Sergeant Charles Richard Karpowitz was born on August 17, 1919, to Charles Richard Karpowitz and Leone Olsen in Salt Lake City, Utah. He completed 4 years of high school at South High School. He had two brothers Frank B. and Robert, as well as three sisters Phyllis Sweeten, June, and Norma Karpowitz. Charles was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He married Nancy E. White on October 21, 1942, in Salt Lake City.

Charles was a civilian chauffeur/driver before enlisting in the Army on July 10, 1941. He served with the Quartermaster Corps unit 1900. The U.S. Army Quartermaster Corp’s mission is to support the development, production, acquisition, and sustainment of general supply, Mortuary Affairs, subsistences, petroleum and water, material and distribution management during peace and war to provide combat power to the U.S. Army. [1]

March 26, 1945, Sergeant Karpowitz was killed when an army station wagon plunged over a 15-foot embankment in Parley’s Canyon while in Fort Douglas, Utah. He was the second victim of the crash and there was one survivor.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see++ www.storiesbehindthestars.org++). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Quartermaster Corps (United States Army). (2020, May 13). Retrieved August 08, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartermaster_Corps_(United_States_Army)