Corporal Jack Edwin Carter
United States Army Air Forces - World War II – Died in Training
Mountain Home Air Field, Idaho
August 2, 2021 - Jack Edwin Carter, the son of Nancy “Nannie” Belle Green and James Edgar Carter was born June 13, 1921 in Shelby County located in far east Texas. He had two brothers, Paul (1919) and James Bruce (1923). His father like many at that time was a farmer and they lived on a farm the family owned located on Byrd Town Road. Times were no doubt hard with the Great Depression hitting the country in the early 1930’s. Following graduation from Shelbyville High School he attended Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College, Nacogdoches, Texas for two years.
On December 7, 1941 without warning the Empire of Japan attacked the US military facilities at Pearl Harbor and Hickam Field, Hawaii. The United States found itself once again fighting a World War but this time on two fronts, Europe and the Pacific. Jack registered for the military draft on February 16, 1942 as required by the Selective Service Act of 1940. His registration card, D.S.S. Form 1 noted the following; Residence, 410 Eleventh Street, Orange, Texas; Age, 20; Employer, Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Texas; Race, white; Description of Registrant, five foot, 9 inches tall, 163 pounds, blue eyes, blonde hair and light complexed.(1)
Jack enlisted in the US Army Air Forces at Tyler, Smith County, Texas on October 2, 1943 and was sent to Keesler Field, Mississippi where he completed four weeks of basic training. 
Selected as an aerial gunner Jack was sent to Truax Field, Madison Wisconsin for training and then to Mountain Home Army Air Field, Idaho that trained B-24 “Liberator” Bomber Crews.(2)
An early March 1945 edition of the Champion Newspaper, Center, Texas reported “his parents received a telegram informing them that their son Jack E. Carter was missing along with eight other crew members of a B-24 Liberator Bomber that was on a bombing training mission, March 2. A later telegram stated that the plane has not yet been located, although a search of the entire area is being conducted. Corporal Carter, tail gunner and photographer was scheduled to graduate on March 27”.
The Bend Bulletin Newspaper, Bend, Oregon reported on March 6 that “the charred wreckage of a B-24 Liberator Bomber which had been missing from Mountain Home, Idaho airfield since last Friday was spotted late yesterday, 20 miles west and five miles south of Denio, Oregon. If was not known whether any of the crew members survived”.
Unfortunately all nine aboard the bomber that was on a routine training flight perished March 2, 1945. Jack’s remains were returned home where final rites were held Saturday, March 17 at the First Methodist Church in Shelbyville. Interment followed in the Shelbyville Cemetery. The Champion Newspaper, March 15, 1945 listed his survivors as; “his parents [Nancy and James Carter]; two brothers, both of whom are in the service. Cpl. James B. Carter who is on Saipan and TSgt Paul G. Carter, recently returned to the US after having completed the required number of missions and is now stationed at Hamilton Field, Calif. He arrived last Thursday on leave to be with his parents and attend the funeral of his brother”. Day is done, God is nigh.
“That these dead shall not have died in vain”…..Abraham Lincoln
References:
(1) The National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for Texas, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 245
(2) McLeroy, Jack, and T. L. Brown. The Men and Women in World War II from Shelby County. 1 vols. Shelby County, Texas, n.d.
