← Back to the front page

These Tough Americans Fought In WWII, Korea, and Vietnam

Khalid Elhassan August 2, 2019 23 min

Basil L. Plumley - Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley

10. Charles Alex is One of the Oldest Surviving Veterans of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam

Soldiers of the 43rd Infantry Division landing at Rendova Island in the Solomons, in 1943. Wikimedia

In 1940, Charles Alex joined the Connecticut Army National Guard, as an infantryman in the 43^rd Division. The division was activated for federal service in February of 1941, and when America joined WWII, it and Alex were sent to the Pacific Theater. There, Alex, saw significant combat, as the 43^rd first fought in New Guinea, then in the Northern Solomons, before finally ending up in Luzon, in the Philippines. However, Alex got a reassignment in 1944, that sent him to the other side of the globe, in the European Theater. He served in France, then Germany, until the war ended.

Charles Alex in 2019. Connecticut Examiner

After the war, Alex stayed in the National Guard, and was called back to active duty in 1949. The following year, he was sent to Korea, and a decade later, he ended up serving in Vietnam. After a long military career, which he began as a E-1 buck private, Alex retired in 1969 as a lieutenant colonel. Today, Charles Alex is still going strong, at 99. On June 1^st, 2019, he was the oldest veteran at a picnic to honor WWII veterans in Middle Haddam, Connecticut.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.