When Dwight Carter joined the military in 1942, he was a combat medic and a corpsman, serving in the United States Navy and Marine Corps until 1946.
“I enlisted for the duration of the war,” Carter said. “If the war was still going on today, I guess I would still be in it!”
Born on a farm in Northwest Iowa, Carter was a farm boy until the time came for him to enlist in the Navy. Carter was a corpsman on Iwo Jima, an island off the coast of Japan. He remembers being in an amphibious vehicle, Tracked, a warfare vehicle and landing craft that carried the servicemen onto land.
“They looked sort of like a tank, and they had a tread that went in the water,” Carter said. “When they were in the water, they were really fast, but when they hit water, they would pause and shift gears into land mode.”
Carter was first of the assault wave that landed on Iwo Jima in February of 1945. When the vehicle first reached land, shifting gears to gain traction in the sand, an armor-piercing round went through the vehicle.
“They had machine gun mounts, and rounds went through it and would explode right outside,” Carter said. “If it had exploded inside the vehicle, I wouldn’t be here today.”
7,000 Marines were killed in the 36 days of battle. Another 20,000 were wounded.
“After 36 days, I had lost 40 pounds,” Carter said. “If you want to go on a diet, that’s a hell of a way to do it. The first two days of the battle, we had these assault bars that you couldn’t really chew. You had to gnaw on it, you couldn’t get a bite out of it. And for two days, that’s what we ate – we had K-rations after that.”
K-rations were individual, daily combat food rations that became popular in World War II. Each ration contained two small biscuits, a can of meat, a powdered beverage that could be mixed with hot or cold water, and a small piece of candy or chocolate.
“K-rations were a step up,” Carter said with a small laugh.
Carter finished his service in the Marine Corps in January of 1946. After four years of being on the GI Bill, he was able to start the next chapter of his life at Iowa State University. There, he majored in agriculture science, but his career would take him in another direction.
“When the war was over, I became a teacher,” Carter said. “I taught for 30 years.”
In his long career, he taught general studies, math, and computers. At first, he ran a self-contained classroom and taught just about everything. His wife, Arvia, who he met during the war in 1943, was also a teacher because her father had been a radio announcer. The couple took the time to get to know each other, but it wasn’t long before Carter was shipped overseas. Arvia had become a teacher in Japan at the Tachikawa Airfield for two years, but by 1949, they were both finally back in the states.
“We got married in 1949,” Carter said. “We didn’t want to rush into it. We were married for 55 years before she passed in 2004.”
Carter and Arvia were both teachers during a time that married couples couldn’t work in the same district. She taught in one town while he taught in another one. He made the transition from teaching everything to teaching math and computers. He remembers what computers were like back in the 1940s and 1950s, remarking how one of his classes actually made a computer that worked.
“It couldn’t do anything fancy, but it worked,” Carter said.
After retiring, his career once again took a turn. In California, where the couple lived at the time, teachers weren’t eligible for social security. A friend recommended taking a job with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to “get his quarters for social security.” He became a tax expert, working as a controlled tax agent for the IRS.
“When they found out I was a math and computer teacher, they put me right to work,” Carter said. “If you got in trouble with the IRS, you would come to me and I would represent you.”
Carter went on to run his own tax business after leaving the IRS. He had about 50 clients.
“After working in that field for about 20 years, I retired on my 80th birthday,” Carter said.
He and Arvia had two boys, three grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. His oldest son is a minister and his youngest son is in show business, working at Paramount Picture Studios in Hollywood.
“I say they’re both in show business,” Carter said with a laugh.
Today, Carter spends his later years at Rittenhouse Village at Valparaiso. He just recently moved into the senior living community at the end of April and has since enjoyed a plethora of activities that enhance his everyday life.
Carter spends 20 minutes twice a day on his exercise bike to keep himself active. He also likes to play bridge, and he hopes to get a bridge club going at Rittenhouse with other fans of the game. But when he can’t find a bridge partner, he loves to play on his laptop whenever he gets the chance.
For more information about Rittenhouse Village at Valparaiso, visit its website at www.rittenhousevillages.com/rittenhouse-village-at-valparaiso.