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