SEABEE

Ralph Carter

— Jennifer Osborn

Carter served on the naval ship LST 32, under the command of tennis great Gardnar Mulloy, who won the Wimbledon doubles tournament in 1957 as well as numerous other national competitions.

Ralph Carter Seabee Ralph Carter. The American profiles a World War II veteran every week. To suggest a veteran — woman or man — for a profile in this series, call 667-2576 and ask for the Newsroom. Or e-mail news@ ellsworthamerican.com; fax: 667-7656

Carter, who went into the service at age 17, was a seaman on a landing craft vehicle.

“They called us beach jumpers,” he said.

One of Carter’s most dangerous adventures occurred trying to get back aboard the ship after a night out on the town.

The captain of a 50-foot liberty boat that took the sailors to shore and back told Carter to jump off and grab onto a ladder hanging over the ship. The captain was worried about the wooden boat hitting against the ship’s steel hull, Carter said.

Well, it was dark and snowing.

Carter missed the ladder, landing in the Chesapeake Bay.

“I kept hearing ‘Man overboard, man overboard,’” he said. “Someone else said, ‘No, it’s Carter. Boy overboard,’” Carter said laughing.

It took three attempts for Carter to grab the ladder and pull himself out of the water.

On his second fall back into the bay, the water felt warm, he said. His blood had started to thicken.

“By the time I got to the deck I couldn’t even speak,” Carter said.

The chief ordered Carter to drink a shot of whiskey.

“I said, ‘I don’t drink. I promised my grandparents I wouldn’t drink,’” Carter said.

The shot was poured down his throat anyway.

“I thought I was going to burn up,” he said.

On land, adventures included the time Carter and a buddy unknowingly walked across a live minefield. They didn’t set off any mines.

On another trip ashore, Carter and two other sailors had barely started out when a German plane started shooting at them.

“When they came down to strafe, it sounds like you’re the only person they’re trying to get,” he said.

Carter was running back to the ship after another expedition when he noticed a string laying across a road attached to a mound of trench bombs known as “potato mashers,” and jumped over it. If Carter had tripped the string, he likely would not be here today.

Carter was on missions on Anzio Beach and the Island of Gold in France, which had been a summer resort.

Being on the Island of Gold in 1944 was unpleasant.

“Before we could go in, we had to turn tail and run because we didn’t have the firepower to match the Germans,” he said.

But once they were on the island Carter remembers dead Germans everywhere. It was warm and the bodies were starting to smell, he said.

“It was an awful thing,” said Carter.

On another mission, at Anzio Beach, the LST 32 picked up prisoners and took them to Africa.

“We had so many casualties at Anzio we had to go back to Africa and pick up 125 nurses,” Carter said. Most of those nurses later died at Anzio, Carter would learn many years later.

“Why they killed them I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know why you’d want to bomb where there was a Red Cross.”

“Angels of mercy,” Carter described the nurses. “I feel kind of guilty in a way taking them in.”

“I feel that the American nurses in WWII don’t get enough recognition,” Carter said. “I’ve got granddaughters older than some of those nurses.”

While on board the ship, the Navy had to keep regular German prisoners away from the “S.S. Nancys,” Hitler’s secret troops, to keep them from killing the regular German troops they had taken prisoner, Carter said.

“They really were brainwashed,” he said.

The Germans who wanted to help work on the ship were allowed to eat with the U.S. soldiers, he said.

Carter recalled a conversation he had with one such German soldier.

“He said a lot of us didn’t want to fight. But we were forced to. Our families were threatened.”

Carter got a leave from his ship to visit his stepfather, Pfc. Clarence Mann, who was serving on the Fifth Army front in Italy.

The American published a letter Carter wrote to his mother from the front:

“This is the first you have heard from me since the invasion. Well, you don’t have to worry because both of us are safe and sound and it won’t be long before the war over here is over and we come home.”

Carter was discharged in 1946.

He went on to serve in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He retired from the Naval Reserve in 1986 at age 60. He will turn 80 in December.

He and his wife Elizabeth have been married 57 years. They have four children, seven grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.