Edward A. Carter Jr.

Edward Allen Carter Jr. (May 26, 1916 – January 30, 1963) was a United States Army sergeant first class who was wounded in action during World War II. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration for valor, for his actions on March 23, 1945, near Speyer, Germany.

Carter and six other black Americans who served in World War II were awarded the Medal of Honor on January 12, 1997. The seven recipients are the first and only black American soldiers to be awarded the Medal of Honor for World War II.

Early years Carter was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1916. He was the son of missionary parents. His father Edward Allen Carter, Sr. was African-American. His mother, Mary Albert, was born to an English father and a Bengali mother in Kolkata, India. Carter grew up in India and then moved to Shanghai, China. He was fluent in 4 languages: English, Hindi, German and Mandarin.

Provisional platoons of African-American troops were established in the wake of the Battle of the Bulge, which took place during the winter of 1944–1945. Black support and combat-support soldiers were allowed to volunteer for combat duty, and were given brief training in small-unit tactics. Formed into provisional units, they were used to augment depleted divisions. Soldiers volunteering for this combat duty had to surrender their current rank. When the provisional companies were set up, Carter volunteered and went from staff sergeant to private.

On March 23, 1945, Carter, then a 28-year-old infantry staff sergeant, was riding on a tank when it was hit by a Panzerschreck. Dismounted, Carter led three soldiers across an open field. In the process, two of the men were killed and the other seriously wounded. Carter continued on alone and was wounded five times, before being forced to take cover.

Eight German soldiers tried to capture him, but he killed six and captured the remaining two. He used the two as human shields from enemy fire as he recrossed the field. His prisoners provided valuable information on enemy troop dispositions for his unit. For this, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross on October 4, 1945, and later promoted to sergeant first class.

Personal life He married Mildred Hoover in 1940. Together they had two sons, Edward III, born March 27, 1941, and William, born 1944.

Awards and decorations Carter's awards and decorations include: alt=A metal device depicting a blue bar with a rifle, in front of a wreath of silver leaves. , a Navy container ship of the Military Sealift Command, was named after Carter.

Medal of Honor

In the early 1990s, it was determined that black soldiers had been denied consideration for the Medal of Honor in World War II on grounds of their race. In 1993, the Army contracted Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, to research and determine if there was racial disparity in the review process for recipients of the Medal of Honor. A study commissioned by the Army described systematic racial discrimination in the criteria for awarding decorations during World War II.

In 1996, after an exhaustive review of files, the study recommended that ten black Americans who served in World War II be awarded the Medal of Honor. In October of that year, Congress passed legislation that would allow the Medal of Honor to be passed to seven out of the ten former soldiers. The Medal of Honor was given to Carter's son, the descendants of the other five black Americans, and the only still-living recipient, Vernon Baker, on January 12, 1997. Out of the seven, six had their Distinguished Service Crosses revoked and upgraded.

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