Biography
Year at ISU: 1945
First Lieutenant Charles Maring, Jr. was born on October 18, 1922 to Charles E. Maring and Ruth Copeland. He grew up in Grinnell, Iowa.
Charles graduated form Grinnell High School in 1940 and attended one year at Iowa State College before entering the service. He enlisted into the Army Air Corps on June 2, 1942 in Des Moines, Iowa. He was called to active service on November 3, 1942.
He trained at Santa Anna, California and then Tuscon, Arizon. At Martha, Texas, he earned wings and commission as second lieutenant in November 1943. The Army then assigned him a B-17 bomber and further training at Roswell, New Mexico. He undertook his final combat training at Sioux City, Iowa.
Charles flew his B-17 overseas from Kearney, Nebraska directly to Scotland in May 1944, around the time his made first lieutenant. His last service assignment was with the 8th Air Force stationed in England. He had flown many missions, and twice brought his crippled B-17 back to safety from battle. His parents, however, received word in October 1944 that their son had gone missing in action after a collision with another plane. Eyewitnesses said that they saw four parachutes descending from the scene of the collision. The Red Cross later reported that the Germans said that Lieutenant Maring was probably killed instantly, since he was not a prisoner of war.
His official date of death is September 28, 1944 over Leipzig Germany. His decorations and citations include:
- Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters
- Unit Presidential Citations
- Order of the Purple Heart
- Commemoration signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.