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.
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