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| On December 7, 1941 Coxswain Howard Carter was killed on the USS Dobbin while firing has 3" AA gun against attacking Japanese bombers. https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=63340049&ref=acom http://www.wikiwand.com/en/USS_Dobbin_(AD-3) http://www.usshullassociation.org/DD350/Hull350-3.htm |
Howard Frederick Carter never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on July 31, 1917 in Oregon. His mother was born in Colorado and his father was born in Utah. His father worked as a railroad news agent. Howard had one older brother. By 1930 his parens were divorced. His father was living in Ogden, Utah while Howard lived in San Diego with his mother and brother. By 1940 Howard's father was living in Phoenix and working as a salesman. He had married a woman 19 years his junior and they had three boys and a girl.
Howard joined the Navy on December 11, 1936. He was a coxswain on the destroyer tender USS Dobbin which was stationed in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
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| Approximate location of the USS Dobbin on December 7, 1941. I took the photo from the USS Utah Memorial. |
During the second wave attack on Pearl Harbor, the battleships were pretty heavily damaged so the Japanese pilots looked for other targets. There were five destroyers moored alongside the Dobbin northeast of Ford Island. Only the Dobbin was hit. Around 9:10 am three Japanese planes came in low and dropped 300 lb. bombs. They were all near missed that sent shrapnel flying in the direction of the men manning the No. 4 3" A.A. gun on the after end of the boat deck. Three of the men where killed, including Coxswain Carter who was hit in the neck and chest.
His grave is at Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
To mark having over 100,000 visits to my project to honor the fallen of WW2 on their 100th birthdate, I created this video to share. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY
Join the public Facebook group WW2 Fallen 100
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