LtCol John S. Carter USMC Nicaragua Campaign & WWII Aviator

[0811gysgt]

LtCol John S. Carter, USMC, was a Flying Sergeant during the Second Nicaraguan Campaign, having flown transport planes and tri-motored Fokker planes as a Staff Sergeant and was later promoted to Gunnery Sergeant on 3 Aug 1933. He later became a Commissioned Officer in the Marine Corps and continued to serve as a Naval Aviator.

 

He was stationed at Pearl Harbor and participated in the air defense during the 7 December 1941 attack. He later participated during combat operations in the Pacific Theatre and command a Squadron. He was recommended for a Distinguished Flying Coss during the battle of Midway, which was downgraded to a Letter of Commendation, but he was awarded the Air Medal. He was also later recommended for a Legion of Merit for time as Squadron CO, but that award was downgraded to the award of the Bronze Star Medal.

 

Unfortunately this group was broken up on EBay and I missed out on some more photos, ribbon bars, dog tags, and his named Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal. If another member of the forum has those items, please contact me.

[0811gysgt]

SSgt Carter is pictured on the left...

[0811gysgt]

Larger photos

[mghcal]

Really interesting group! I wonder which higher officer he pissed off to get all his medals downgraded? Can you share a photo of the back of the wing? It looks like an early example.

[KASTAUFFER]

Great group Rocco! I remember seeing it broken up. It really needs to be reunited,

 

Kurt

[usmcaviator]

I sold the other items you refer to around the Fall of 2017 on E-bay as two lots. The first lot being a wolf brown ribbon set, the second being a large substantial paperwork (1920's to 1960's), letter (interesting love life this guy had), photo and insignia lot (including the GCM, tags, pilot licenses and another ribbon set). The lot was originally broken up about 2-3 years ago on E-bay. I knew the medal bar was out there somewhere....

 

I can look to see if I still have any record of the e-bay handle who bought it, if it was recent enough.

 

Mike

[0811gysgt]

I sold the other items you refer to around the Fall of 2017 on E-bay as two lots. The first lot being a wolf brown ribbon set, the second being a large substantial paperwork (1920's to 1960's), letter (interesting love life this guy had), photo and insignia lot (including the GCM, tags, pilot licenses and another ribbon set). The lot was originally broken up about 2-3 years ago on E-bay. I knew the medal bar was out there somewhere....

 

I can look to see if I still have any record of the e-bay handle who bought it, if it was recent enough.

 

Mike

 

Thank You Mike! I bid on both of those listings that you had and missed out on both. I forgot about the Wolf Brown ribbons though; that combination was the first clue that you had some of his stuff.

 

If anything, I would love to reunite his Good Conduct Medal.

[bobgee]

The Carter group was originally sold at auction in Sugar Land, Texas about 20 + years ago. A friend attended and told me that the family kept his named GCM (and obviously some other paper.photos) that Mike acquired later. I have one of his 1930s Flight Log Books that has a photo of a Latina lady wearing a USMC overseas cap and a news clipping with photo about the USMC at the Chicago Air Races in about 1934 or so. I'll try to dig it out. I believe I had a casual meeting with Carter back in the early 90s in Houston at a gun shop, based on the conversation I had with him about the USMC and his flying career! Great group! Semper Fi........Bob

[0811gysgt]

It turns out that one of the members of this forum purchased Caters Wolf Brown ribbons on EBay and posted them on this forum in March 2017:

[0811gysgt]

Here is a photo of the rest of the items that sold on EBay. It is unknown who ended up with this part of the group.

[0811gysgt]

His Good Conduct Medal is beautifully engraved:

[katieony]

Rocco,

 

Nice to see that you were able to keep together as much as this group as possible. Hopefully you'll be able to reunite the other portions.

 

Mike

[Kurt Barickman]

Very nice! Those Nicaraguan medals are hard to find and sometimes even more difficult are the Wolf Brown plastic versions of the ribbons. Congrats and nice job reuniting this Banana War grouping.

 

Kurt

[kanemono]

Very nice group Rocco. I hope you can find the GCM.

Dick

[kanemono]

Here are some more pieces from the group.

[kanemono]

next..

[0811gysgt]

Very nice group Rocco. I hope you can find the GCM.

Dick

Thank You Dick. I saw those pictures that you posted. Did you previously own that part of the group?

[kanemono]

Hi Rocco,

I didn't own that part of the group. It is such a great group if I had bought it I would still own it.

[kanemono]

The gun in the belt of Flying Sergeant John S. Carter, USMC, during the Second Nicaraguan Campaign appears to be a Remington Mark III 10 Ga Flare Pistol made by the Remington Arms Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut between 1915 and 1918. They were used by the US Navy and Marine Corps for signaling prior to World War One. Some 24,500 units were manufactured by the firm. The bandoleer worn by Carter seems to hold flares for the pistol. I wonder if the flare pistol would shoot 10 Ga shotgun shells. It would be a great gun for close range in the Nicaragua jungle.

[0811gysgt]

Dick,

 

That is awesome, Thank You for the knowledge. I thought it was some type of captured weapon and he had shotgun shells.

 

If that weapon shoots 10 gauge shot gun shells, it would be a “hand cannon” of its time.

 

Very cool!

 

Rocco

[dustin]

The gun in the belt of Flying Sergeant John S. Carter, USMC, during the Second Nicaraguan Campaign appears to be a Remington Mark III 10 Ga Flare Pistol made by the Remington Arms Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut between 1915 and 1918. They were used by the US Navy and Marine Corps for signaling prior to World War One. Some 24,500 units were manufactured by the firm. The bandoleer worn by Carter seems to hold flares for the pistol. I wonder if the flare pistol would shoot 10 Ga shotgun shells. It would be a great gun for close range in the Nicaragua jungle.

 

​That USMC property marked Very pistol has to be a rare bird, pretty cool!...and the picture is as well.

Some clarification, the Mark III Very's pistol was a US Navy standard from 1915 to 1942 when it was finally superseded by the Mark V Very's pistol, that all so more common 10-gauge variant with cellulose frame. Interestingly, it was also a standard US Army infantry signal pistol off and on up to 1942. To add USAAC until they adopted the M2 pistol. In addition, the Mark III was standard aircraft equipment for all aircraft as well even fighters. It too was standard until being replaced by the AN-M8 and M5 discharger. It has a very long service life for sure. The pistol and bandoleer with shells would had been the aircrafts compliment, its obvious that they both are clowning around. The roll many of these aircraft had during the era was observation and reconnaissance, flare pistol pistols were a vital element for air-to-ground or ground-to-air communications.