CARTER, JAMES DEVRIN
Remains recovered and repatriated in June and October 1993. Identified
September 1995.
Name: James Devrin Carter
Rank/Branch: W1/US Army
Unit: 174th Aviation Company, 14th Aviation Battalion
Date of Birth: 13 March 1947 (Kingsport TN)
Home City of Record: Clarkston MI
Date of Loss: 13 June 1968
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 151120N 1085232E (BS718802)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: UH1D
Refno: 1208
Other Personnel In Incident: (none missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 30 June 1990 from one or more of
the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence
with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W.
NETWORK 2020.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: James Carter was aboard a UH1D helicopter on a Command and Control
mission on June 13, 1968 in South Vietnam. The aircraft landed, picked up
passengers and departed to fly a visual reconnaissance mission near the
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The Operation Center at Duc Pho near Da Nang,
South Vietnam, that was controlling the flight received a report that
Carter's aircraft was involved in a mid-air collision with a U.S. Air Force
O2 aircraft. The helicopter and the O2 crashed.
Another helicopter crew in the area observed Carter's helicopter impact with
the ground and stated that they did not see anyone escape from the site. The
aircraft was burning.
Another element from an infantry unit was airlifted to the crash site and
could find no survivors at either site. A maintenance aircraft arrived and
assisted in he search. No remains were recovered that could be associated
with Carter. On subsequent searches, the remains of the pilot of the O2,
Major Brenner, and the crew of the UH1D were recovered, but Carter's remains
were never located.
Carter is one of nearly 2500 Americans who remain unaccounted for from
American involvement in the Vietnam War. Since the end of the war, thousands
of reports have been received that have convinced many experts that hundreds
of Americans are still alive, held captive in Southeast Asia. Whether Carter
survived the crash of his helicopter is not certain. Apparently he did not.
But one can imagine he would proudly fly one more mission to recover those
Americans that the country he served has abandoned.
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01/2020
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000rNOGOEA4
On August 31, 1995, the Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii
(CILH, now DPAA) identified the remains of Warrant Officer James
Devrin Carter, missing from the Vietnam War.
Warrant Officer Carter joined the U.S. Army from Michigan and
was a member of the 174th Aviation Company. On June 13, 1968, he
was the aircraft commander aboard a UH-1D Iroquois (tail number
66-1016) on a visual reconnaissance mission. Warrant Officer
Carter's aircraft was involved in a mid-air collision during the
mission, and he was killed in the incident. Immediate
investigations of the crash site failed to locate WO Carter's
remains. In 1993, a joint U.S. and Vietnamese investigative team
recovered human remains from the UH-1D's crash site. In 1995,
some of the recovered remains were identified as those of WO
Carter.
Warrant Officer Carter is memorialized on the Courts of the
Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
If you are a family member of this serviceman, you may contact your casualty office representative to learn more about your service member.