Carter, James, Col

Colonel Carter was born May 2, 1919 in the small town of Pullman Washington. He studied mechanical engineering at Washington State  University  and pre-medicine at the University of North Carolina. He joined the United States Army Air Force on September 30, 1941. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant on July 3, 1942. He was first assigned to Stat Fighter Squadrons 56th Fighter group at Stratford Connecticut for six months training in the P-47B.  The fighter group sailed for England on January 6, 1943.  The group flew its first combat mission in April 1943.  The 56th FIghter Group known as Zemke's Wolfpack  was one of the most decorated fighter groups of World War II and had the two leading Aces in the European theater, Robert S. Johnson and Francis Gabreski.  Colonel Carter was stationed in Halesworth, Suffolk, then to Boxted in Colchester. He was promoted to flight leader of the 61st Squadron,then to Deputy Group Operatrions Leader under Francis Gabreski, then to Commander of the 61sr Fighter Squadron in December 1944. Major Carter became a Fighter Ace on July 4, 1944.  He flew the test which resulted in less fuel consumption and helped enable increased range for the P-47 fighter.  He dropped the first bombs from a P-47 and took the first bomb-strike photos from a P-47 using a K-17 camera installed in the radio compartment. He piloted a two seat P-47 flying General Kepner, Commander 8th Air Force Fighter Command, on the General's first combat mission. At a later date in the same two-seater he made a "Radar" intercept of a German 7Me-26Z jet, probably the only such intercept by a P-47.  At the end of the war he became the Scholl's Officer  and established  the Technical Training Institute at Headdquarters for U.S. Air Force- Europe Wiesbaden Germany.   Colonel Carter was reassigned to the States as Commander 56th Fighter Group Selfridge Air Force Base. He attended Squadron Officers Scholl at Tyndall Air Force Base, and graduated from the University of Florida as an Aeronautical Engineer. He was then assigned as Chief , Air Defense DIvision of the Air Proving Ground Command in Eglin,  Florida.  He attended Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell  Air Force Base and was promoted to Colonel. Colonel Carter served as Director Operations and Training Alaskan Command, Chief, then to the Pentagon as Chief, Air Defense DIvision, Directorate of Requirements, U.S. Air Force Headquarters, then as Commander ,Tactical Reconnaissance Combat Training Group, Shaw Air Force Base in south Carolina.  Colonel Carter's last flying assignment was as DIrector for Operations 7th/13th Air Forces, Udorn, Thailand and as supervisor of air-rescue Operations in North VIetnam.  Colonel Carter's last military assignment  was as Chief of the Athena Test Field Office of the Space and Missile Systems Organization, at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.There his group tested in one- tenth scale, the payloads for the Polaris, Poseidon, and Minuteman missiles.  Colonel Carter retired from the military in July 1968 after 27 years of service.