Urbana High School remembers WWII hero and former history teacher Charles ‘Bazooka Charlie’ Carpenter
Veterans Day is to remember those who have served in the United States military through the years, more formally than through the rest of the year. And that’s what Urbana High School is doing with the WWII hero and former history teacher, Charles “Bazooka Charlie” Carpenter.
Retired UHS faculty, administrators and office personnel pitched in for a plaque now displayed on the wall above the steps of the main entrance (west) and gave the book, “Bazooka Charlie: The Unbelievable Story of Major Charles Carpenter and Rosie the Rocketer,” to both the UHS Library and the Urbana Free Library. James P. Busha, a writer of historical World War II books and articles, authored the book with Carpenter’s daughter, Carol Carpenter Apacki, a 1960 graduate of the high school.
The plaque about Charles Carpenter is displayed at Urbana High School.
While the high school no longer has an all-school assembly on Veterans Day for programs, speeches and the school band performing, Assistant Principal Steve Waller said, “On Veterans Day, I will include a write up in the student bulletin that gets read to the student/staff body. In addition, the info will get pushed out through the Dept. Chair for the History teachers to also talk about him in class on Veterans Day.”
Carol thinks the plaque, the book and all being done at the high school are a great honor to her father and said, “I know he would appreciate it but not think it was necessary. I continue to be amazed at what seems to be growing interest in my dad and his feats in World War II. I guess I would say that Bazooka Charlie in WWII is not the father that I knew. He was a gentle scholar and father, and a wonderful father who returned from the war somewhat shattered but returned to a full and rich life, even though he had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease.
“Again, like the war, he beat the odds with Hodgkin’s and lived for another 22, 23 years, when he was only given one or two years when he came back from the war. So it’s a story really of resilience, and he had a strong moral code that he followed as a 17-year-old all the way up to the end of his life. And he died with a book of poetry on his chest.”
The creed he wrote as a teenager says much about her father’s resolve, a personal set of vows which reads: “I have resolved to exert all my efforts toward being a nobler and stronger fellow. A gentleman, a scholar, a friend, and a real man/person. To the best of my ability, I will ever strive to self-control, self-improvement, freedom, wisdom, courage, generosity, truth, and true nobility before gods & men. I will be better."
Astonishing that Carpenter developed this creed during his teenage years after a challenging upbringing involving poverty and a single mother. This creed reflects his commitment to self-improvement and personal integrity, which he demonstrated throughout his life, his daughter said. And the book is a great, informative read that was written after Apacki’s mother died and left letters and papers which are used in the book.
At Moline High School, where Carpenter first taught before the war, they had a huge ceremony for him. “Amazing. I just received today (the last of October) that they made T-shirts for all the students in the history class with my father’s creed on the back,” Apacki said. “What touched me most about what they did: The students were taken that a 17-year-old boy would write a creed for himself. And so they loved that idea and went to the Moline High School board and said that this creed should be something that’s required for all freshmen at Moline High School to write their own creed like my dad wrote as a model. And every year, they would write a reflection essay with their progress on their creed. Then for their senior year, the school would pick three or four of the best essays, and that is what’s read at the graduation. Isn’t that marvelous? It was one teacher that really went over the top with this.”
Longtime art teacher at Moline High school, artist David Zahn, created a sculpture modeled after the cover photo of the “Bazooka Charlie” book that was dedicated in May of this year, according to an article in The Quad City News. “As the sculpture goes down, it depicts a plane flying over a French countryside,” the article said.
“It just touched me so,” Apacki added. “Of all the honors that have come from this story that continue to evolve, I think the fact that the kids wanted to write their own creed (at Moline High School), that is the greatest testament to my dad of all. That will probably have lasting power in people’s lives.”
Carpenter was a beloved teacher at Urbana as the plaque at the high school reads. And Apacki said he had the yearbook dedicated to him twice at least. “There’s a wonderful quote that the students described him in Urbana High School when they found out he had died. They wrote in the yearbook: ‘It is perhaps impossible to do Mr. Carpenter justice. He was a war hero who never spoke of the war. A rugged athlete who also wrote poetry. A gentleman who spoke with tolerance and wisdom. This he was, and more.’
“The other thing that’s come up that continues to amaze me,” she said, “on You Tube – there are many, many videos – but one is called The Fat Electrician, a guy with tattoos. He is doing a podcast about my dad. And he goes into full detail. He now has a million and a half followers. I must have received 25 or 30 strangers contacting me to appear on the podcast to talk about my father. It just continues to pick up steam.
“I think this is evoking. That’s another nice quality of this whole thing. Many people have sent me their father’s stories. They’ve interviewed their dad or through their diaries. I think it stimulated their own families’ histories and the impact of the war.”
And it’s certainly evoking that a World War II hero and history teacher is being remembered and honored on Veterans Day at the high school where he taught from 1952 until he died in 1966. After his death, Apacki filled in for her father and taught at the school for a year.