Andrew Jackson Carter, Jr.
Private 1st Class, U. S. Marine Corps
Navy Cross
From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Tuesday, November 19, 1985, p. 14A:
A witness to history dies at 59
Andrew J. Carter Jr., who was there 40 years ago when six U.S. Marines raised the flag on Iwo Jima for the most famous photograph of World War II, will be buried Tuesday.
Carter, 59, of Sidney, Comanche County, died Friday in a Dallas hospital after a long illness.
In February 1980, for the 35th anniversary of the landing on Iwo Jima, Carter recalled the flag-raising in an interview with the Star-Telegram. He said a Texas flag would have been alongside the Stars and Stripes had he and another Marine from Texas followed an impulse.
His buddy had a Lone Star flag in his knapsack.
"We thought about putting it up with the American, but we decided against it because the climb to the top was very rugged," Carter said.
He was one of 25,000 Marines who stormed the Pacific island Feb. 19, 1945. The monthlong fight cost 4,500 American lives and 21,000 Japanese.
Although the battle was fierce, Carter said that contrary to popular belief the six Marines were not under fire when they raised the flag for the famous picture.
"When the flag was raised, there was no resistance," he said. "We had blown up all the pillboxes around the mountain. We had annihilated all the resistance, except for those (Japanese) back in the caves."
The flag was raised two days after the landing.
Carter, who was a brick mason for 25 years in the Fort Worth area, will be buried in a military graveside service at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Greenwood Memorial Park in Fort Worth.
He was a member of the Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars in Comanche County.
Survivors include his wife, Peggy Carter of Sidney; his son, Stephen Carter of Wichita Falls; three daughters, Nanette Grounds of Fort Worth, Vickie Watters of Arlington and Terry Carter of Sidney; two brothers, Thurman Carter of Granbury and Hoyt Carter of Linden; a sister, Jeanette Oatman of Arlington; and three grandchildren.
Navy Cross Citation:
The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Private First Class Andrew J. Carter, Jr. (MCSN: 537051), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty while serving as a member of Company A, First Battalion, Twenty-Eighth Marines, FIFTH Marine Division, in action against Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 3 March, 1945.
When his forward position was attacked by twelve marauding Japanese just before dawn, Private First Class Carter skillfully shot and killed four of them and, with a comrade remaining on guard, rushed through the darkness to a nearby foxhole to replace his jammed rifle. Subsequently discovering his companion suffering a serious wound which left him physically unable to stop the advance of another of the enemy who was charging the foxhole with a drawn saber, he seized his own bayonet and, while exposed to several more of the Japanese surrounding the installations, killed the attacker in a daring hand-to-hand encounter. Although in severe pain from a serious wound received during the struggle and fully aware of the enemy's fanatical intent to penetrate the position, Private First Class Carter remained at his wounded companion's side until daybreak, surrounded by the bodies of twelve Japanese, five of whom he personally had killed in his gallant defense of his Company Command Post. By his fortitude, aggressive fighting spirit and unfaltering devotion to duty, he upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
