Sepia Saturday 777. Fifth in a series about 1943 letters from my dad’s brother Frederic Mason Charboneau during his second year of WWII US Army service.
In the previous post in this series, my dad’s brother Frederic Mason Charboneau was celebrating his promotion to Tech Sergeant Grade 4 in the U.S. Army while stationed somewhere in North Africa.
Uncle Fred was promoted in March 1943 and had been in service more than a year.
Around the same time, in letters home to his mother Mary (Owen) Charboneau and his brother Owen, Fred began asking about the status of his brother Hubert Ray Charboneau and inquiring how he liked army life. “Was that when Uncle Hube entered active service?” I wondered.
Uncle Hube called up
So I headed online and discovered the news story below announcing my Uncle Hube’s call-up to active duty. He appears in the second paragraph of the article, which was published the day after he left for service on Jan. 4, 1943.
Uncle Hube was the middle of the five Charboneau brothers. My dad Norman (in college then) was the fifth brother, Fred was fourth brother, and Owen and Franny were the older two brothers, in that order.
Uncle Fred went in first
Uncle Fred was the first to enter WWII military service — perhaps because he was the right age and single. The news clip announcing his Dec. 9, 1941, call-up appears below. Thus he began army life about a year before Uncle Hube, who was married but with no children yet.
Two sons in service
Discovering this information made me wonder what life was like for my Grandma Charboneau during WWII. As a mother of five sons — two already in service by 1943 and others registered with the draft board — she must have been worried. My Aunt Doris, Uncle Hube’s wife, undoubtedly shared her concern.
Happily, they were able to see Uncle Hube a few times before he was deployed abroad. Two news clips from the summer of 1943 gave some details about Uncle Hube’s early Army service and his leaves from Fort Monmouth, N.J., to see family.
From the July 22, 1943, Boonville Herald and Adirondack Tourist: “Cpl. Hubert Charboneau, of the Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth, N.J., spent the weekend here with Mrs. Charboneau [his wife Doris] and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ray Charboneau at Otter Lake.”
On Aug. 14, 1943, in the same newspaper: “Mrs. Hubert Charboneau spent the weekend in New York with her husband, Cpl. Hubert Charboneau, who is stationed at Fort Monmouth, N.J., and expects soon to be sent overseas.“
Mustering family support
However worried my grandmother and other family members may have been, they mustered support for their loved ones serving abroad during WWII — sending a steady stream of letters, V-letters, cablegrams, newspapers, and packages their way to keep them in the loop.
My Uncle Fred’s letters home have helped me track these invaluable family connections in ways that official records can’t really do — and give a glimpse of my dad’s family at a crucial point in history.
More on this Charboneau-Owen family communication network in next month’s post. Meanwhile, please visit the other intrepid bloggers over at Sepia Saturday.
© 2025 Molly Charboneau. All rights reserved.
Aren’t family letters wonderful? Great job with your research – it adds so much to creating a broader understanding of the letters and your family’s role in the war.
Yes, they are! And Uncle Fred has become my posthumous partner in family history research as his letters lead me to new sources.
Grandma sure must have been concerned as she tuned into the radio news every evening. Can’t wait to read what happens next.
I am sure she was, judging by the letters and gifts she sent to Uncle Fred and the number of relatives she prompted to do the same.
I loved reading about your uncle’s letters. We, too, have letters from my husband’s father, who was in England during WWII, an aircraft landing gear specialist.
Wow, those letters sound like they might make good blog posts as well. I hope you consider sharing excerpts from them.
I love this glimpse into your family history and the history of the times! Thanks for sharing. It’s wonderful that these letters were well preserved for future generations! P.S. I would be a worried mom too if I had 2, let alone 1, children in the miltary. So glad they came back safe. 🙂
Thanks, Diane. I am forever grateful to my paternal grandmother for keeping these letters and passing them down.
I love correspondence and wish I had more of it. I was lucky to have several V-mail letters that belonged to my grandmother who corresponded with a friend who was an Army nurse during WWII. It was fascinating to learn the history of that type of mail. It’s nice also that you were able to back up the recollections with the newspaper items.
A post about V-mail would make an interesting read. My Uncle Fred went back and forth between V-mail (which was reportedly delivered faster, but offered limited space) and regular mail (which he could easily compose, since he had a headquarters office assignment and access to a typewriter.) And yes, I was thrilled to find those news stories!
It amazes me how detailed newspaper reports used to be, with lists of names that included hometown, occupation and employer too. Newspapers used to take their mission of being a journal of public records very seriously. I often come across long, long lists of casualties and missing-in-action that make me wonder how that affected the families of servicemen in WWI and WWII.
In stark contrast, newspapers in our time have devolved into printing nothing about military servicepeople or the conflicts they are sent to. Newspapers never publish lists of any kind anymore, and rarely provide detailed reports or analysis of recent military actions. We learn so little about our own military, and even less about our adversaries and allies.
Recently, after reading a few histories of America’s major wars, I realized that I can easily rattle off the names of dozens of generals and admirals from the Revolutionary times to WWI & WWII, but I don’t know the name of a single commanding officer from the conflicts in Afghanistan or Iraq which actually lasted longer. We live in strange times that will be challenging for future generations to unravel.
So true, Mike. Newspapers were the social media of their day — and thank goodness. Now that many are digitized, they provide a wealth of family history and general history information. Uncle Fred’s letters, combined with the clips I found, provided a much fuller story of my paternal relatives’ lives during the WWII period.
I echo Kristin’s comment – archive newspaper websites are a great resource. I can sympathise too with your grandmother with 5 sons. My great grandmother had 5 of her 8 sons serving in WWI – but sadly two died..
Sorry to hear about your family’s losses during WWI. Very stressful then having sons during wartime.
Will be waiting for more of Uncle Hube’s service story! 🙂
It will be told in coming posts! Stay tuned.
Newspaper articles are so good for rounding out the picture of our family ‘s life.
They sure are! I’ve been amazed by the clips you have found about your relatives and ancestors. Now I’m the one being surprised by what I find.