Charles Todd was commissioned in the Marine Corps through the ROTC Program at Ohio State University where he graduated in 1940, and reported to Guam as a first lieutenant, bringing his wife and infant daughter to live with him. The family was evacuated with other military dependents by September 1941, and three months later on December 9, Lieutenant Todd and his fellow Marines were captured at the fall of Guam. During his years of captivity he kept a detailed journal and, upon being advised the war had ended wrote: “I believe in the long run the Japanese have given me more in the building of my character than they took away from it.” He retired in 1958 as a United States Marine Corps Brigadier General.