Cares, Charles

Title

Cares, Charles

Performer

Charles Cares

Interviewer

Monique Castria

Description

When he found out that there was a good chance that he was going to be drafted into the Army, Chuck decided that he would rather enlist in the Navy. He did so in 1941 and went into officer’s training. After his training in Chicago, Illinois, his orders were to report to Charleston, South Carolina on the cargo ship AKA6 U.S.S. Alchiba. While on the Alchiba, he traveled with its cargo to Bora Bora, Chile, New Zealand, and Fiji. Chuck finally ended up part of the invasion of Guadalcanal. After the invasion, his ship made many trips to the island Guadalcanal with cargo. During this time, the Alchiba was torpedoed twice, so after the ship had been repaired, it returned to the states. Chuck then got orders to report to a new ship, the U.S.S. Whitley AKA92, also a cargo ship. While aboard the Whitley, Chuck was at Iwo Jima and Bougainville. The ship headed back to the states due to a cracked stern and was in Hawaii when the war ended. After the war, Chuck remained in the Navy, and went on to the Philippines and Japan. At this time, he became a Lieutenant Commander. After serving in the Navy, he met his wife, and came to Michigan State University, to get a degree in landscape architecture. He went on to get his masters from Harvard, then taught at Cornell for ten years and Michigan for twenty-seven.

Date Span

1941-

Dates of Service

Subject

Enlisted; United States Navy; USS Achiba (AKA 6); USS Whitley (AKA 92); World War, 1939-1945; Second World War - Pacific Theater; Lieutenant Commander

Publisher

Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Collection Location

1/25

https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/bib/loc.natlib.afc2001001.58427

Spatial Coverage

Second World War - Pacific Theater

Item