Flyer Reported Missing Is Safe, Mother Informed.
Cable Arrives Last Night From Capt. Charles S. “Chuck” Vogler.
Reported missing in action since a flight in his Liberator bomber over Austria April 2, Capt. Chas. S. “Chuck” Vogler of Davenport is safe and well.
News of his safety was received at 10 p.m. last evening by his mother, Mrs. Jacob Vogler, of 812 Kirkwood boulevard, in a cablegram from her son which read:
“All well and safe—please don’t worry—congratulations on your anniversary!”
Mrs. Vogler is convinced that Capt. Vogler in some manner made his way back to his base, as the message is a standard Western Union cablegram, and not one that could have been sent from an enemy prison camp, or from a neutral country. If from the latter, it would have had to be dispatched through the War Department.
Couldn’t Take It.
Mrs. Vogler almost declined to receive the message.
“When Western Union telephoned that they had a message, I felt that I just could not take any more,” she said. “I told them so and was calling my daughter, but the operator kept exclaiming:
“But this is good news—this is good news!”
“Then she began reading the message and it changed everything.”
She and her daughter, Mrs. George Block, the former Betsy Vogler, then went to the Western Union office to send a message to their son and brother. They discovered that his message was made up of three separate forms, combined into one, and that for that reason he must have been at his base when it was sent. The reference to the anniversary referred to a recent birthday.”
Raid Over Austria.
Overseas since February, Capt. Vogler is believed to have been a part of a formation of more than 500 Liberators and Fortresses that attacked and smashed the German aircrafts parts factory and ballbearing works at Steyr, in old Austria, from bases in Italy. News dispatches stated that 33 Allied planes were lost in the sortie, which encountered determined resistance from 300 Nazi planes, some of which used rockets and aerial bombs.
Before going overseas Captain Vogler had been stationed at Foster field, Victoria, Texas, as an instructor. He entered the army air forces shortly after his graduation from the University of Iowa in June of 1941, and received his commission and wings in February of 1942.
Source: The Daily Times, Davenport IA – Wednesday, May 17, 1944 (photo included)
