photographers at a rather seedy studio on the lower west of Mantatten, the owner of which was a friend of mine. He and I were neighbors in Jackson Heights where we lived in separate apartment buildings in the then very fashionable "Tower". I was at the studio to meet my friend for dinner. Since I had arrived while the shoot was still in progress, I watched the proceedings and chatted with the models between their posing stints. If the venue was seedy... and it certainly was... the patrons were seedy-plus. At the time I guessed that 20% of the "photographers" probably didn't even have film in their cameras; they were there just for the kicks of looking at naked girls.

That evening, when I met Bettie, I was immediately smitten. She was, of course, drop-dead gorgeous in face and form, but I was at once impressed with her... Members.