Sepia Saturday 753. Fourth in a series about 1943 letters from my dad’s brother Frederic Mason Charboneau during his second year of WWII US Army service.
Rising in military rank was important to service members during WWII both for the increase in pay and the recognition it brought.
Shortly after receiving his promotion to Sergeant, my uncle Frederic Mason Charboneau wrote a letter to his mother Mary (Owen) Charboneau in which he mused about how far he had come in the previous three years.
“Sgt. F. M. Charboneau, HQ Battery, 431st Sep CA Bn, APO 302, N.Y., N.Y., 27 March 1943, Dear Mom: As I sit here writing this letter, I can’t help thinking where I was three years ago about this time. From the letters I get from you the roads and weather must be almost the same as they were then.
“I don’t know whether you remember it or not,” he continued, “but it was on the 16th of March that I went to the hospital [for appendix surgery], and it was on the 16th of March this year that I received my promotion. Little did I dream then that I would be in Africa at this time but here I am.”
Significance of rank
Since Uncle Fred had last written home, his duties and digs had changed, which he went on to describe in his March 27 letter:
“The weather has been just grand except for the last couple of days, and they have been kind of rainy,” Uncle Fred wrote. “I am living in a small house and except for a couple of leaks in the roof we can keep quite dry.”
He went on to discuss what might have been the benefits of rank if only he and his fellow officers had a lowly private with them.
“There are three other fellows with me. It is sort of a non-com’s [non-commissioned officers’] house,” Fred said. “There is the Master Sgt., a Tech Sgt., myself and a Corporal, so we haven’t any privates around to clean up, so we have to do it ourselves. But I did it when there was one around and we all do our bit, so it is a small job.”
Detail of duties
At the time of his promotion, Uncle Fred was serving in the 431st Coastal Artillery Battalion, which was part of the 12th Army’s Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment (Special Troops).
In a letter to his oldest brother Owen Albert Charboneau, Fred described his promotion and duties — and joked around about a fellow acquaintance who was newer to the service.
“20 March 1943, Dear Owen: The most important news is that I have just become a Technician Grade 4 or Sergeant as you can see by my address. I am still in the same place, but my duty now is filing. As for Jack Cassidy, those two gold bars mean 2nd Louie [Second Lieutenant] or a Ninety-Day Wonder, as that is the length of time it takes to go through the O.C.S. [U.S. Army Officer Candidate School].“
Some brotherly joshing
Fred also asked Owen about their middle brother Hubert, who had gone into the army, and couldn’t resist some brotherly joshing about his new rank as a non-commissioned officer.
“How is Hubert getting along?” Fred wrote. “Tell him to drop me a line the first chance he gets, telling me how he likes the army, etc. I suppose by this time he is getting to be a regular soldier. Tell him to ‘get on the ball’ or when I come home I will make him step. Me a non-com and him a buck-ass private. He will have a good chance, however, in signal corps work with his training as a lineman [for the telephone company] and all.”
And with that, we will leave our newly-promoted Tech 4 Sgt. Frederic Mason Charboneau until his next letter home.
Up next: More of Uncle Fred’s 1943 letters. Please stop back! Meanwhile, please visit the other intrepid bloggers over at Sepia Saturday
© 2024 Molly Charboneau. All rights reserved.
Thank you for sharing a couple more of your Uncle Fred’s letters and his time in the military. Like how we get to see how he jokes around with his brothers, showing how times never really change. 🙂
Thanks, Diane. I find the joking around shows the family ties enduring across the miles.
I love having letters to get a glimpse into the life of ancestors. I have a few letters from my grandpa during the war and I love them.
Thanks, Allyson. I am so grateful to my grandmother for saving and passing down Uncle Fred’s letters. So much rich family history in them.
I love the joshing between the brothers. Thanks for sharing.
I also love the joshing — and his Ninety Day Wonder reference, too 🙂
Enjoying this series of letters. My Dad, a WWII vet, spoke of the 90-day wonders also.
Apparently Ninety Day Wonder has become the established term for those who went through the course. I found several references to it when researching.
I enjoy the way we get to meet your family bit by bit, learning about how their career and interests change over the course of time. I like how Fred’s promotion sparks more enthusiasm for the army and its training for a future civilian career.
My dad followed the other career path in the army by signing up for an ROTC college scholarship. He trained to become an officer but I don’t think it fully prepared him for the military’s elaborate system of enlisted servicemen’s ranks. As a young lieutenant in Korea he was commanding regular army enlisted men who had many years more experience than he did. I think he found the role of an infantry officer to be very stressful in combat situations. After his first tour he switched to the transportation corps which suited him better as it required lighter responsibilities of an officer that didn’t deal with too many life and death decisions.
Interesting observations, Mike. I think one of the reasons that Uncle Fred’s letters tend to be optimistic (as other readers have commented) is because he was assigned to the headquarters office and not the front line. Had he been at the front, he would likely have been as stressed as your dad.
Uncle Fred sounds like he had a wonderful, fun sense of humor. And he always sounds so positive in his letters – even when there were problems to deal with. It’s a great way to be! 🙂
All my dad’s brothers, including Uncle Fred, were jokesters — busting one another’s chops when they got together. So it was fun to see the wise cracking in print in Uncle Fred’s letters.