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Edward Allen Carter Jr.

Edward Allen Carter Jr. was born May 26, 1916 in Los Angeles, California. He was the son of  missionary parents who went to the Far East and finally settled in Shanghai, China. Edward ran away from this home when he was a young teen to begin a military odyssey. However, it was not to be an ordinary journey as his material and spiritual paths intertwined.

Edward Carter's first tour was short-lived, yet not too short to prevent the 15-year-old Carter from rising to the rank of lieutenant in the Chinese Army. When he was discovered to still be a child, he was promptly discharged and returned to his parents. It was also long enough for Carter to believe he was visited by a spirit in the Chinese Army, which informed him would be a great warrior, but would not die in war.  Now having a

spiritual military destiny, as soon as he was old enough, Edward Carter enrolled in a Shanghai military school. While there, he received extensive combat training and learned at least three other languages, including Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, and German.

Edward Carter fought in the Spanish Civil War as a corporal in the socialist Abraham Lincoln Brigade. It was an American volunteer unit which opposed Gen. Franco's fascist troops. In 1938, the men of the Lincoln Brigade were forced to flee into France. Carter then  returned to the United States, where  in 1940, he met and married his wife Mildred in Los Angeles. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on Sept. 6, 1941, shortly before World War II, and quickly rose to staff sergeant.


In 1942, just months after he enlisted, the Army opened a counterintelligence file with his name on it.After basic training he was assigned to Fort Benning, Grorgia, as a cook.  Edward Carter also took his wife, Mildred, and young Edward to live there as well.

Before going to Georgia in 1941, Mildred said, that her husband instructed her on how to behave in Georgia in order for them to survive. Years later, Sgt. Carter  would talk about the segregated units  and how most of the white soldiers felt that the black soldiers should have a mop and a bucket, and  thought that they were only fit to clean up.

"There were very few activities available to blacks in town during that time," she added. "They just roamed the streets. There were areas you weren't allowed to even go in."

At times whites would beat black soldiers in the streets, she said, and when they fought back, they were thrown in jail, thrown on the chain gang. Usually, she said, it led to a dishonorable discharge. Not Edward Carter, he knew how to play the game, she added. He wanted to stay in the Army, and he knew what to do and how to get around. Edward made sergeant in less than a year, Allene said, and was made mess sergeant of the officers' club. Sgt. Carter's second son, William, was born during their time at Fort Benning.

Though the Carter sons remember little of their father when they were small, Edward said "when he was there, we had a good time." They were both still toddlers when he went off to fight in World War II. After the war, his sons said, whenever he spoke of combat, he would pull up his shirt and begin describing how he got his wounds.

On May 18, 1943, an unidentified intelligence officer at Fort Benning, Grorgia "deemed it advisable" to put Sergeant Carter under surveillance and start an investigation. The officer did so because Carter had been a member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Allegedly, "while not necessarily communist," he had been "exposed to communism."

The report further alleged "Subject... capable of having connections with subversive activities due to... early years [until 1938] in the Orient" and had a speaking knowledge of Chinese. Every commander Carter had thereafter secretly reported what he read, where he went and what clubs he joined.

In 1944 he was shipped to Europe and ended up assigned to supply duties. When Gen. Dwight Eisenhower ran short of combat-arms replacements in December 1944, he instituted the volunteer Ground Force Replacement Command for rear-echelon Soldiers of all races. By February 1945, a total of 4,562 black Soldiers were serving in units up to company size attached to previously all-white infantry and armored divisions.

After months of volunteering, Sgt.Carter's platoon made it into combat. At the height of his career he was even close to Gen. George S. Patton, serving as one of the general's guards. Gen. Patton had no room for prejudice in the ranks. They had a strong bond with the fact that both of them believed they had been visited by a spirit who foretold of accomplishments on the battlefield.  Sgt. Carter  would eventually serve in the "Mystery Division" of blacks in Gen. Patton's Third Army. (The Mystery Division performed missions requiring uniforms without the identifying unit insignia.)



















By late February of 1945, the Battle of the Bulge had cut through the Army's infantry ranks like a scythe. Reinforcements were needed desperately. Army brass appealed for volunteers among black troops. He was among the first chosen. Like the other 2,600 black volunteers, he was forced to give up his rank and become a private. He stripped off his sergeant stripes and awaited assignment.

It didn't take long. His unit was organized into the 1st Provisional Company, assigned to the 12th Armored Division, then assigned again to the 56th Armored Infantry Battalion. It wasn't long until they gave him his staff sergeant stripes back. Then they made him a squad leader of Infantry. The 12th Armored Division was detached to General George Patton's 3rd Army.

On March 23, 1945, the 12th Armored was speeding toward the city of Speyer. There was a bridge over the Rhine there, still intact. The 714th Tank Battalion was leading the way, the black volunteers were clinging to the backs of the 714th's rumbling Shermans. Suddenly, German antitank rockets started screaming through the air, and machine-gun fire roared. His squad took cover. He noticed that the rocket fire was coming from a large warehouse ahead of him. He volunteered to lead a three-man patrol to take the warehouse. Clambering over the embankment, he saw one of his men cut down instantly. He ordered the other two to turn back. Before they could reach the embankment, one was killed, the other wounded.


























He ran on alone. Before he reached the barn surrounding the warehouse, he'd taken five bullets and three pieces of shrapnel. He crawled the last few yards, blood and dirt staining his fatigues. For two hours, he waited. Finally, convinced he was dead, an eight-man patrol came out to make sure. Waiting for his moment, he opened up with his .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun. Within seconds, six Germans were dead. He took the other two prisoner. Using the two as human shields, he marched back across the open field to his company. His commanding officer wanted him evacuated to a medic's tent so his wounds could be treated. He refused. Instead, he climbed the stairs to the observation post and pointed out several German machine-gun nests. Then he turned his prisoners over for interrogation. Utilizing his information, the road to Speyer was cleared, and the city was taken in two days.

Less than a month later, he reported back to his commanding officer, ready for duty. A few days after that the commanding officer got a telegram from the Army hospital in the rear, reporting that he was missing, apparently gone AWOL from the hospital. Word was sent that it was ok and that he was back with his unit. After recovering from his wounds in less than a month, he was restored to his staff sergeant rank and finished the war training troops.

In July of 1945, his commanding officer signed a recommendation that he be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second-highest decoration for valor in combat. The Distinguished Service Cross was approved, one of only nine awarded to black soldiers for heroism during the war.

The war over, Carter found himself stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, and politely known as a Negro or colored. A lot of the battlefield camaraderie had faded, however, as black soldiers were becoming increasingly common and were blending into the ranks.

After the war he went back to civilian life but was not happy so he decided that it was time to get back in uniform. The Army snapped him up for a three-year tour at his old rank. Not long after that, he was promoted to sergeant first class.

At this point in his career, he had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, American Defense Service Medal, Combat Infantry Badge and numerous other citations and honors.

(In 1946, Secretary of War Robert Patterson noted an irregularity in the lack of black recognition for MOH and promised to investigate.)



























His commanding Officers chose Sgt. Carter and two other senior noncommissioned officers to train and organize a new all-black National Guard engineer unit in Southern California.

Almost from the moment he re-enlisted, however, the old questions about his involvment in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade were raised again. Army counterintelligence investigators came to interview Carter. On September 21, 1949, when his enlistment ended, he announced his intention to re-enlist for another tour, however his commanders said no. He would not be allowed to re-enlist, they said, without the specific permission of the adjutant general of the Army. He was stunned. He received an honorable discharge dated October 1949.




















He moved into a life as a family man and steadily worked iat a tire plant the rest of his life. Late in 1962, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Although he smoked, he and his doctors attributed the discovery of lung cancer to shrapnel still in his neck. He died on January 30, 1963, in the UCLA Medical Center, a Los Angeles hospital, at 47 years of age.

More than three decades later, Sergeant Edward Allen Carter Jr. would become,  California's most decorated black hero of World War II.


























Sgt. Carter was laid to rest in the National Cemetery on the grounds of the Veterans Hospital in West Los Angeles near where he died. On Jan. 10, 1997, Carter was exhumed and honored the next day in Los Angeles. His remains have since been moved to Arlington National Cemetery.

*****

In 1992, Secretary of the Army John Shannon commissioned an independent study to identify unrecognized African-American heroes from World War II. A study undertaken by the United States Army in 1995 to 1996 to determine why no black soldiers in World War II had received a Medal of Honor. The study focused on the nine black soldiers, who had earned the Distinguished Service Cross. A special Army Awards Board panel determined that seven of those Distinguished Service Cross recipients should have their awards upgraded to the highest combat award, the Medal of Honor. Staff Sergeant Edward Allen Carter Jr. of Los Angeles, California, was identified and recommended for honors.


Medal Of Honor

President William J. Clinton on Jan. 13,  1997 posthumously awarded Edward Allen Carter Jr. this country's highest decoration for heroism in combat, the Medal of Honor to his son, Edward Allen Carter III, in Washington, D.C.





















Citation reads:

When the tank on which he was riding received heavy bazooka and small arms fire, Sergeant Carter voluntarily attempted to lead a three-man group across an open field. Within a short time, two of his men were killed and the third seriously wounded. Continuing on alone, he was wounded five times and finally forced to take cover. As eight enemy riflemen attempted to capture him, Sergeant Carter killed six of them and captured the remaining two. He then crossed the field using as a shield his two prisoners from which he obtained valuable information concerning the disposition of enemy troops.

Staff Sergeant Carter's extraordinary heroism was an inspiration to the officers and men of the Seventh Army Infantry Company Number 1 (Provisional) and exemplify the highest traditions of the Armed Forces.


























As the Red scare spread during the McCarthy years, Sgt. Carter was denied re-enlistment and his name was deleted from the California National Guard honor rolls, all "part of a design to destroy his entire military career," his daughter-in-law Allene Carter said.

"He died a heartsick man, never knowing the real reason for his country's post-war rejection of him."

Allene Carter launched a crusade in 1996 to restore her father-in-law's dignity, and Army records ultimately proved he had been wrongly stigmatized by innuendo and fear-based hysteria.

Later, General John Keane, the Army's vice chief of staff, presented his family with a set of corrected military records to remove the stain of suspicion that declassified Army intelligence records show had no basis in fact. Keane said he regretted this sad chapter in Army history and apologized. President Clinton later in a personal letter to his wife also apologized. The day after he was awarded the Medal of Honor, this American hero was re-interred in Arlington National Cemetery.


























As a warrior, Edward A. Carter Jr. had few peers.

He fought the Japanese as a teenager in China, battled fascism in the Spanish Civil War and took up arms against the Nazis during World War II, all with great success.

But one skirmish he couldn't win, (at least in his own lifetime) was the fight he waged at home against ignorance, bigotry and McCarthyism.

Gregory Tracy, curator of the California Military Museum, has said that Edward A. Carter Jr. was "the consummate soldier, an American hero who continued to hold his country in high regard" despite the prejudice he encountered throughout his military career.

"What's amazing is that it only took him 11 days to earn the Medal of Honor," Allene Carter said, pointing out that Army policy relegated most African American troops to ehind the lines non-combat roles until March 1945.


Other Honors





















MV Ssg Edward A. Carter, Jr., named in honor of the Medal of Honor recipient, is a container ship in the United States Navy Military Sealift Command, one of 36 ships that are a part of the Prepositioning Program.