Re: Article about a list member

["Gernilee Carter" <gernilee@msn.com>]

Hi List and Glen,
 Thanks for posting this.  There are only two corrections, one of which is 
only important to my family and me, the other needs to be corrected,
   1. I am number five of SEVEN children.  Don was Mother's first born.

2.  The Tiger Survivor's Reunion actually took place  at King of Prussia, 
aka Valley Forge, Pennsylvania and was a part of an entire week of POW 
reunions of the Korean War.   I, indeed, was amazed and honored to be with 
these soliders.
  I had my notebook with my research and they were able to look at the maps 
and remember exact locations and point to where they were, where batttles 
and chaos was taking place, the recall amazes me.  I also had pictures of 
the 21st from various sources and some other documents from when they were 
stationed in Japan immediately before going into Korea.  They really enjoyed 
looking at those things.
   Gernilee




----Original Message Follows----
From: <GRBroman@aol.com>
Reply-To: KOREAN-WAR-L@listproc.cc.ku.edu
To: KOREAN-WAR-L@listproc.cc.ku.edu
Subject: Article about a list member
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 18:19:44 EDT

All,
This came in this afternoon at work.  If you follow the links at the bottom
it will take you to the Defense Press service home page.  I thought it was a
very well done article, and it's about one of our own, Gernilee Carter.
Glen

From: Press Service [mailto:afisnews_sender@DTIC.MIL]
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 12:48 PM
To: DEFENSE-PRESS-SERVICE-L@DTIC.MIL
Subject: Sister Remembers Brother Killed in Korean War
By Rudi Williams
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 14, 2003 - Gernilee Carter, 58, was only 5 years old when
her
brother, Donovan "Don" Carter, then 18, became one of the first casualties
of
the Korean War when he was killed on July 12, 1950.

Some 50 years later, July 27, 2003, she made her first journey to the Korean
War Veterans Memorial on the National Mall for DoD's anniversary of the
signing
of the armistice ended fighting.

Carter attached a black and white photo of her brother to the memorial's
shiny,
black granite wall. She said there hasn't been a day in more than 53 years
that
she hasn't thought about the death of her beloved brother.

His "little sister," and the youngest of five siblings, Carter said she and
Don
were close. She remembers him as "big, handsome, cuddly, loving and happy."

"He adored me. He was my first love," Carter said.

"He 'lied his age,' as the saying goes, to join the Army in 1948," Carter
said
she found out after she got older. "His date of birth was Feb. 28, 1932. He
wrote upon enlistment that he was born in 1930."

On July 5, 1950, Task Force Smith, the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry
Regiment,
24th Infantry Division, was the first U.S. unit to engage the North Koreans,
she noted. And her
brother's unit -- Company M, 3rd Battalion, 21st Regiment, 24th Infantry
Division
-- followed "immediately," she added.

According to the information on the Web site for DoD's commemoration of the
50th
anniversary of the war, most of the men were 20 years old or less; only one-
sixth had seen combat. The Americans were vulnerable to enemy flanking
attacks,
lacked the means to stop enemy tanks and were without reserves. Carter's
extensive research indicated that her brother's company was "totally
surrounded
by the North Koreans armed with Russian-built T-34 tanks. The result was not
wonderful and I've never forgotten him for a day."

"I have an individual personnel file that tells exactly where his remains
were,
where they took them temporarily and what they were wrapped in," Carter
said.
"I know everything, even every wound he had."

The remains of Army Pfc. Donovan "Don" Carter were brought home to his
family
about three years after his death on the Korean battlefield. They were
buried
in a cemetery across the street from where the family lived in
Northumberland,
Pa.

"Mother couldn't handle that, so we had to sell the house and move away,"
Carter noted. The family moved across the Susquehanna River, "for my
mother's
peace of mind."

She said no one else from her family came to DoD's recent 50th anniversary
recognition or to visit the Korean War Veterans Memorial, "because they
found
this all too painful."

Carter didn't attend the dedication of the memorial in 1995, but said she's
active on the Internet with the Korean War chat line. On Aug. 1, she
attended a
"Tiger Survivors" dinner in Northumberland. They are a group of men who
survived harsh treatment by the North Korean major who American prisoners of
war called "The Tiger."

She e-mailed a message that day saying she was "quite excited and nervous"
about talking with her brother's Company M comrades who "were with him in
battle when he died."

Carter said she also stays in touch with others who were in the battle with
her
brother. One, Jack Higdon, whom she said miraculously survived, went on to
earn
the Silver Star Medal for valor in Vietnam.

"He says Vietnam was a piece of cake compared to Korea," Carter said.

"Death affected the family profoundly in many, many ways," she noted. "Don's
young, killed-in-action death shaped our lives in ways that would not have
happened had he not been killed in such a place, manner and time. This is
probably the case with other families losing members in war."

Standing next to the memorial's long, shiny granite wall, Carter said she
didn't realize that the memorial is so large and the statues are spread out
so
far apart, trying to replicate the rough terrain in Korea.

"I was speechless and overcome with emotion when I first saw the memorial,"
she
said. "The statues are so big, maybe one and a half times the size of a real
person. I'm very impressed and grateful that they've done this since it is
called the forgotten war."

The 19 larger-than-life, stainless-steel statues of poncho-clad soldiers,
Marines and airmen are the memorial's centerpieces. Doctors, nurses, medics,
truck drivers, supply specialists, cooks and all the other support troops
are
represented on the shiny black granite wall.

Carter said people should be aware of the fact that the armistice
anniversary
that resulted in a cease-fire was just that - a cease-fire. "The war is
still
going on," said Carter. "The North Koreans present us with danger all the
time.

"Therefore, we need to remember that North Korea is still a threat," she
noted.

The men honored by the memorial didn't die without purpose, Carter said. The
memorial honors Americans who answered the call, worked and fought under the
trying of circumstances, and those who gave their lives for the cause of
freedom, she concluded.

2003080143a.jpg Gernilee Carter poses by a photo of her late brother, Army
Pfc.
Donovan "Don" Carter, whom she said was among the first casualties of the
Korean War. She affixed the photo to the shiny, black granite wall of the
Korean War Veterans Memorial while attending ceremonies this summer marking
the
50th anniversary of the signing of the armistice on July 27, 1953, that led
to a
cease-fire. Photo by Rudi Williams

2003080143a_hr.jpg High resolution photo.

2003080143b.jpg Gernilee Carter walks along the long, black polished black
granite wall that features 25,000 images of support troops during the Korean
War. She said her brother, Army Pfc. Donovan "Don" Carter, was among the
first
casualties of the war. Photo by Rudi Williams

2003080143b_hr.jpg High resolution photo.

2003080143c.jpg Gernilee Carter's brother, Army Pfc. Donovan Carter, holding
the rifle, poses with an unidentified friend during the Korean War. Photo
courtesy Gernilee Carter

2003080143c_hr.jpg High resolution photo.

NOTE:  This is a plain text version of a web page.  If your e-mail program
did not properly format this information, you may view the story at
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Aug2003/n08142003_200308143.html
Any photos, graphics or other imagery included in the article may also
be viewed at this web page.

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