July 17, 2025 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, after his uncle Charles was shot down in a B-24 bomber over Europe during World War II, Chuck Kissling grew up hearing only pieces of the story. For decades, Chuck carried the weight of that loss, hoping to one day find his uncle’s grave and honor his sacrifice. Chuck joins us to share the journey that finally brought him to his uncle’s grave in France and gave him the connection he’d spent a lifetime searching for.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people coming to you from the city where the West begins,
Fort Worth, Texas. Up next, a listener's story from Chuck Gisling.
Chuck's uncle, Charles was a B twenty four bomber navigator
in World War Two, and today he shares the story
(00:33):
of his uncle's service, fate, and the visit separated by
generations that changed his life. Take it away, Chuck.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Early in the morning on July seventh, nineteen forty four,
forty two American B twenty four bombers took off from
England on a bombing run. My uncle Charles was in
one of those bombers. He was the navigator and he
was in the bomber with the tail number five two
(01:06):
five one seven and the nickname Model T. The mission
was to bomb an aircraft manufacturing planet in Bahrenberg, Germany.
As the forty two planes approached, they began taking heavy
flak from the enemy fire on the ground. The Model
(01:29):
T plane carrying my uncle and his crew was badly
damaged with that flack.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
The formation of bombers got over.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Target and they were able to drop their bombs. What
has not happened yet though, was that the fighter escorts,
the Allied fighter escort planes have not shown up yet.
But on the other hand, the bombing formation had not
run into enemy fighters either. After passing over target and
(02:05):
dropping the bombs successfully, the formation turned to the north
and then began a slow turn back to the west
to head back to England. At that time they encountered
head on enemy fighter planes, and I've found two estimates
of the numbers of enemy fighter planes. One estimate said
(02:27):
there were one hundred and seventy five enemy fighter planes
against our forty two bombers. The other estimate said that
there were three hundred and twenty five enemy fighter planes.
Either way, our bombers were terribly outnumbered and had no
fighter escorts to help them fight off these enemy fighter planes.
(02:58):
The model T took more damage from the enemy fighter planes.
Crew members were injured, the plane began losing altitude. The
pilot decided that the plane would not be able to
make it back to England, and he decided that the
crew needed to bail out, So he would have done
(03:19):
three things. First, he would have run the bailout bell,
telling the crew to bail out. Second, he would have
put the plane on autopilot just to try to keep
the plane flying straight and level, And third he would
have hit the switch to open the bomb bay doors.
(03:40):
After doing those, the pilot and the co pilot and
the radio man all dropped down out of the cockpit
into the bomb bay. Upon getting to the bomb bay,
they discovered they were the only ones there. None of
the other crew members made it into the bomb bay.
They also discovered that the bombay doors had been damaged
(04:04):
by the flack and by enemy fighter fire and had
failed to open they were jammed.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
There was an explosion, blew a hole in.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
The side of the plane, and the co pilot was
blown out of the plane. His parachute opened and he
landed successfully on the ground where he was captured and
was held captive for the rest of the war. The
(04:39):
plane now continued with a hole in the side, flying
for a few more miles until it flew itself into
the ground south of a town called Egelm, Germany. The
townspeople from Egelm came out to the crash site and
they described what they found. They found maps, books, charts,
(05:06):
and they found eight American bodies they took the bodies,
including my uncle, into their town and they buried them
in their town cemetery in Egel. Within a couple of days,
my grandfather received a telegram.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Telling him that his son, Charles was missing in action.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
For nearly two years, my mom and her dad prayed
and hoped that Charles was somehow alive.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
That was not to be the case.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
In nineteen forty six, now almost two years later, they
received the letter from the Army Air Force confirming that
Charles was killed in action and now telling them that
he is buried in the town cemetery in Egel.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
After the war.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Ended, the United States set brave recovery teams into Europe
to try to recover missing Americans.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
And you've been listening to Chuck Kissling. He's a listener
and we love listeners stories here on our American stories
and do them often. And this is a story about
Chuck's uncle, Charles, who was a B twenty four bomber
navigator and his family didn't learn until nineteen forty six
that he had died in combat. They were praying and
praying against prayer that he'd come back home and that
(06:48):
did not happen, and that was the story for many
families through countless wars in this great country, including my own.
My mom lost her brother, her father's only son, John LaPadula,
in combat, as well a parachuter who was shot down
out of the sky around d Day and whose body
(07:08):
and remains were discovered months later. When we come back,
more of the story of Chuck Kissling's uncle, Charles here
on Our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of
(07:35):
our American Stories. Every day on this show we tell
stories of history, faith, business, love, loss, and your stories.
Send us your story small or large to our email
oas at Ouramerican Stories dot com. That's oas at Ouramerican
Stories dot Com. We'd love to hear them and put
(07:55):
them on the air. Our audience loves them too. And
(08:16):
we returned to our American Stories and with Chuck Kissling's
story of his uncle, a World War Two bomber navigator
named Charles. When we last left off, we learned that
charles family learned in nineteen forty six, years after he'd
been killed in action, that they'd lost their son. Let's
return to the story.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
After the war ended, the United States sent brave recovery
teams into Europe, to try to recover missing Americans, and
there were plenty of missing Americans.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
When the war ended, there.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Were ninety thousand plus Americans who were officially listed as
missing in action. Still, finding the bodies of these eight
men who had been on the Model t B twenty
(09:17):
four that went down near Egel was relatively easy because
the Germans townspeople had made written records of what they
had done, and they had turned those records over to
the International Red Cross, who then passed them on to
American forces. And so my uncle's body was recovered and
(09:39):
he was reidentified, and then my grandfather was given the
choice of bringing him back to the United States for
reburial here or leaving him in Europe, where he would
be buried in one of the American cemeteries that were
being established in Europe. My grandfather decided to leave Charles
(10:06):
in Europe. Now, he never really communicated this well to
my mom, who spent the rest of her life confused
and really wondering where her brother was buried. After my
mom died, I became interested in this and began researching
(10:31):
and trying to sort out where is my uncle Charles buried.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Well.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I came across that letter from nineteen forty six saying that.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
He was buried in Ego.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
In addition to researching, I discovered online that I could
actually type his name in to the American Battlefield Monument's website,
and I did and they indicated that he was buried
in the Arden's American Cemetery in Belgium. So now I
(11:08):
have two conflicting bits of information, one saying Egel in Germany,
one saying the Ardens American Cemetery in Belgium.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
So I wrote to the people at the.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Arden's American Cemetery and I explained my dilemma, and I
asked them, I just want to know where is my uncle.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
And they wrote back the nicest letter to me.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
They explained what had occurred after the war, and how
the grave recovery teams had gone into Europe and recovered bodies,
and how families were given the choice, and they said,
apparently your grandfather decided to leave your uncle Charles here
(11:54):
in Europe and he is now buried at the Ardenz
American Cemetery. And then they closed with these words, your
uncle is here with us and we are taking good
care of him. So from that point on it became
(12:15):
my mission to go visit his grave, knowing that no
other family member had been to his grave. His dad
never went to his grave, his mom had died when
he was just a little baby. His other brother had
never been there. And I made it my mission to
go visit his grave in the Ardenz American Cemetery, and
(12:38):
in twenty sixteen I was finally able.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
To do that.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
That was quite a trip because as we were driving
around trying to find the cemetery, we were within ten
miles of it for almost two hours, driving around, not
able to find the road that the cemetery was on.
Once we finally found it and we got to the cemetery,
(13:03):
I walked inside the gates and the caretaker was taking
down the American flag getting ready to close the gates
for the day. I spoke to him and I told
him that I was there to see my uncle's grave.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
He asked if I knew where it was located.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I told him only that I knew it was in
Section D Row eleven, Grave forty nine. He pointed to
where Section D was and he said, once you get there,
just start counting rows forward and when you reach eleven,
turn right, and began walking down the row and counting
(13:41):
the graves until you get to forty nine. And then
he told me, even though it was closing time, he said,
don't worry, just take as much time as you need.
So I proceeded with my wife behind me, and upon
reaching row eleven in Section D, we turned inward and
began to walk, counting the cross on each grave one
(14:03):
at a time.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
At some point I must have lost count.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I reached what I thought was number forty nine, and
I turned to look at the cross. It was not
Charles's name on that cross, and in my tired emotional state,
I broke down in tears, saying it's not him. Walking
behind me, my wife had also been counting, she calmly
(14:29):
said two more, go two more, moving forward, two more graves.
I was finally standing with my uncle Charles. The emotions
that I felt, the joy, the sadness, the relief, they're
all beyond my ability to put into words. I wish
(14:53):
so much that my mom could have visited her brother's
grave with me, But then again, she is with him now.
She was with him then watching me visit him. She Charles,
and their brother Harold, all standing there with me, all
(15:14):
saying thank you, On our way out of the cemetery
that afternoon, I spoke once again to the cemetery manager,
who had been so gracious to me, allowing me to
stay beyond closing time. I told him that I was
the only member of my uncle's family to have visited
his grave. He responded, most of the men here have
(15:40):
never had any family member visit Your uncle is lucky.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Engraved on a granite wall inside the.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Entrance to the cemetery are the words to the silent
host who endured all and gave all that mankind might
live in freedom and peace. I think that the five
thousand men in this cemetery, the ninety thousand plus men
in all of the World War II American cemeteries that
lie on foreign soil, in fact, all who endured all
(16:14):
and gave all that mankind might live in freedom and peace,
only asked one thing of you and I.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Just one thing that we not forget. This story is
my effort to not forget.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Nathaniel Gallagher. And a special thanks to
Chuck Kissling. He's a listener and we're so grateful he
shared his story and the story of his uncle Charles,
who was a World War Two bomber navigator who paid
the ultimate price for his service to his country, along
(16:54):
with over four hundred thousand others plus, including my own uncle,
the uncle I never met or knew, and that happened
to so many families across this great country. I want
a heartbreaking thing to hear from that person in charge
of taking care of that cemetery in Europe, that most
(17:14):
of the men here, he said, have never had any
family visit. And that's heartbreaking and heartbreaking, but also beautiful
that Chuck took that visit to honor his uncle and
to honor his uncle's memory. The story of loss, love
and sacrifice here on our American story
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American
people coming to you from the city where the West begins,
Fort Worth, Texas. Up next, a listener's story from Chuck Gisling.
Chuck's uncle, Charles was a B twenty four bomber navigator
in World War Two, and today he shares the story
(00:33):
of his uncle's service, fate, and the visit separated by
generations that changed his life. Take it away, Chuck.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Early in the morning on July seventh, nineteen forty four,
forty two American B twenty four bombers took off from
England on a bombing run. My uncle Charles was in
one of those bombers. He was the navigator and he
was in the bomber with the tail number five two
(01:06):
five one seven and the nickname Model T. The mission
was to bomb an aircraft manufacturing planet in Bahrenberg, Germany.
As the forty two planes approached, they began taking heavy
flak from the enemy fire on the ground. The Model
(01:29):
T plane carrying my uncle and his crew was badly
damaged with that flack.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
The formation of bombers got over.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Target and they were able to drop their bombs. What
has not happened yet though, was that the fighter escorts,
the Allied fighter escort planes have not shown up yet.
But on the other hand, the bombing formation had not
run into enemy fighters either. After passing over target and
(02:05):
dropping the bombs successfully, the formation turned to the north
and then began a slow turn back to the west
to head back to England. At that time they encountered
head on enemy fighter planes, and I've found two estimates
of the numbers of enemy fighter planes. One estimate said
(02:27):
there were one hundred and seventy five enemy fighter planes
against our forty two bombers. The other estimate said that
there were three hundred and twenty five enemy fighter planes.
Either way, our bombers were terribly outnumbered and had no
fighter escorts to help them fight off these enemy fighter planes.
(02:58):
The model T took more damage from the enemy fighter planes.
Crew members were injured, the plane began losing altitude. The
pilot decided that the plane would not be able to
make it back to England, and he decided that the
crew needed to bail out, So he would have done
(03:19):
three things. First, he would have run the bailout bell,
telling the crew to bail out. Second, he would have
put the plane on autopilot just to try to keep
the plane flying straight and level, And third he would
have hit the switch to open the bomb bay doors.
(03:40):
After doing those, the pilot and the co pilot and
the radio man all dropped down out of the cockpit
into the bomb bay. Upon getting to the bomb bay,
they discovered they were the only ones there. None of
the other crew members made it into the bomb bay.
They also discovered that the bombay doors had been damaged
(04:04):
by the flack and by enemy fighter fire and had
failed to open they were jammed.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
There was an explosion, blew a hole in.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
The side of the plane, and the co pilot was
blown out of the plane. His parachute opened and he
landed successfully on the ground where he was captured and
was held captive for the rest of the war. The
(04:39):
plane now continued with a hole in the side, flying
for a few more miles until it flew itself into
the ground south of a town called Egelm, Germany. The
townspeople from Egelm came out to the crash site and
they described what they found. They found maps, books, charts,
(05:06):
and they found eight American bodies they took the bodies,
including my uncle, into their town and they buried them
in their town cemetery in Egel. Within a couple of days,
my grandfather received a telegram.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Telling him that his son, Charles was missing in action.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
For nearly two years, my mom and her dad prayed
and hoped that Charles was somehow alive.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
That was not to be the case.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
In nineteen forty six, now almost two years later, they
received the letter from the Army Air Force confirming that
Charles was killed in action and now telling them that
he is buried in the town cemetery in Egel.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
After the war.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Ended, the United States set brave recovery teams into Europe
to try to recover missing Americans.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
And you've been listening to Chuck Kissling. He's a listener
and we love listeners stories here on our American stories
and do them often. And this is a story about
Chuck's uncle, Charles, who was a B twenty four bomber
navigator and his family didn't learn until nineteen forty six
that he had died in combat. They were praying and
praying against prayer that he'd come back home and that
(06:48):
did not happen, and that was the story for many
families through countless wars in this great country, including my own.
My mom lost her brother, her father's only son, John LaPadula,
in combat, as well a parachuter who was shot down
out of the sky around d Day and whose body
(07:08):
and remains were discovered months later. When we come back,
more of the story of Chuck Kissling's uncle, Charles here
on Our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host of
(07:35):
our American Stories. Every day on this show we tell
stories of history, faith, business, love, loss, and your stories.
Send us your story small or large to our email
oas at Ouramerican Stories dot com. That's oas at Ouramerican
Stories dot Com. We'd love to hear them and put
(07:55):
them on the air. Our audience loves them too. And
(08:16):
we returned to our American Stories and with Chuck Kissling's
story of his uncle, a World War Two bomber navigator
named Charles. When we last left off, we learned that
charles family learned in nineteen forty six, years after he'd
been killed in action, that they'd lost their son. Let's
return to the story.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
After the war ended, the United States sent brave recovery
teams into Europe, to try to recover missing Americans, and
there were plenty of missing Americans.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
When the war ended, there.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Were ninety thousand plus Americans who were officially listed as
missing in action. Still, finding the bodies of these eight
men who had been on the Model t B twenty
(09:17):
four that went down near Egel was relatively easy because
the Germans townspeople had made written records of what they
had done, and they had turned those records over to
the International Red Cross, who then passed them on to
American forces. And so my uncle's body was recovered and
(09:39):
he was reidentified, and then my grandfather was given the
choice of bringing him back to the United States for
reburial here or leaving him in Europe, where he would
be buried in one of the American cemeteries that were
being established in Europe. My grandfather decided to leave Charles
(10:06):
in Europe. Now, he never really communicated this well to
my mom, who spent the rest of her life confused
and really wondering where her brother was buried. After my
mom died, I became interested in this and began researching
(10:31):
and trying to sort out where is my uncle Charles buried.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Well.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I came across that letter from nineteen forty six saying that.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
He was buried in Ego.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
In addition to researching, I discovered online that I could
actually type his name in to the American Battlefield Monument's website,
and I did and they indicated that he was buried
in the Arden's American Cemetery in Belgium. So now I
(11:08):
have two conflicting bits of information, one saying Egel in Germany,
one saying the Ardens American Cemetery in Belgium.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
So I wrote to the people at the.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Arden's American Cemetery and I explained my dilemma, and I
asked them, I just want to know where is my uncle.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
And they wrote back the nicest letter to me.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
They explained what had occurred after the war, and how
the grave recovery teams had gone into Europe and recovered bodies,
and how families were given the choice, and they said,
apparently your grandfather decided to leave your uncle Charles here
(11:54):
in Europe and he is now buried at the Ardenz
American Cemetery. And then they closed with these words, your
uncle is here with us and we are taking good
care of him. So from that point on it became
(12:15):
my mission to go visit his grave, knowing that no
other family member had been to his grave. His dad
never went to his grave, his mom had died when
he was just a little baby. His other brother had
never been there. And I made it my mission to
go visit his grave in the Ardenz American Cemetery, and
(12:38):
in twenty sixteen I was finally able.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
To do that.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
That was quite a trip because as we were driving
around trying to find the cemetery, we were within ten
miles of it for almost two hours, driving around, not
able to find the road that the cemetery was on.
Once we finally found it and we got to the cemetery,
(13:03):
I walked inside the gates and the caretaker was taking
down the American flag getting ready to close the gates
for the day. I spoke to him and I told
him that I was there to see my uncle's grave.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
He asked if I knew where it was located.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
I told him only that I knew it was in
Section D Row eleven, Grave forty nine. He pointed to
where Section D was and he said, once you get there,
just start counting rows forward and when you reach eleven,
turn right, and began walking down the row and counting
(13:41):
the graves until you get to forty nine. And then
he told me, even though it was closing time, he said,
don't worry, just take as much time as you need.
So I proceeded with my wife behind me, and upon
reaching row eleven in Section D, we turned inward and
began to walk, counting the cross on each grave one
(14:03):
at a time.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
At some point I must have lost count.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I reached what I thought was number forty nine, and
I turned to look at the cross. It was not
Charles's name on that cross, and in my tired emotional state,
I broke down in tears, saying it's not him. Walking
behind me, my wife had also been counting, she calmly
(14:29):
said two more, go two more, moving forward, two more graves.
I was finally standing with my uncle Charles. The emotions
that I felt, the joy, the sadness, the relief, they're
all beyond my ability to put into words. I wish
(14:53):
so much that my mom could have visited her brother's
grave with me, But then again, she is with him now.
She was with him then watching me visit him. She Charles,
and their brother Harold, all standing there with me, all
(15:14):
saying thank you, On our way out of the cemetery
that afternoon, I spoke once again to the cemetery manager,
who had been so gracious to me, allowing me to
stay beyond closing time. I told him that I was
the only member of my uncle's family to have visited
his grave. He responded, most of the men here have
(15:40):
never had any family member visit Your uncle is lucky.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Engraved on a granite wall inside the.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Entrance to the cemetery are the words to the silent
host who endured all and gave all that mankind might
live in freedom and peace. I think that the five
thousand men in this cemetery, the ninety thousand plus men
in all of the World War II American cemeteries that
lie on foreign soil, in fact, all who endured all
(16:14):
and gave all that mankind might live in freedom and peace,
only asked one thing of you and I.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Just one thing that we not forget. This story is
my effort to not forget.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Nathaniel Gallagher. And a special thanks to
Chuck Kissling. He's a listener and we're so grateful he
shared his story and the story of his uncle Charles,
who was a World War Two bomber navigator who paid
the ultimate price for his service to his country, along
(16:54):
with over four hundred thousand others plus, including my own uncle,
the uncle I never met or knew, and that happened
to so many families across this great country. I want
a heartbreaking thing to hear from that person in charge
of taking care of that cemetery in Europe, that most
(17:14):
of the men here, he said, have never had any
family visit. And that's heartbreaking and heartbreaking, but also beautiful
that Chuck took that visit to honor his uncle and
to honor his uncle's memory. The story of loss, love
and sacrifice here on our American story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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