A Thanksgiving to remember

HOWARD – At 97 years old, Howard resident and World War II veteran Bob Charles has had his fair share of Thanksgivings, but none will ever be as memorable as the one he shared with his brother in 1945.

When the United States entered WWII, Bob saw members of his close-knit family begin to leave for the war — Buddy in 1942 and Walter in 1943.

Bob, too young to go at the time, helped support his family’s farm until he was finally old enough to go.

“I quit school in the eighth grade and I stayed on the farm for a couple of years,” Bob said. “I told my dad that if he signed for me, I could get into the service at 17 and he said okay and that he’d do that. So my dad signed for me and I got in the service at 17.”

In 1945 at the age of 17, his father signed for him to enlist in the U.S. Navy, and he became a motor machinist’s mate on the USS LST-42, which was a tank landing ship, in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater.

By then, it had been three years since Bob had seen his brother, Buddy.

“It was tough,” Bob said. “But in WWII it was the way of life.”

In a letter, Bob’s mom told him that his brother Buddy was stationed on land somewhere in Okinawa and in September 1945, after the war ended, the U.S. Navy recommissioned Bob’s ship as a hospital ship and anchored at a harbor near Okinawa, Japan.

On Thanksgiving Day of that year, Bob received a heartwarming surprise.

“I was down in the engine room and we got a phone call down there wanting me up on the main deck and I didn’t know why,” Bob said. “I walked up to the main deck and who did I see but my brother that I hadn’t seen in three years… It took my breath away.”

Buddy had hitch-hiked 50 miles with a friend from his MASH unit to see Bob.

They had Thanksgiving together on the ship, and Bob was given permission to walk with Buddy for a while before he returned to his MASH unit.

“After we had Thanksgiving dinner, I showed him around the ship and then he had to start walking back to his base because he had 50 miles to go,” Bob said. “One of the officers said to me, ‘You know, you have to be back to the ship at six o’clock, but you come back whenever you want and walk with your brother.’ So we walked maybe two or three hours that night and then we had to say goodbye because he had to go back to his base and get a ride and I went back to my ship.”

The next time the brothers would see each other again was when they returned home from the war.

“We went back to our regular duties and I didn’t see him again until the war was over and we all got home together,” Bob said.

Even 80 years later, Bob still recalls that Thanksgiving as “one of the greatest ones I’ve had.”

After returning home, Bob worked in the Green Bay Police Department for 33 years and married his wife, Gloria, of 75 years.