Friday, December 22, 2017
Frank Carrier
Born in 1918 Frank Carrier was drafted into the United States Army in 1941 and was assigned to be trained as a combat engineer. While training to become a combat engineer Carrier trained with the use of both pontoon and bailey bridges as well as in basic bridge building and repair in the event that a bridge to cross a river or valley was ever needed. It was during this training that he had sudden realization about the importance of bridges. Carrier deduced that bridges would play an important role in the war and that both the Allies and the Axis would be focusing on protecting their own bridges while destroying those used by the enemy. This led Frank to believe that being a combat engineer building a bridge might be the perfect target for bombing and strafing by enemy planes, and instead decided that if he was going to be around bridges during the war he would be on the giving end of destruction and not the receiving.
Another, more personal reason, behind Carrier's decision of joining the Army Air Corps was for the hope that he would not have to kill another human being. "I did not want to kill other people so I joined the air force, the war is all on you, and I did not want to have the guilt of killing another human being up close and personal,"-Frank Carrier. "I'm very glad to have chosen the Army Air Corps, for I don't even know if I even ever killed anybody, one of the worst things about war is that wonderful decent people who are our enemies are being killed" —Frank Carrier.
In 1942 Carrier and his friends all attempted to transfer to the Army Air Corps by taking the physical and mental exams required for admission. There was no time limit for the mental exam however; Carrier was the first man out of the room after only an hour. Unfortunately the administration mistakenly miss-graded Carrier's test scores requiring him to stay longer than anyone else in order to find out if he passed or not.
After receiving his passing test scores Carrier was given orders to return home on furlough before attending basic training for the Army Air Corps. At the time Frank's family was on vacation in Florida so he decided it was best to hitchhike down there to spend as much time with them before shipping out. The only problem is that after traveling for a few days down to Florida from his home in Pennsylvania he had no idea where his family was staying. Frank first went to the post office for help, however, he was told that it would be illegal for them to tell him where his family was staying, and instead they "suggested" he might try a few houses down the road because his family may or not be staying there. Sure enough they were and Carrier found his family only to discover they were already preparing to return home the following day.
PS Dad loved the Lord Jesus Christ and brought up his family to believe in Him. He taught Sunday School his entire adult life and lived a good and righteous life. He will be missed by all those who knew him.
You may view the entire article here, including Bibliography:
http://www.carriereducation.com/downloads1/AboutDad/Frank%20Carrier.pdf
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