Remembering Them Forever (RTF)!
Atchley, Charles
- Waxahachie , Texas, United States
Military Information:
- BSM: Bronze Star Medal
- TVHOF Valor Award
- 2 War Veteran
- Combat Action/Infantry Badge (CIB)
- PVT: Private
- SS: Sharpshooter
- 1-Alpha List
- TVHOF Class of 2025
- 4SGT (Fourth Sergeant)
- Rifleman
- French Legion Honor Award
- Rhineland Campaign Medal w/ Bronze Star
- Cross Of Military Service
- France Medal of Honour Chevalier Fifth Class
Dates of Service 1:
Service Start Date: NA Service End Date: NA
Dates of Service 2:
Service Start Date: NA Service End Date: NA
Bio:
It was on April 15, 1943, that a new Army division consisting of 14,000 soldiers named the 75th Infantry Division was formed and began training. They trained hard for more than a year while not knowing what their role in WWII would be. They shipped to England for additional combat training in mid-November 1944. And on New Year’s Eve, 1944, the 75th Infantry Division arrived in the Ardennes Forest to join the Battle of the Bulge. As new replacements to the battle, those who had been in it for the first two weeks called them the “Diaper Division”
because they were all so young.(I shipped out on the RMS Queen Elizabeth)
I was one of the 18-year-old soldiers was infantry rifleman, Waxahachie resident, Private Charles E. Atchley. At 5’-5” and weighing only 105 pounds. I was greeted to the “front lines” with the coldest winter in France and Belgium in 50 years.
For 14 straight days of frantic combat, Me and my brothers-in-arms fought, ate, tried to sleep, and did all the bodily functions you and I do daily while occasionally seeking refuge in snow foxholes with mud and ice at the bottom. The foxholes they dug each day as the fighting moved. While my regiment continued to fight, I was forced off the front line when my feet froze. I was shipped to a French hospital in Marseilles, France, for several months while doctors worked to save his feet from amputation. I was then transferred to a U.S. hospital in Oklahoma for many more months of therapy to learn to walk again. As a result of my combat, I was awarded two Bronze Stars and the French Legion. I was 1 of 3 to receive two Bronze Stars. I was presented France’s Legion of Honor Medal in 2013 during a special ceremony held in Dallas with the French ambassador.
It’s important that people remember World War II, what was at stake and why the nation went to war, “Freedom is not free.”
Before joining the Army in 1945 the year I turned 19. I was asked originally age 18 to be a combat fighter pilot for the Navy by the Officer. I wanted to go because of my ability and knowledge of flying. My parents told me, "No!". They didn't want me to be shot down and the war would soon be over.
In the midst of the battle I thought about many things. One of them that helped me was football. I played football in my mind on the battlefield.
I loved football and I made defense moves as if I was on the “football “
field with darting behind trees due to heavy firing to give me cover before heading back out dodging the German’s retaliations from gun fire to Tiger tanks to get to my next point carrying mortar rounds like a football.
My favorite team today is "The Cowboys!"
While away I would write back home to my mother. Roughly 14-20 letters in total, but had not heard a response back yet. Sometimes mail took longer to receive during the war from and to our loved one’s, but when I officially returned home. My letter’s arrived in the mail box on the same day I came home.
My service ended after my feet froze under adverse weather conditions.I still feel the effects on my feet to today.
I would go on to work 33 years for the U.S. Postal Service in Dallas, starting out as a letter carrier and working my way up the ranks to chief of accounting officer before retiring.
I grew up in Red Oak and Ellis County, moved to Waxahachie, Texas.
I have friends who help me get to the different veterans’ gatherings, including an annual get-together at the Houston Stock Show. I also was a participant in the 2008 Ellis County Honor Flight, which took local World War II veterans to Washington, D.C., to see their memorial and other monuments, 2023 in New Orleans. June 14, 2025 at the 250th Army Anniversary / Birthday Ceremony I received a letter from Congressman Jake Ellzey, and Greg Abbott with receiving the Quilt of Valor with a few other certificates of recognition.
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