With The Colors
Word has been received by Mr. and Mrs. Knud Bonnicksen of Ringsted that their son, Sgt. Chalmer Bonnicksen, is a prisoner of the Germans. Sgt. Bonnicksen has been reported missing in action since February 17. The letter was received through the Red Cross.
Sgt. Bonnickesen had written his letter to his wife, Claudia, who is employed as a riveter in the Douglas aircraft plant at Santa Monica, Calif. He told her she may write to him as often as she likes, but that she would have to share his letters with other friends and relatives because his letters were rationed. He asked her to send him some winter clothes and socks and also to send some Hershey candy bars and some smoking tobacco.
He was sent overseas February 18, 1942. He went first to Ireland, Scotland and England and then to the African front, where he had been reported missing in action.
Sgt. Bonnicksen is with the infantry and has been in the armed forces for two years. He received most of his training at Camp Claiborne, La., where he was stationed almost a year. He was on maneuvers in Louisiana, also. Just before he left this country, he received his sergeant’s rating.
Source: Estherville, Vindicator and Republican, April 29, 1943
Chalmer Edwin Bonnicksen was born Feb. 17, 1913 to Knud and Georgina Andrea Toft Bonnicksen. He died Apr. 29, 1967 and is buried in Saint John Lutheran Cemetery, Ringsted, IA.
Source: ancestry.com
