Charles Jackson Nesbitt III (Jack) was born in San Francisco in 1946. His father was a police officer and mother a native Italian born in Pisa.
In 1947 Jack’s father was recalled into the Army and assigned duty in near Munich, Germany. The first 5 years of Jack’s life was spent growing up on a lake in post war Germany. Later, the family moved to Salzburg, Austria where Jack attended 1st and 2nd grade in a local German-speaking school. Two years later, the family moved again to Innsbruck, Austria where Jack attended 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. By this point, he spoke German quite well.
Jack’s grandparents on his mother’s side lived in Lucca, Italy and so Jack spent time with his grandparents growing up in Italy and so he became proficient in Italian and is near fluent to this day.
At the age of 11 Jack and the family moved to Djakarta, Indonesia where his father served in the US Foreign Service. He attended a Catholic school, learned to speak Indonesian, and became a Scout.
Due to political turmoil in Indonesia in 1956, Jack and his mother were sent to Italy. There Jack was tutored by a British expat living in Lucca. Mr. Phelan later established the first English-speaking school in Tuscany.
Jack’s one and only school year in the US was in 1961 in Virginia. Again, the family went overseas, this time to Pakistan where Jack attended an international, English-speaking school for 10th, 11th and 12th grades.
Jack graduated from High School in 1964 in early May and returned to the USA where he enlisted in the Army 2 weeks after graduation at age 17. After, training he entered the West Point Preparatory School at Fort Belvoir. With some arduous work, he was accepted to West Point in 1965.
Jack graduated from the Academy in 1969 and started his military career. Assignments included tours in Germany, Viet Nam and Fort Bragg. He enjoyed his time at Bragg as an A-Team CO with 5th Special Forces. While at Bragg, he and his team took a 42-week course in Arabic for a mission to Jordan that was called off 2 weeks after completing the language course. Needless to say, there were some very disappointed troops after that decision.
In 1975 Jack left the service and moved to Texas to work in the oil industry. Working in Dallas, Houston, and Beaumont for 9 years in various fields including offshore drilling. Unfortunately, the oil business goes through periodic downturns and on Thanksgiving 1983 Jack was laid off and found himself in a quandary. By early 1984 Jack was hired by TRW, later acquired by Northrop Grumman, which led to a 30-year career in Aero Space.
Jack’s love of motorcycling started at a young age when his Italian uncle bought him a 50cc moped. He loved the bike and spent time running around the Italian countryside with his uncle.
While at Ft. Bragg, Jack bought a 100cc Kawasaki that he used to go to work. Once he had a supply sergeant stash his bike in the back of a deuce and a half truck assigned to pick up parachutes after a parachute jump in the backwoods of Ft. Bragg. Jack had to get back home quickly that day, so he retrieved the motorcycle and rode back to Ft. Bragg with his rifle strapped to his back. Luckily, the MPs did not pick him up before he returned the rifle to the armorer.
His next bike was a 750cc Yamaha bought while in Texas. Later Jack brought a 1100cc BMW that he kept until after he retired. Today he rides a 2013 Can AM Trike that he has owned for over 11 years. Mimi, his wife of almost 55 years, has ridden with Jack since he owned the BMW. They have traveled throughout the USA.
In 2015 Bob Yaap and Jack came together to plan a ride for 1969 grads. So far, the crew has participated in multiple rides across the country. In 2025 the Grey Hogs plan to make one more trip, this time along the Pacific Coast Highway in California. Mimi has enjoyed many of the rides and plans to make the California trip with the guys. It never gets old to share experiences and deep friendships with fellow classmates. GO ARMY !!!