Doniphan “Don” Carter, the son of U.S. Army Colonel William Moore Carter and Julienne Pace Carter, was born at Fort Benning, GA on February 13, 1923. At age 15 Carter attended the New York Military Academy in New York, then USMA, West Point, NY, from which he graduated with the D-Day Class on June 6, 1944.
He was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division in Italy, where the division did itself proud in the last six months of the Italian Campaign in the Po Valley. For service in Italy, Carter earned the Silver Star Medal, the Bronze Star Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
In July 1945, Carter was selected to command a composite platoon of the 10th Mountain Division to accompany the Brazilian Expeditionary back home from Italy to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to participate in a victory parade and celebration of V-E Day.
He married Eleanor Marie Shoemaker, of Louisville, OH, in 1946, whom he had met at Fort Benning in the summer of 1944. After the wedding, he sailed for Europe and duty in an infantry battalion stationed in Vienna, Austria, where his bride joined him. They had two daughters born there. Carter commanded Company A, 5th Infantry, later Company A, 16th Infantry.
In 1949, Carter was posted to the New York Military Academy, where he was assistant professor of military science and tactics for three years. This duty was followed by a voluntary assignment to the 45th Infantry Division in Korea in the fall of 1952. Carter was assigned as the regimental operations and intelligence officer of the regiment for part of his one-year tour of duty in Korea, where he earned another Bronze Star Medal and a second award of the Combat Infantryman Badge. He transferred to Japan, where his family (a third daughter added) joined him in December 1953. The family returned to Fort Leavenworth, KS, where Carter attended the General Staff College.
Carter’s assignment to the Army’s Career Management Division in the Pentagon followed. Carter was reassigned to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel, Department of the Army, where he worked in the Promotion and Retention Division. Carter welcomed a set of twins as his tribe grew to five daughters. Carter was reassigned to the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, VA. He was further assigned to a NATO assignment in Naples, Italy.
Italy was an assignment of love for a country Carter had met in 1945 and had grown to appreciate. He took his family camping all over Europe to some of the battlefields of his first war.
In 1963, Carter was assigned to the Naval War College in Newport, RI. After an academic year with the Navy, Carter reported to duties in the Office of the Undersecretary of the Army in the Pentagon. Three years there led to a tour as commander, 1st Brigade, 25th Division in the Vietnam War. After a year’s tour in Vietnam, where he earned two Legion of Merit Awards, the Distinguished Flying Cross, several Air Medals and a third award of the Combat Infantryman Badge, Carter returned to the Pentagon for two years as executive officer, Directorate of Civil Disturbance Planning and Operations—a directorate that was established in the Office of the Vice Chief of Staff, Army following the Martin Luther King riots.
After two years he earned a third Legion of Merit, and he opted for an opportunity to serve on the staff of the U.S. Delegate at NATO. Here he earned a fourth Legion of Merit.
Carter returned to the United States in 1973, serving a final year in the Washington area. After retirement 1974, he became the membership director at the National Business Forms Association, Alexandria, VA. He then started his own company, Eagle Graphics, in Alexandria, which he continued running until 1994.
Upon his final retirement, Carter devoted the next six years to volunteer work with the Class of 1944, of which he became the president in 1998. In 2000 Carter and his wife, moved to the Fairfax retirement community near Fort Belvoir, VA, where both became involved in resident activities.
During his assignment in Naples, Carter had become involved in sailing. In retirement, he and Eleanor were able to enjoy several cruises as bare boaters in the Greek Islands and in the British Virgin Islands. Beside these enjoyable forays, Carter lived up to his promise to his wife and he showed her the world.
By 2005, Carter had become chairman of the Residents Council at the Fairfax, president of the Belvoir Woods Protestant Mission Society and continued as president of his West Point class. His pastime was playing golf.
Carter is survived by his wife, Eleanor; his five daughters: Elizabeth Harmon of Satellite Beach, FL; Katherine Stephens of Myrtle Beach, SC; Margaret Crompton of Pawleys Island, SC; Josephine Grabowski of Myrtle Beach, and Virginia Lewis of Apex, NC; his eight grandchildren, and his two great-grandchildren.
In 2019, Carter had the great honor of leading the Long Gray Line at the 75th anniversary of the Class of 1944, the D-Day Class.