Amazing story about your dad! Thank you for sharing with all of us.
On Sun, Oct 18, 2015 at 8:21 PM, <carpenter-request(a)rootsweb.com> wrote:
Today's Topics:
1. Re: Holiday challenge - Remembering your Carpenter/Zimmerman
ancestors (John R Carpenter)
2. Remembering: Richard Louis "Dick" Carpenter (1931-2013)
(John R Carpenter)
3. Re: Remembering: Richard Louis "Dick" Carpenter (1931-2013)
(Curtis)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2015 13:48:49 -0700
From: "John R Carpenter" <jrcrin001(a)cox.net>
Subject: Re: [CARPENTER] Holiday challenge - Remembering your
Carpenter/Zimmerman ancestors
To: "Rootsweb Carpenter" <CARPENTER(a)rootsweb.com>
Message-ID: <7039AFD5A59C46269A1371A9ED3C2DCB@JohnCarpenter>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="UTF-8";
reply-type=original
Hello List,
I compiled the list before I went on extended holiday. I was unable to send
it out.
We have Remembrance Day (aka Veterans Day in USA) coming up on November 11.
We also have Thanksgiving in Oct & Nov depending whether you are south or
north of the Canadian-USA border.
I would like to challenge list members to remember and be thankful for one
of their Carpenter/Zimmerman ancestors.
Tell the rest of us a story how you remember and or thankful for.
Celebrate
our ancestry!
John R. Carpenter
La Mesa, CA USA
-----------------
Canadian Holidays left for 2015 ...
Labour Day September 7, Monday National
Thanksgiving October 12, Monday National except NB, NS, NL
Halloween October 31, Saturday Not a stat holiday
Remembrance Day November 11, Wednesday National except MB, ON, QC, NS
For 2016 Holidays, see:
http://www.statutoryholidays.com/2016.php
-------------------
Australian Holidays left for 2015 ...
Oct 2
Friday AFL Grand Final Friday - State Holiday Victoria
Oct 5
Monday Labour Day - Common State holiday - ACT, NSW, Qld, SA
Nov 2
Monday Recreation Day - State Holiday Tasmania
Nov 3
Tuesday Melbourne Cup Day - State Holiday Victoria
Nov 11
Wednesday Remembrance Day Observance
Dec 25
Friday Christmas Day - National Holiday
Dec 26
Saturday Boxing Day - National Holiday
Dec 28
Monday Christmas/Boxing Day Holiday - National Holiday
For Australian Holidays for 2016, see:
http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/australia/2016
---------------------------
USA Federal Holidays left for 2015 ...
Monday, October 12 Columbus Day
Wednesday, November 11 Veterans Day
Thursday, November 26 Thanksgiving Day
Friday, December 25 Christmas Day
For US Federal Holidays for 2016, see:
http://www.calendar-12.com/federal_holidays/2016
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2015 17:25:46 -0700
From: "John R Carpenter" <jrcrin001(a)cox.net>
Subject: [CARPENTER] Remembering: Richard Louis "Dick" Carpenter
(1931-2013)
To: "Rootsweb Carpenter" <CARPENTER(a)rootsweb.com>
Message-ID: <7FE8708E38414039A6CB0AAFA596B505@JohnCarpenter>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
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
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2015 20:21:15 -0500
From: "Curtis" <anglers(a)bullshoals.net>
Subject: Re: [CARPENTER] Remembering: Richard Louis "Dick" Carpenter
(1931-2013)
To: "John R Carpenter" <jrcrin001(a)cox.net>,
<carpenter(a)rootsweb.com>
Message-ID: <428C78F7FB3A49949F2650F793E8E415@PatHP>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="utf-8";
reply-type=original
Dear John R.,
What an awesome story.
Congratulations for having a very wonderful father. You must be so proud of
him and to be his son.
Kind Regards,
Patricia J. Curtis
Arkansas
-----Original Message-----
From: John R Carpenter via
Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2015 7:25 PM
To: Rootsweb Carpenter
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 surface. 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
-------------------------------
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