Libertyville veteran shares war memories with Scouts

Ten days after his high school graduation, Pfc. Don Carter reported to the U.S. Army induction center at Camp Upton in Suffolk County, New York in July 1943.

His assignment to the Fourth Division Field Artillery Battalion would bring him to the beaches of Normandy, northern France, the Rhineland and Central Europe, see him promoted to sergeant and earn five bronze battle stars in less than three years.

This week, the Libertyville resident spoke about his experiences as a soldier during World War II to Libertyville Boy Scout Troop 72 and guests at the United Methodist Church.

Carter saw some of the war’s most volatile exchanges including the St. Lo Breakthrough, the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge. It was at Cherbourg where he acquired his first battle prize.

“Our tank was the first in town. There was a main square in the town; the Nazi headquarters was in a gray stone building. Hanging from the building was a Nazi banner. I had the driver pull the tank up to the building and I pulled that sucker down,” he told the crowd.

Carter invited a Scout to help him unfurl the banner and waited while the audience snapped pictures of the well preserved bright red fabric with its iconic black swastika encircled by white.

He said he wanted to ship the 30-foot-long banner to his mother, so he grabbed an artillery box, placed the banner inside and nailed it shut. He was required to write its contents on the side of the box, so he wrote “Nazi Flag.”

He wasn’t quite sure if the box would actually be received by his mother, or if someone else would read the description and snag his prize.

“About two months later I got a letter from my mother saying, ‘Your flag arrived.’ She loaned the flag to a local store which featured it prominently in a window display,” Carter said.

The battles he described were some of the war’s bloodiest and deadliest. So it was with some amusement when he described his short-lived Boy Scout career.

“Don’t quit like I did. I’ve regretted it ever since,” he said. Carter showed the group his merit badge sash, neatly sewn with the 19 badges earned, two badges short of the requirement for Eagle Scout — the highest achievement in the program.

Matt Franz, 14, of Libertyville, asked Carter what scared him most about his war experiences.

“Artillery is very scary,” Carter replied.

He described how his company would prepare for the next day’s battle by firing shells into a location to be sure the equipment was calibrated to strike the exact spot. It was a necessary exercise that often gave away the troop’s location to the enemy with the possible consequence of return enemy fire.

Carter never was injured, but did have a close call. “I was on an M7 tank. We got hit once in the front on the track; you never saw me run so fast,” he said.

Two weeks before the war in Europe ended, Carter’s division liberated a prisoner of war camp in Nuremberg, which held as many as 15,000 men, women and children.

“There were little things that you would never think of unless you were in that situation,” Carter said. “When the war ends, the only ones who know are the ones who’ve won. Even though the war had been over, we kept getting shot at. The losers don’t get word that it’s over.”

After returning to the U.S. and reuniting with his mother, father and high school sweetheart (Mary, now his wife of 51 years), Carter’s orders were to report to Camp Butler, N.C., where the Fourth Division was to prepare to ship out to Okinawa.

As he started the journey from New York to North Carolina, on Aug. 14, 1945, Japan surrendered. Carter defied orders and detoured to New York City where he celebrated with the tens of thousands of revelers in New York City’s Times Square.

Back on duty at Camp Butler, Carter and his comrades “mothballed” the camp and were discharged from service two months later.

This past June, Carter returned to Normandy Beach as a guest of the Texas-based Vision Forum Ministries. At the Scout meeting, he wore a specially made navy blue sash embroidered in gold with “Normandy” that was presented to him during the trip. It included a five pointed star, a symbol of the five beaches where the allies landed during the largest amphibious military assault in history.

In July, he embarked on an “Honor” flight to Washington, D.C., with about 90 other World War II veterans. Of 16 million American soldiers who served during World War II, only 2 million are living, he said.

Carter is vice commander of the Libertyville American Legion Post 329, chairman of its annual Boys and Girls State program and of the flags. That puts him in charge of installing the 98 flags that decorate Libertyville’s Cook Memorial Park and the Veterans Memorial at Lakeside Cemetery on Veterans Day and every government holiday.