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Charlotte Nell Webber, age 98, passed away peacefully Thursday, June 12, 2025 at Palmetto’s of Garden City. She was 98-years-old and had been in good health until just a week ago. Born in Xenia, OH, she was a daughter of the late Perry Swindler and Helen Bentley Swindler. Her life is an example of how military family members serve and sacrifice. As the daughter of a soldier, she watched her father go away for WWII and was there when her mother got the telegram notifying her that her husband had been seriously wounded soon after D-Day, where he had landed on Utah Beach as the XO of the 2 Battalion 8th Infantry. After recovering from his wounds, he returned to the front, was captured and sent to a POW camp in Poland. My mom then saw her mother get the missing in action telegram and then, a few months later, the telegram that he was a POW. He escaped in January, 1945 as the Germans were marching the POWs from Poland as the Russian Army advanced west so there were several months when my mom's family had no idea what had happened to him until he managed to get to Odessa and was eventually repatriated to the U.S. She married a soldier and her family watched him load the infantry battalion he was commanding onto a troop ship at Bremerton Naval Base in Seattle in 1966 to go to Vietnam with the 2 Battalion 8th Infantry. The Army made all of the families from the battalion move off of Ft. Lewis while it was deployed to Vietnam and as the Battalion Commander's wife, Charlotte took charge. There was a chain of command with the company commanders' and first sergeants' wives reported to her, the platoon leaders' and platoon sergeants' wives reporting to them, etc so that she could make sure that of all the battalion's families were doing OK and help them out when they needed it. Her husband returned about 7 months later after being seriously wounded and she nursed him back to help. Her brother was a soldier who had several tours in Vietnam as a helicopter door gunner. On his last tour, his chopper was shot down and he and the surviving crew members spent several days in the jungle evading the NVA and Viet Cong before they made it to safety. He earned the Silver Star for his actions. Charlotte was also a Red Cross volunteer during the late 60s and 70s, typically in charge of the local chapter. She did things like help families contact service members in emergency situations, helped military families in need, etc. She and other Red Cross volunteers also were there when families were informed that their loved ones had been killed in Vietnam and assisted them in the aftermath which took a toll on her. She was the mother of soldiers and had to worry about her eldest son (USMA '74) when he deployed to Panama during Urgent Fury in '89 and then her youngest when deployed to Iraq in '05. Charlotte was the grandmother of soldiers and had to worry about two grandsons (one of them my son) and two granddaughters (my brother's kids) when they were deployed to Afghanistan. Throughout all of this, she was always a trooper. She was positive and supportive and for this, her family and we all honor her memory and that of the other military family members since they have also served our country by supporting their loved ones in uniform and had to sacrifice much to do so. Surviving to honor her memory are her 2 sons: Kurt Webber and his wife Elisabeth of NH, Ken Webber and his wife Cindy of Myrtle Beach; her daughter, Karen Strachco and her husband Richard; her grandchildren: Chris and Kenny Webber, Kaitland and Kandace Webber, Craig, Rebecca, Robert, Benjamin and Hannah Strachco and her great grandchildren, Landon, Bryleligh, Edison, Elie and JJ. In keeping with her wishes, no services are planned. Please sign the family’s guestbook at: www.goldfinchfuneralhome.com Goldfinch Funeral Home, Beach Chapel is in charge of her arrangements.

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Charlotte Nell Webber

November 28, 1926 - June 12, 2025