Herbert Eugene Carter (September 27, 1919 – November 8, 2012) was an American military officer of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

. He was a member of the original thirty-three members of the

Tuskegee Airmen The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of primarily African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332d Fighter Group and the 477th Fighter Group, 477th Bombardment Group (Medium) of the ...

. He flew 77 missions with the Tuskegee Airmen during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Childhood and family

Carter was born in

Amory, Mississippi Amory is a city in Monroe County, Mississippi. The population was 7,316 at the 2010 census. Located in the northeastern part of the state near the Alabama border, it was founded in 1887 as a railroad town by the Kansas City, Memphis and Birmingh ...

on September 27, 1919. He was one of ten children in his family. His father, George Washington Carter, was African-American, while his mother, Willie Ann Sykes Carter, was Native American. George Washington Carter was Amory's superintendent of utilities, "a prominent position for a black man of that era."

Education and military training

Carter's parents sent him to

Tuskegee, Alabama Tuskegee () is a city in Macon County, Alabama, United States. It was founded and laid out in 1833 by General Thomas Simpson Woodward, a Creek War veteran under Andrew Jackson, and made the county seat that year. It was incorporated in 1843. ...

at age sixteen to continue his education. There, he lived with his older brother, who also ran the grocery store where Herbert worked. He finished high school in Tuskegee and went on to

Tuskegee University Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was d ...

. Carter enrolled in the university's branch of the

Civilian Pilot Training Program The Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) was a flight training program (1938–1944) sponsored by the United States government with the stated purpose of increasing the number of civilian pilots, though having a clear impact on military prepare ...

with the goal of using his flying skills and education to become a rural veterinarian "flying from farm to farm". But during his first flight, he said, "something bit me". He became committed to a life as a military aviator. Carter was a cadet in Class 42-F of the Tuskegee Airmen, the fourth class to graduate from Tuskegee Army Airfield. He was his class's Cadet Captain and Maintenance Engineering Officer.

Marriage to Mildred Hemmons

In 1939, Carter met Mildred Hemmons, a business major at Tuskegee University. Carter remembered that he was too shy to ask her out at first, but worked up the courage after finding out she was also enrolled in the

. While a cadet, Carter was not allowed to date. Instead, he would schedule a maintenance flight check during the weekend and meet Mildred, who flew a rented plane, above nearby Lake Martin. On August 21, 1942, they married at the Tuskegee Army Airfield chapel.

99th Flying Training Squadron

During

, Carter was assigned to the

99th Flying Training Squadron The 99th Flying Training Squadron (99 FTS) flies Raytheon T-1 Jayhawks and they have painted the tails of their aircraft red in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II fame, known as the "Red Tails," whose lineage the 99 FTS inherited. The ...

, where he served as both Chief of Maintenance and a fighter pilot. Carter flew seventy-seven combat missions in the North African, Sicilian, and European campaigns. One of the squadron's best-known tasks was to escort bombers and defend them from enemy fire. " e men were so good at protecting them," Carter recalled, "that the bombers started referring to them as the Red-Tail Angels." In 2004, Carter received the French

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

for "outstanding service rendered France during the Second World War." In a letter to Mildred Carter, dated March 3, 1944, Carter writes:

"Lane is leaving to return to Rose and America. You will find him a changed man. Please let that be an example to you of how this stuff really works on a brother. We are not the same. We can't be the same."

On August 7, 2020,

Moton Field Moton may refer to: People Given name * Moton Hopkins (born 1986), American professional gridiron football player Surname * LeVelle Moton (born 1974), American college basketball coach * Robert Russa Moton (1867–1940), African American educator a ...

in Tuskegee, Alabama named its newest airport terminal the Colonel Herbert E. Carter Terminal.

Post-World War II

Carter served in the

for 25 years before retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 1969. He obtained a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in education in 1955 and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in education in 1969, both from the

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was de ...

, while simultaneously serving as an active-duty Air Force officer. Carter served at the Tuskegee Institute as an associate dean for student services, associate dean for admission and recruiting, and a financial aid counselor following his retirement from the Air Force. Together, the Carters were known as the "First Family" of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Death

Lt. Colonel Herbert Carter died at the East Alabama Medical Center in

Opelika, Alabama Opelika (pronounced ) is a city in and the county seat of Lee County in the east-central part of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is a principal city of the Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 census, the population of Opelika is ...

, on November 8, 2012, at the age of 93. He was the last surviving Tuskegee Airman from

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Herbert 1919 births 2012 deaths Tuskegee Airmen United States Army Air Forces officers United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II Tuskegee University alumni People from Amory, Mississippi Amory High School alumni African-American aviators 21st-century African-American people