Charles “Buddy” Merton Weiser was born in New Jersey on February 7th, 1921. After graduating from Salem High school in 1939, Charles answered his country’s call on January 10th, 1942 and enlisted.
Following boot camp, Weiser was transferred to B/1/1 and participated in action with B company at Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester without being wounded. It was on Guadalcanal that Charles was captured in the background of a newsreel video while entrenching a Machine Gun position on Guadalcanal. This clip was made apart of a movie to be shown stateside and his sister immediately recognized him in the clip, which was the first confirmation of life his family had received in 2 months.
Charles then went on to Cape Gloucester with B company which he escaped from unscathed. While home on furlough, Weiser married Mary Beard on Memorial Day 1944.
Then on September 15th, 1944 Weiser landed on White Beach as apart of the reserves for 1/1 that took horrendous casualties on D-Day. One of Charles’ squad members whom he commanded was quoted having said this about his actions on Peleliu, “Charlie Weiser was my squad leader. This was his 3rd Campaign. I thought he was a good luck charm and stuck to him. We were passing through some trees. He turned to look back and saw 2 Japs had let us bypass them. He ripped them from ass to head with his Tommy Gun; in 20 fast shots”. Weiser pushed up inland with B Company and on September 18th D+3 while engaged in brutal Hand-to-hand combat around hill 205, Weiser was stabbed in the left hand by a Japanese Bayonet. He stayed in the fight until he was finally evacuated from the line.
This ended Weiser’s time in combat but he returned stateside and became a Drill Instructor after recovering from his wound. Charles was discharged soon after the war ended and returned home to New Jersey where he was married Mary Ida Beard and lived out the rest of his life until he passed away on June 15th, 2000 at the age of 79.
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