Charles Slay was born in December 1921 in Holloway, Louisiana. He was one of the first boys in the area to finish high school. He went to work building new Army camps as an estimator. The Army would then send his appraisal in for approval. He did not want to be in the infantry, so he went and took all of the tests to get in the Army Air Corps. He discovered he was colorblind through that and was turned down. He was then drafted into the infantry. His parents had no work during the Great Depression. They planted an acre or two of cotton and a big patch of peas. Neighbors would come in at night and steal peas. They had plenty to eat though. The Old Natchez Trace [Annotator's Note: Natchez Trace, historic forest trail that extends from Nashville, Tennessee to Natchez, Mississippi; used by Native Americans for centuries] came through his area and went into Pineville, Louisiana. The Trail was abandoned when the highway was put in. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him where he was when he heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.] A friend of Slay's named Hayden Lawrence came to him and said he wanted them to join the Army together but Slay was making good money working at Camp Livingston [Annotator's Note: near Alexandria, Louisiana]. He had bought a new 1941 Ford Coupe and he could get it full of girls. Slay's father said he could not join since he had to pay for the car and that he would be drafted soon enough. Hayden went by himself, was sent to the Philippines, and was captured and killed by the Japanese. Slay had another friend named Lloyd Denny who went to the area and found where Hayden had been buried and brought his body back to Louisiana.

Charles Slay was sent to Oregon after being drafted into the Army and was assigned to the 104th Infantry Division. They had square divisions at the beginning of the war with two regiments in the front and two in the rear. The Army increased the number of divisions by reducing them to three, with only one in the rear. The 104th "Timberwolf" Infantry Division [Annotator's Note: Timberwolf Division was a nickname] was formed in Oregon this way. They had basic training and then started on maneuvers. They would cross Oregon out into the desert and into Mexico. There would be a lot of sandstorms at night. It was terrible. While in Texas, they would cross into Louisiana and then back to into Texas. From Texas, they went over to Louisiana on trains and then from New Orleans to Europe by boat. Slay did not mind the travel. He was always talkative. He became a staff sergeant. A girl on the train wanted him to go home with her and her mother. He went to New York and then to France to the Remagen Bridge [Annotator's Note: Ludendorff Bridge, also known as Bridge at Remagen, was captured during the Battle Remagen on 7 March 1945]. On the ship over to Europe the sea was pretty smooth, and the weather was nice. Slay was sent ahead of the rest of his company. He went to get things lined up for his division when they arrived. The weather was nice. He and another soldier stole a jeep and went across the Remagen Bridge ahead of the rest of the company. He returned and the captain thought he was lying about having crossed it.

Charles Slay and the 104th Infantry Division were at the Remagen Bridge [Annotator's Note: the Ludendorff Bridge, also known as the Bridge at Remagen, was captured during the Battle of Remagen on 7 March 1945] in Germany. At night he would just find someplace to sleep. The enemy was about 200 or 300 yards from them. He found a room underneath a house to sleep on the floor. It was very cold out. The captain came down and slept near him, telling him about his wife at home. The next morning, the captain got breakfast and went to the observation point. They had 105mm cannons [Annotator's Note: 105mm M2A1 howitzer] and the captain was helping them target. Around ten o'clock in the morning, Slay got word from his First Sergeant that the captain had been hit. About two hours later, he found out he had died. Slay liked him. He was a good officer and a good man. In an infantry regiment, like the 415th Infantry Regiment, 104th Infantry Division, there are three line companies with mortars behind them, and then cannons behind them around a half a mile or so. About 90 percent of the casualties are in Companies A, B, C. Companies A, B, C, are line companies while Company D is heavy weapons. There is also a service company and Cannon Company. [Annotator's Note: Slay is describing the make up of a World war 2 era infantry battalion, in this case a regiment's 1st Battalion.] In an infantry regiment's 3rd Battalion, the line companies are I, K, and L with M being the battalion's weapons company. Slay likes to tell a period story of why infantry regiments have no Company J.

When coming under enemy fire, Charles Slay would try to get behind something or get down into a cellar if he could. Being in a cannon company [Annotator's Note: Slay was a member of Cannon Company, 415th Infantry Regiment, 104th Infantry Division], his baptism of fire was not like the one the infantry faces. His was not that frightening. Toward the end of the war, they were covering as much ground as they could, moving day and night to keep the Russians from getting it. The Germans were pretty much finished by that point. They were moving so much equipment that whenever they had a clear chance on the road, they took it. The cannon company would get shelled pretty good but not like the infantry. His captain had been killed. Slay recommends travelers should go to Köln [Annotator's Note: Cologne, Germany]. Even though he was at war, he marveled at the architecture. He tells a story about two young Italian boys, Romulus and Remus, who got lost in the mountains. A mother wolf nursed them. Romulus came down from the mountains and founded Rome, while Remus came down and founded Köln. The Germans are good architects and engineers and their highways are the best in the world. Slay would get a half of pound of coffee and take it to talk to some old German men. He would end up being friends with them. Slay went to get something at headquarters in a jeep when a woman flagged him down. She claimed that some Polish laborers were killing her animals. Slay went up there and found it to be true. One of them approached Slay and he loaded his rifle and told them to not take the woman's things. She told Slay that she was an opera singer who had sung in Louisiana. She had a big farm with a big barn. He had to pull out to get ready to go to Japan and does not know whatever happened to the opera singer. She had a bucket full of diamonds and another full of gold on her piano. He told her to hide it because he might rob her himself. He went and talked to her before returning to the United States. She showed him the spot where she had buried the diamonds and gold.

When Charles Slay joined the military he was assigned to Cannon Company [Annotator's Note: Cannon Company, 415th Infantry Regiment, 104th Infantry Division]. They had a 105mm cannon [Annotator's Note: 105mm M2A1 howitzer] that would be behind a tank. If the infantry saw enemy movement, they would call for cannon fire. They would also call in the range adjustments. Slay was the supply sergeant. He made sure that all the equipment was there and worked closely with the First Sergeant. He got coffee and he would take it to the Germans. He would get to talking to them and find out that they were not so different from him. He did not keep up with any of them when he returned home on furlough before preparing to go to Japan. The war ended when his furlough was over. The Army was good for Slay. He was on the front lines in the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Slay would go to get things from headquarters and he could see the German guns lined up, probably 100 of them. His unit was at the Rohr River. One night everything broke loose. The Germans broke through and pushed right beside the 104th Infantry Division. The Americans countered in front of them and stopped the advance. The Germans nearly broke through but ran out of equipment so they could only back off. For about three or four days it was unbelievable how much artillery was firing. Most of it went over where Slay was and onto the heavy equipment coming up behind them. Their casualties were not as bad as others were. He does not want to brag on his enemies, but the Germans were good soldiers. The Americans had them beat on equipment though.

Charles Slay was in Köln [Annotator's Note: Cologne, Germany] and thought it was very beautiful. His unit [Annotator's Note: Cannon Company, 415th Infantry Regiment, 104th Infantry Division] pushed forward to a prisoner of war camp. Slay was somewhere else and when he returned, the camp had been liberated. The former prisoners were everywhere. They were barefoot and with tattered clothing. He had a corporal who handed him a letter to mail from Sheriff Greenie Kelly [Annotator's Note: unable to locate any information on who this is] who had been a prisoner there. Slay had old boots there and the freed prisoners took them all. Slay was supposed to exchange them for new boots. He told his sergeant about it and offered to pay for them. The sergeant told him to leave it up to him. Slay was around where some concentration camps were liberated but he never went into them. The German farms had long buildings with apartments in them where Polish workers would live. When the war ended, Slay was picked from his company to go back to the United States and to an Army camp to get ready to go to Japan. He did not mix much with the Germans when the war ended in Europe. The German girls were very pretty and some of the men would go to parties. [Annotator's Note: Slay loses his train of thought.]

Once, after the war had ended in Europe, a guard told Charles Slay there was a German woman he could not get rid of and asked Slay to help. Slay could speak a little German. She told him she had grandchildren that needed food. Slay took her upstairs where the American soldiers were. The C rations had things they did not eat, and they had the leftovers all around. He told her to take everything she could get into her apron. The woman was grateful. The captain had all of the noncommissioned officers lined up and he told them to stop talking to the Germans. Slay did not agree with that. Slay saw the woman coming down the street and got worried when she asked for him by name. The captain told him to go see what she wanted. She had brought him two bottles of Triple X Cognac in exchange for the food. He took it but told her not to bring anything else. When the captain finished, the First Sergeant came to see what she had wanted. Slay told him it to give to him. She came back another time and he helped her again.

Charles Slay was sent ahead of the rest of his company [Annotator's Note: Cannon Company, 415th Infantry Regiment, 104th Infantry Division] to the United States to prepare for the invasion of Japan. His Army days were not bad at all. He never harmed a woman or a child over there. He just could not do that. Some American soldiers from the big cities did not have too much feeling for other people. He loved Köln [Annotator's Note: Cologne, Germany] and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. He was not allowed to go up inside it and there were guards around it. Slay was put on a boat to come back to the United States. He arrived in New Orleans then took a cab to Alexandria, Louisiana to see his father. He was there for two weeks. He reported in to an Army camp and he was the only one in the company. He would see other soldiers downtown at night. One night, an attractive young women was in a bar he was in. He was married and not interested in her. She began to talk to him, but he did not want to talk to her. She dropped something and bent down to pick it up. When she stood back up, she told him he was not a gentleman. He told her he did not have time for her, and she slapped him. Somebody thought he was about to hit her and grabbed him. He threw his whiskey in her eyes. The Military Police came to arrest him, but the owner of the place told them to leave him alone. He returned to base. The next morning, he went to get breakfast and was teased about getting beat up by a woman.

Charles Slay found out the war was over by radio. He had come down from Oregon through the desert. At night the wind would blow, and it would be cold so he would go down into a dry creek bed to escape the wind. The creeks would often flood at night. He would go downtown after the war ended and people would want to buy him a drink but there was no parade or anything. His parents were happy to see him. He came home and married his girlfriend. There was an old preacher who would wait for couples outside the court house. He charged two dollars to marry them. Slay feels the younger generation should learn about World War 2. Many people made a lot of sacrifices. He feels fortunate to have come through combat, especially in Germany. He had started out trying to get in the Army Air Corps, but he was colorblind. He did not want to go in the infantry. He went through all of that with two friends. One was killed when he crashed his plane in the Gulf of Mexico. Another was shot down over Germany. Slay was in the infantry and never got a scratch. You just never know.