Camp McCoy in the Words of My Uncle: 2021-01-17

Enlisted Men Barracks

19 days before arriving at Camp Shanks

to prepare for departing 7 Oct 1943

for Northern Ireland

WAS INSIDE LETTER

September 13, 1943

Monday

Dear Mother, Dad, and Bro.,

Here it is Monday evening so for another letter home. Hope everything at home is fine with all in good health. I am well.

Mother, you are smart in doing all that work. You could wash 6 or 8 shirts now as if they were handkerchiefs. ha ha

Where did Pa go blackberrying? You might find C.D.K. any place. We never had one of these built without C.D.K. on it some place. (He has drawn an outhouse with his initials C.D.K. written on the inside of the door. I don't know why he got on this topic, unless his mother had said something in the last letter.)

I sure remember the night and the bat. Gee, what a job to catch him.

Thanks for taking care of my things not that they amount to much but they're mine and I felt someday I might pack up a few things. If I never have to use them then I'm sure no one else could find them of any use. As I have said before they are of no value. (I am not sure what is going on with my uncle. This letter is filled with half written sentences that I have to complete with what I think goes with the next sentence, he is talking about issues that don't make complete sense. It is as if his mind is on something else that he is not ready to share with his mother. Read carefully what else is shared in this letter.)

I don't care what Aunt Annie has to say about the place. No place has the touch that you put into it. Home looked swell to me when I was there on furlough. As I have said before, it's not really the State we come from but that little spot within the State called, "Home." Home is only complete with or when it has a Mom like you within it to keep the home fires burning.

Flavilla (sister) sent me a box of nice cookies to-night along with a game. It came in a special package made for soldiers. Poor kid she does try hard.

By now you must have the letter Marian and I wrote. She has lots to do so finds little time to write but said you should feel free to write her in case you wanted to at any time for any reason. I was planning to mail the letter free but Marian said let me address it then she will be surprised when she opens it. So we put a stamp on it. (The envelope is addressed by someone else and there is not a return address on the top left that Uncle Charlie always included. Also there is a stamp on it instead of the word FREE written where the stamp usually goes. Soldiers were able to send letters home free. My grandmother did write on the envelope Charles & Marian in case she wanted to find it quickly. She also numbered all the letters she received from Uncle Charlie.)

I got a letter from Eugene (brother) to-night. Will try to answer it soon. Boy, that fellow sure can work.

How is Dad tonight? Hope he'll feel better now that cooler weather is coming. (My grandfather was a sickly man, but would work hard as much as he could. He died in 1957 at the age of 64. I had just turned two so sadly I don't remember him.) He sure has done a nice job with all the work around the home. Dad, the news looks better everyday. (We had started to win battles in the Pacific against China and Italy had surrendered as we began to enter the southern area of it. That did encourage many people at the time.)

Tell Joe and Helen (sister) I'm thinking of them even if I don't write. I know you'll tell them all the news.

Oh yes, no need telling me about Roy Jr. (cousin) as three from over there have written to me about the affair. ha, ha! (Uncle Charlie didn't seem to be very close with his cousins from his father's brother. I don't know why.)

Well, Mother, the weather is about the same except I think it's a little warmer to-night, may rain. I'll be saying good night but will write to-morrow even if its just a card.

Love to All

Son - Charles - Bro

P.S. Didn't you write that you had my insurance paper? I have $10,000.00 worth, good for about $60.00 a month as the government does not pay all at once. You should get a $50.00 war bond every three (3) months. They are made out co-owner in your name mother. That is you can cash them at anytime without my signature on them, in other words you own them as much as me. Don't forget.

C. D. K.

^Sep 12 Waffen-SS (Skorzeny) frees Benito Mussolini at Gran Sasso. The Gran Sasso raid was the rescue of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini by German Fallschirmjäger led by Major Harald Mors and Waffen-SS commandos in September 1943, during World War II. The airborne operation was personally ordered by Adolf Hitler, planned and executed by Mors, and approved by General Kurt Student.

Rescue mission Location: Hotel Campo Imperatore, Italy, Coordinates: 42°26′32.73″N 13°33′31.66″E

Planned by: Harald Mors

Target: Campo Imperatore, Date: 12 September 1943

Done by: 2nd Parachute Division, 502nd SS Jäger Battalion

Outcome: Benito Mussolini rescued

Casualties: 2 Italians killed, 10 Germans wounded