Ray Carter was born October 15, 1928 in Jacksonville, Arkansas. A midwife had performed his birth, so no records had been kept of his birth date except a little page in the back of a bible his mother had (Carter Interview). This fact, led to what many Americans did during this time, they lied about their age to get enlisted and in 1944 at the age of only 16 he joined the United States Navy. Ray had dropped out of school two years earlier in the seventh grade and began to work odd jobs until he thought he should volunteer to serve and protect his country.

Before he joined the navy, Ray witnessed some of the events and reasons that led us to war in 1941. At the tender age of 13, Ray listened to the radio in horror after it was learned the Japanese had surprised attacked us at Pearl Harbor. Ray said at that moment, he knew one day he would join the many other U.S. Servicemen protecting his country (Carter Interview). He like many other Americans wondered

(Prang 9). Ray had joined the Navy Feb 26, 1944, late in the war, but he was immediately shipped off to sea on the U.S.S. Boxer, an aircraft carrier stationed in the Pacific Ocean (Carter Interview). He was an MP on the ship and made sure the sailors went to sleep and were awake on time. His battle station for the ship was a 20MM Anti Aircraft cannon in which he used twice to shoot down Japanese Zeros. He was transferred to the U.S.S. Hornet in the fall of 1944 and then to the U.S.S. Berlinson late that year. There he served as a driver for a beach craft vehicle that would transport troops from the ships to the beach. Many times during this, he came under enemy fire from opposition forces (Carter Interview).

Currently, Ray Carter is a retired World War II veteran living in Sherwood, Arkansas. He suffered a stroke in 1995 that left him paralyzed on the left side of his body still to this day (Carter Interview). He still loves to sit down and bring out his former cruise book of the U.S.S. Boxer to relive his once in a lifetime experiences. He spent 10 years in the United States Navy, 8 years and 10 months of that were sea bound. My grandfathers wasn’t a hero, but only a link in the chain that forms he

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