Re: Article about a list member

["swan" <swan@haysco.net>]

Gernilee, I hope you don't object to me saying that the photo in the article
shows you to be a very pretty lady.

Bob Dove



----- Original Message -----
From: "Gernilee Carter" <gernilee@msn.com>
To: <KOREAN-WAR-L@listproc.cc.ku.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 6:20 PM
Subject: Re: Article about a list member


> 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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