Honoring Sergeant Carter by Allene Carter Page B

the humid Southern climate would affect her adversely. Eddie wasworried that, given the hostile racial climate in the South, a rambunctious young black boy might fall in harm’s way. The family settled in a small, cramped house in the nearby town of Columbus. Although their life was circumscribed, Eddie was happy to have Mildred and Buddha with him.
    Despite his anger over Southern racism voiced in his letters to Mildred, Eddie was doing well in the Army and gaining some notoriety. In October 1942, he was featured in an article in The Pine-Bur, the post newspaper. The article noted that his “career as a soldier of fortune has taken him around the world.” It recounted his growing up in India and China, and his combat experience in China and Spain. “He is now married and the proud father of a large son,” the article ended.
    A year after marrying Eddie, Mildred gave birth to a second son, William. They named William for Eddie’s brother, who was in the service at a different military base. With Mildred, Eddie felt a wholeness he had never known before.
    Meanwhile, his relationship with his own family had reached a nadir. Eddie and his brother William had always been close. William had been married for a short time, but his wife walked out on him, leaving him heartbroken. Eddie’s relationship with Miriam, whom he regarded as out of control, was often strained. And since returning to the United States, Eddie had kept his distance from his father and stepmother. He wrote to themoccasionally but complained that they didn’t respond. “They don’t answer my letters,” Eddie told Mildred, “so I’ll discontinue my letters.” The old wound between father and son never healed, and now it had become an ugly scar.

CHAPTER FIVE
L OVE AND W AR: A H ERO’S S TORY
    E ddie loved married life and he greatly enjoyed his young family. Despite the evident segregation and discrimination, he also relished his life in the Army. His officers were impressed by his knowledge, capability, and enthusiasm, and as a result he was promoted to staff sergeant. But Eddie was a combat soldier, a warrior against tyranny, and he was itching to get into the fight against fascism.
    In the fall of 1944 his hopes were raised when his unit was notified that they would be shipped overseas. He packed up his family and sent them back to Mildred’s parents in Los Angeles. His truck company was shipped first to England and then on November 13, 1944, they arrived in southern France expecting to be sent to the front lines. Instead they were assigned to transporting supplies to the fighting forces and cleaning out snipers in the rear areas.
    Despite his disappointment, Eddie kept an upbeat tone in his letters home. On November 22 he wrote to Mildred to wish her a happy birthday. “Dear Pet: You see,I haven’t forgotten the date. Dec. 1st is your birthday, is it not? If I wasn’t several thousand miles away I would give you one thousand burning kisses for your very own. This is another one of my letters you may keep as a promissory note to be made good at the first opportunity. In the meanwhile, I’ll be thinking only of you. If you should care to make me happy, write soon and mail me a few crumbs of that birthday cake, which I’m sure your mother baked for the sweetest of girls.”
    In a letter written on December 17, Eddie admitted the deep impact Mildred’s love had made in his life: “Your claim is that you do not understand me—yet you are the only one who has ever understood me. You made me love you when once upon a time I was sure that it was impossible for me to love anyone but my mother. You did what others could not do. You are my emancipator. Life would be unbearable without having someone to fight for and to come home to after the war.” For most of his life Eddie had steeled himself against feelings of tenderness for anyone other than his mother. Mildred