Charles E. Boewe Second World War correspondence

This collection contains 157 correspondence and 6 photographs from Private Charles Ernest Boewe, United States Army to his parents during the Second World War. This correspondence follows Boewe as he was stationed at a few Forts, colleges, and hospitals during the duration of the war. Boewe detailed basic training in immense detail before he was accepted to become a part of the Army Specialized Training Program or ASTP that allowed him to stay in the US and go to college under the Army. In this program he studied to be an engineer and then a doctor in several colleges in New York. During this time, Boewe continues to detail everything to his college courses, the shows and movies he saw in New York City, and his day to day life. This collection contains several letters of interest including his detailing of army training, his run in with Frank Sinatra, and his experiences of VJ day in Times Square. Although Boewe is somewhat haughty, arrogant, and cold, this part of his personality brings forth interesting insight into his surroundings. Boewe lets his opinions be openly known on many topics such as race, religion, love, the war, and the army, allowing a more concise insight into the thinking of the era. This collection was organized by Boewe’s wife Mary and the collection will retain the order she arranged it in despite some numerical date errors. The donor has made many notes in collection which specify the date of the letter. These notes are made in black ink and in brackets[] or come with the acronym PM, which most likely means post mark. The collection contains only a few envelopes, very few letters come with actual envelope. Most the donor marked as samples but the meaning of this is unknown at this time.