Thank you for sharing your father's inspirational life story, John. He is someone I
would have enjoyed meeting!
Irene Carpenter Mehaffy
-----Original Message-----
From: carpenter-request <carpenter-request(a)rootsweb.com>
To: carpenter <carpenter(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Mon, Oct 19, 2015 1:33 am
Subject: CARPENTER Digest, Vol 10, Issue 77
Today's Topics:
1. Re: Remembering: Richard Louis "Dick" Carpenter
(1931-2013)
(rockranch)
2. Re: Remembering: Richard Louis "Dick"
Carpenter (1931-2013)
(rockranch)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message:
1
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2015 08:32:19 +0000 (UTC)
From: rockranch
<rockranch2000(a)yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [CARPENTER] Remembering: Richard Louis
"Dick" Carpenter
(1931-2013)
To: John R Carpenter
<jrcrin001(a)cox.net>, Rootsweb
Carpenter
<CARPENTER(a)rootsweb.com>, "carpenter(a)rootsweb.com"
<carpenter(a)rootsweb.com>
Message-ID:
<1979475028.2509124.1445243539097.JavaMail.yahoo(a)mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type:
text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Thank you for sharing this fabulous story.? By the
way, I also would like to punch Ollie North on the nose.
Frances Hogan
From: John R Carpenter via <carpenter(a)rootsweb.com>
To: Rootsweb Carpenter
<CARPENTER(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2015 5:25 PM
Subject:
[CARPENTER] Remembering: Richard Louis "Dick" Carpenter (1931-2013)
Hello,
It may bit a bit long, but here is my favorite ancestor. It is not
polished but from the heart.
John R. Carpenter
Richard Louis Carpenter
b.
22 Sep 1931 Fargo, Cass, ND, USA
d. 4 Jan 2013 San Diego, San Diego, CA,
USA
In April of of 1945 my father was? biologically 14 years and 7 months
old, but he was over six feet in height and looked much older and ... he was
headed to Europe as a soldier. He had lied about his age and altering his birth
certificate several times to make himself older for several jobs during the war
years.? He was working as a welder near the Portland, Oregon when an US Army
recruiter, assuming he was old enough, hinted that he could be arrested for
failing to register for the military draft. And that all could be over looked
and forgiven if he joined the Army and did his patriotic duty for his country.
My father had joined up.
On 30 April 1945 my father, with other replacements
heading to the front, saw a death train near Dachau in Southern Germany with
dead bodies stacked like cord wood. He saw the bullet ridden train cars and the
emaciated corpses. He like many other American soldiers became infuriated. He
learned to hate. Over the next week he helped supervise German civilians from
the Munich area that gathered and buried the dead. He watched the disease ridden
hellholes where the inmates lived were burn for health reasons.? He was a guard
for war crime trails that were held at Dachau later that year. He handled at
brought into court wheel barrows containing boxes of golden wedding rings, gold
teeth, jewelry and other items. He saw, he touched, he brought into court the
human skin items that had been used for painting canvas, wallets, lamp shades
and other art works. He helped with the reburial of the dead because of the
terrible winter of 1945 into 1946 when so many bodies percolated to the su!
rface. He learned of the horrors of war. In February of 1947 he went home.
My father had a hard time adjusting to civilian life and using his altered
birth certificate with a forged mother?s signature he enlisted in the Army once
again. A recruiter told him to not mention his previous service because he had
been under age. Since my father was still lying about his age, this made sense
to him. He would use 1930 has his birth year until he retired from the Army in
late 1965. And it would cause problems then.
Back in Germany, my father Dick,
was sent to Nuremburg, Germany and as a so called new soldier did two three
month tours as a guard. The first one mostly was on KP (kitchen police) duty,
but he once again handled the human skin relics for the trials of concentration
camp guards and some SS personnel involved in the ?Final Solution.??
Later
my father worked with DP (displaced person) battalions in 1947-1949 primarily
during the Berlin airlift. He helped train the new German army and even Greek
troops in Europe to about 1950/1951.? He then became a boxer and competitive
shooter. His volunteering and his recent marriage to a German National, my
mother got him into trouble.? He lost his sergeant rank (He would earn and lose
it four more times) and got volunteered for a top secret battlefield radar (now
call ground surveillance radar) that sent him to Korea.
From March to August
1953 he was with ROK troops in Korea and
saw combat with them and where he got
his first taste as an officer via a battlefield promotion. In 1954 he worked
recovering French lend-leased military supplies from the New North Vietnam
during the French withdrawal. He also supplied cover and backup for the CIA
inserting agents into the north.
He was linguistically fluent in German, and
had a smattering of several different languages. His military specialties as an
enlisted man was individual and crew served weapons. As an officer he
specialized in supply and logistics. He was a training DI as an NCO and as an
Officer. He was also airborne qualified.
His work with training US and
foreign troops, his multiple military skills and languages qualified him for
consideration and eventual work with Special Forces.
The first work he did
for the 10th Special Forces was during the October 1956 Hungarian revolt. On
temporary duty with them he helped set up a supply base and trained Hungarians
on individual and crew weapons. While he was not then in Special Forces, he says
this was his first real exposure working with them.
In 1959-1960, as an
officer, he was stationed in South Korea and liaisoned with both US & Korean
Special Forces for the unit he was with.
In 1960-1961 he went through the
Special Warfare school at Fort Bragg, North Carolina before going back to
South-east Asia. In 1961, while in north-west Laos, he was wounded by white
phosphorous explosion and was unconscious for about 3-4 days. He had those burn
scars on his lower legs for the rest of his life.?
Note: He was not with the
SF Mobile Training Teams that Laos in 1961. The CIA used that group as a cover
going into Northeast Burma to meet the remains of the National Chinese 3rd
Kuomintang Army. The 3rd KMT Army retreated to that area after the 1948/1949
communist takeover of China. The 3rd KMT Army took over control of the border
region there and became known as the warlords. The CIA group my father was with
made the first contact and arrangements with the warlords there to help guard
against Chinese communist take over. The US would pour in several million
dollars in military aide over the next decade to these warlords. Even after the
later socialist dictatorship of Burma, this region stayed semi-autonomous.
He then trained new troops as a DI before going to back to Europe in early
1964 in a S4 or supply billet.
In late 1965, my father's association with
the Special Forces and the CIA changed. The regular army wanted to send him to
South Vietnam as a supply specialist. The Special Forces also wanted him full
time (as an instructor?), but the CIA won out. My father went into the 12th
Special Forces Group (Airborne) B team reserve billet in 1966. While he cross
trained with A teams, his B team assignment allowed more flexibility for other
work.
His military retirement for 20 years of service was declared invalid
after months of delay and after he was released from duty. Simply the military
declared his 1945-1947 service time as invalid toward retirement because he was
under age.? It would take years and pressure from the CIA to get the Army to
change its mind. In the mean time his reserve and temporary service times would
accumulate.
From 1966 to 1987 my father, while working for the County of
San
Diego, also worked with the CIA and the Special Forces (SF). His assignments
were normally from 3 to 9 months. He was recalled several times to active duty
for longer assignments and would leave and return wearing his SF uniform. The
varied assignments took him from SE Asia, the isles of the Pacific, South
America, Africa and Europe. He was even a guest teacher at the Special Warfare
school at Fort Bragg, and the CIA training Farm in Langley Virginia. He admits
being both places but has never said what he actually did!
His last
assignment for the CIA was in southern Nicaragua and he was there when Colonel
Ollie North told the world about the CIA supporting the Contras. It took my
father and his team about 12-14 days to make it to the US consulate in Costa
Rica with no losses. Much to his dismay the CIA had closed up shop and abandoned
them. Later he threatened to punch Colonel Ollie North in the nose, on several
occasions, if ever given the chance.
My father retired after 41 years of
combined military service (active and reserve) to his Country in 1987. In March
of 1990 he lost his dear wife of 38 years and my mother. He continued to work
and remarried in 1991. In 1992, he retired from the County of San Diego service
with 26 years of credit. To this day, most people he worked with in the County
had no clue of his CIA work. And that was the way it should have been.
My
father started a retirement business and got my brother involved. Later my
brother took over that business.
It was not until 2000 until I found out
about his under age service, his time in Korea and details of some of his
adventures with the CIA.? I did not believe everything at first, but over the
years and with some research, many of the facts checked out.
I took my
father on a round a bout trip to visit family members in September 2012. His
health was beginning to fail and he talked of his fear of being a burden to
others. He mentioned he wished to have a good meal, go to bed and wake up dead.
Then he would see his savior and be released from his mortal sojourn.? I argued
that he would see my mother first and she would say, What took you so long?? We
laughed and talked about all sorts of things.
On the early morning of 4
January 2013, I was in Gilbert, Arizona and received a phone call from his
doctor. Despite their best efforts, my father had passed away while sleeping.? I
went back to San Diego and found out he had the best meal he had had in a long
while, per his own words and had went to bed. His heart stopped while he was
asleep. My father got his wish.
But, I still believe he got to see my mother
first when he woke up on the other side!
John R. Carpenter
La Mesa, CA?
USA
At the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial in La Jolla, CA his a plaque to his
honor. See:
http://www.soledadmemorial.com/plaque/1426702763.jpg
See
also:
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2013/jan/10/richard-carpenter-de...
and
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sandiegouniontribune/obituary.aspx?n=RIC...
and
http://www.thekwe.org/memoirs/carpenter/index.htm
-------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the list, please send an
email to CARPENTER-request(a)rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the
quotes in the subject and the body of the message
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2015
08:32:19 +0000 (UTC)
From: rockranch <rockranch2000(a)yahoo.com>
Subject: Re:
[CARPENTER] Remembering: Richard Louis "Dick" Carpenter
(1931-2013)
To: John
R Carpenter <jrcrin001(a)cox.net>, Rootsweb
Carpenter
<CARPENTER(a)rootsweb.com>, "carpenter(a)rootsweb.com"
<carpenter(a)rootsweb.com>
Message-ID:
<1979475028.2509124.1445243539097.JavaMail.yahoo(a)mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type:
text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Thank you for sharing this fabulous story.? By the
way, I also would like to punch Ollie North on the nose.
Frances Hogan
From: John R Carpenter via <carpenter(a)rootsweb.com>
To: Rootsweb Carpenter
<CARPENTER(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2015 5:25 PM
Subject:
[CARPENTER] Remembering: Richard Louis "Dick" Carpenter (1931-2013)
Hello,
It may bit a bit long, but here is my favorite ancestor. It is not
polished but from the heart.
John R. Carpenter
Richard Louis Carpenter
b.
22 Sep 1931 Fargo, Cass, ND, USA
d. 4 Jan 2013 San Diego, San Diego, CA,
USA
In April of of 1945 my father was? biologically 14 years and 7 months
old, but he was over six feet in height and looked much older and ... he was
headed to Europe as a soldier. He had lied about his age and altering his birth
certificate several times to make himself older for several jobs during the war
years.? He was working as a welder near the Portland, Oregon when an US Army
recruiter, assuming he was old enough, hinted that he could be arrested for
failing to register for the military draft. And that all could be over looked
and forgiven if he joined the Army and did his patriotic duty for his country.
My father had joined up.
On 30 April 1945 my father, with other replacements
heading to the front, saw a death train near Dachau in Southern Germany with
dead bodies stacked like cord wood. He saw the bullet ridden train cars and the
emaciated corpses. He like many other American soldiers became infuriated. He
learned to hate. Over the next week he helped supervise German civilians from
the Munich area that gathered and buried the dead. He watched the disease ridden
hellholes where the inmates lived were burn for health reasons.? He was a guard
for war crime trails that were held at Dachau later that year. He handled at
brought into court wheel barrows containing boxes of golden wedding rings, gold
teeth, jewelry and other items. He saw, he touched, he brought into court the
human skin items that had been used for painting canvas, wallets, lamp shades
and other art works. He helped with the reburial of the dead because of the
terrible winter of 1945 into 1946 when so many bodies percolated to the su!
rface. He learned of the horrors of war. In February of 1947 he went home.
My father had a hard time adjusting to civilian life and using his altered
birth certificate with a forged mother?s signature he enlisted in the Army once
again. A recruiter told him to not mention his previous service because he had
been under age. Since my father was still lying about his age, this made sense
to him. He would use 1930 has his birth year until he retired from the Army in
late 1965. And it would cause problems then.
Back in Germany, my father Dick,
was sent to Nuremburg, Germany and as a so called new soldier did two three
month tours as a guard. The first one mostly was on KP (kitchen police) duty,
but he once again handled the human skin relics for the trials of concentration
camp guards and some SS personnel involved in the ?Final Solution.??
Later
my father worked with DP (displaced person) battalions in 1947-1949 primarily
during the Berlin airlift. He helped train the new German army and even Greek
troops in Europe to about 1950/1951.? He then became a boxer and competitive
shooter. His volunteering and his recent marriage to a German National, my
mother got him into trouble.? He lost his sergeant rank (He would earn and lose
it four more times) and got volunteered for a top secret battlefield radar (now
call ground surveillance radar) that sent him to Korea.
From March to August
1953 he was with ROK troops in Korea and
saw combat with them and where he got
his first taste as an officer via a battlefield promotion. In 1954 he worked
recovering French lend-leased military supplies from the New North Vietnam
during the French withdrawal. He also supplied cover and backup for the CIA
inserting agents into the north.
He was linguistically fluent in German, and
had a smattering of several different languages. His military specialties as an
enlisted man was individual and crew served weapons. As an officer he
specialized in supply and logistics. He was a training DI as an NCO and as an
Officer. He was also airborne qualified.
His work with training US and
foreign troops, his multiple military skills and languages qualified him for
consideration and eventual work with Special Forces.
The first work he did
for the 10th Special Forces was during the October 1956 Hungarian revolt. On
temporary duty with them he helped set up a supply base and trained Hungarians
on individual and crew weapons. While he was not then in Special Forces, he says
this was his first real exposure working with them.
In 1959-1960, as an
officer, he was stationed in South Korea and liaisoned with both US & Korean
Special Forces for the unit he was with.
In 1960-1961 he went through the
Special Warfare school at Fort Bragg, North Carolina before going back to
South-east Asia. In 1961, while in north-west Laos, he was wounded by white
phosphorous explosion and was unconscious for about 3-4 days. He had those burn
scars on his lower legs for the rest of his life.?
Note: He was not with the
SF Mobile Training Teams that Laos in 1961. The CIA used that group as a cover
going into Northeast Burma to meet the remains of the National Chinese 3rd
Kuomintang Army. The 3rd KMT Army retreated to that area after the 1948/1949
communist takeover of China. The 3rd KMT Army took over control of the border
region there and became known as the warlords. The CIA group my father was with
made the first contact and arrangements with the warlords there to help guard
against Chinese communist take over. The US would pour in several million
dollars in military aide over the next decade to these warlords. Even after the
later socialist dictatorship of Burma, this region stayed semi-autonomous.
He then trained new troops as a DI before going to back to Europe in early
1964 in a S4 or supply billet.
In late 1965, my father's association with
the Special Forces and the CIA changed. The regular army wanted to send him to
South Vietnam as a supply specialist. The Special Forces also wanted him full
time (as an instructor?), but the CIA won out. My father went into the 12th
Special Forces Group (Airborne) B team reserve billet in 1966. While he cross
trained with A teams, his B team assignment allowed more flexibility for other
work.
His military retirement for 20 years of service was declared invalid
after months of delay and after he was released from duty. Simply the military
declared his 1945-1947 service time as invalid toward retirement because he was
under age.? It would take years and pressure from the CIA to get the Army to
change its mind. In the mean time his reserve and temporary service times would
accumulate.
From 1966 to 1987 my father, while working for the County of
San
Diego, also worked with the CIA and the Special Forces (SF). His assignments
were normally from 3 to 9 months. He was recalled several times to active duty
for longer assignments and would leave and return wearing his SF uniform. The
varied assignments took him from SE Asia, the isles of the Pacific, South
America, Africa and Europe. He was even a guest teacher at the Special Warfare
school at Fort Bragg, and the CIA training Farm in Langley Virginia. He admits
being both places but has never said what he actually did!
His last
assignment for the CIA was in southern Nicaragua and he was there when Colonel
Ollie North told the world about the CIA supporting the Contras. It took my
father and his team about 12-14 days to make it to the US consulate in Costa
Rica with no losses. Much to his dismay the CIA had closed up shop and abandoned
them. Later he threatened to punch Colonel Ollie North in the nose, on several
occasions, if ever given the chance.
My father retired after 41 years of
combined military service (active and reserve) to his Country in 1987. In March
of 1990 he lost his dear wife of 38 years and my mother. He continued to work
and remarried in 1991. In 1992, he retired from the County of San Diego service
with 26 years of credit. To this day, most people he worked with in the County
had no clue of his CIA work. And that was the way it should have been.
My
father started a retirement business and got my brother involved. Later my
brother took over that business.
It was not until 2000 until I found out
about his under age service, his time in Korea and details of some of his
adventures with the CIA.? I did not believe everything at first, but over the
years and with some research, many of the facts checked out.
I took my
father on a round a bout trip to visit family members in September 2012. His
health was beginning to fail and he talked of his fear of being a burden to
others. He mentioned he wished to have a good meal, go to bed and wake up dead.
Then he would see his savior and be released from his mortal sojourn.? I argued
that he would see my mother first and she would say, What took you so long?? We
laughed and talked about all sorts of things.
On the early morning of 4
January 2013, I was in Gilbert, Arizona and received a phone call from his
doctor. Despite their best efforts, my father had passed away while sleeping.? I
went back to San Diego and found out he had the best meal he had had in a long
while, per his own words and had went to bed. His heart stopped while he was
asleep. My father got his wish.
But, I still believe he got to see my mother
first when he woke up on the other side!
John R. Carpenter
La Mesa, CA?
USA
At the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial in La Jolla, CA his a plaque to his
honor. See:
http://www.soledadmemorial.com/plaque/1426702763.jpg
See
also:
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2013/jan/10/richard-carpenter-de...
and
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sandiegouniontribune/obituary.aspx?n=RIC...
and
http://www.thekwe.org/memoirs/carpenter/index.htm
-------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the list, please send an
email to CARPENTER-request(a)rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the
quotes in the subject and the body of the message
------------------------------
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End of
CARPENTER Digest, Vol 10, Issue 77
*****************************************