September 7, 2021
CHICAGO, IL – Hornell native Don Carter, Hornell High School Class of 43, was recently honored at a Chicago White Sox baseball game, for his service in WWII. Click here to see the video.
Carter landed on Utah beach two days after D-day with the 4th Infantry Division, 44th Field Artillery Battalion. He commanded an Army M7 tank as part of Patton’s 3rd Army. Carter earned five service stars for his participation in the battles of Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central Europe. His battalion took the Port of Cherbourg in Northern France, where he personally captured the Nazi flag from the officers headquarters. Miraculously that flag made it back to Hornell in 1944, where it was hung on display in a window at Tuttle & Rockwell’s department store for several weeks. Carter still has that flag to this day.
He also participated in the Battle of the Bulge and in the liberation of one of the satellite concentration camps in Germany at the end of the war. Don Carter is currently 96 years old, still lives in his own house in Libertyville, Illinois where he is actively involved in the American Legion and VFW.
