Camp McCoy in the Words of My Uncle: POST TWENTY-THREE (Red Flags and Rings) 30 March 1943

March 30, 1943

Dear Mother,

Here I am on range guard so with doing the best I can will write you a letter. First, I will tell you what I mean by range guard. The 37th FAB are firing at 10 o'clock. It is now 11 in the morning. I am 5 miles out in the woods on two cross roads. I can see a big hill and when I see a red flag go up all persons or cars are stopped from going over the roads. If anyone insist on passing I take their name, address etc. The same if any car try to go by, except the 37th. Gee the wind is blowing quite a little and you may not be able to read this. It is a warm wind and I have my overcoat off. Have it rolled up and am writing on it. Nothing under my sheet of paper so you can see my troubles. Ha! Ha! it's a letter just the same. I first stopped and watch a crow fly by. You know over of thousand black birds????

Gee Mom you can't guess what I got on those two big tests we took. 98.4% and 95%. I'm glad I worked hard. I didn't think I'd make that much. What do you think?
You folks at home are getting to high class for me. All this typewritten letters etc. I got Eugene's letter and could read it o.k. Tell him to be careful when he types. He told me how they hauled 30 don. I almost figured he meant something else -? Ha! Ha!
*(Personal Mother) So her ring cost $50.00. Gee not much if you say it quick. (A saying that if you say something fast it doesn't sound so bad.) I may have never told you before but one time not so very long ago I had in one part of my pocketbook $80.00. I saved a little each week even if I was paying for my car. I had in mind something that cost $89.00 and a few cents. Not that I cared to pay that much but you know how I am. I don't believe in paying too much but if I liked something I liked it and that is what I wanted. We both saw it and mention how pretty it was but that it cost quite a bit. She said she didn't care about one that even cost near $50.00. To her $25.00 was plenty. I will always say I liked that in her. Still I had seen what I liked and knew after all she liked it to. But it just wasn't to be. She never was a gold digger. I know what you mean when you said Pauline (girl friend) is nervous. She has been sick a lot this winter. Don't worry I'm not too serious and I just write a common letter. Guess my letters are not serious enough for her. I don't intend to write something I don't mean. *(end personal) ( It appears Uncle Charlie is writing about someone getting a ring. Then he shares about two different girl friends he has had and how Pauline is different from the other one he use to have. He let's his mother know he's not too serious about Pauline. It appears both Uncle Charlie and his mother have concerns about Pauline.)
There goes the red flag. I have just eaten my lunch. The rest I'll write standing up. The air out here is swell to-day.
A lieutenant in a jeep just drove up and asked me a few questions. Oh dear that salute.
Mom how would you like a drink out of this canteen? Here goes - not bad. Guess I'll wait until I get back to camp before addressing the envelope. I'd like you to get this even if you can't read it all.
Eugene sure thinks Dad is doing a swell job on the barn. I won't know the place until I see it all.
Here comes the trucks.
So Long,
Love to all
Charles

^^Mar 29 Meat (784 gram/week, 2 kilogram for GI's), butter & cheese rationed in US during WW II

^^Mar 30 5th National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men's Basketball Championship: Wyoming beats Georgetown, 46-34; Cowboys' point guard Ken Sailors is named tournament Most Outstanding Player. Kenneth Lloyd Sailors was an American professional basketball player active in the 1940's and early 1950's. A 5-foot-10-inch guard, he is notable for popularizing the jump shot as an alternative to the two-handed, flat-footed set shot.

Kenny Sailors

^^Mar 30 British 1st army recaptures Sejenane, Tunisia.

^^Mar 31 US bombs Rotterdam by mistake, kills 326. While the Germans occupied the Netherlands during the Second World War (1940–1945), Allied air forces carried out a number of operations over Rotterdam and the surrounding region. These included bombing strategic installations, leaflet dropping, and during the last week of the war, the dropping of emergency food supplies. In one incident, during a raid on the shipyards and dock area, the United States Army Air Forces accidentally bombed a residential area killing 326 people. This was revealed in the 1990’s and a memorial has been made.

Rotterdam Bombardment Memorial

**March 31 – Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! opens on Broadway, heralds a new era in "integrated" stage musicals, becomes an instantaneous stage classic, and goes on to be Broadway's longest-running musical up to that time. Runs until 1948.