Hometown: Jefferson City, TN
Branch: U.S. Army (Air Forces)
Unit: Company G, 63rd Infantry Regiment, Army Post Office, 6th Infantry Division
Military Honors: Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: April 6, 1945 - KIA on Luzon Island, the Philippines
Age: 30
Conflict: World War II, 1939-1945

Melvin and his twin sister Melva were born in Oklahoma on September 21, 1914, to William and Lavina “Vina” (Strait) Carter. The family—including older sister Naomi, older brother Floyd, and younger sister Verna—later lived in Jefferson City, Tennessee, at the southern tip of the Cherokee Reservoir.

Melvin Carter’s life was marked by two of the world’s deadliest conflicts. He was born in 1914, as the First World War (1914-1918) broke out in Europe. By his late 20s, the United States had officially entered World War II (1939-1945) following the December 7, 1941, surprise Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Three days after that attack, Axis belligerents Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

By 1942, Carter had joined the U.S. Army and was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood in the Missouri Ozarks. He was assigned to Company G, 63rd Infantry Regiment, Army Post Office, 6th Infantry Division, and sent to the war’s Pacific Theater.

The winter of 1945 marked a turning point in the Pacific. On January 9, 1945, the U.S. landed more than 60,000 troops on the Philippine Island of Luzon. Retaking Luzon proved to be difficult and costly, with the Japanese entrenched in “an intricate defensive network of caves and tunnels,” according to HISTORY.com.

The initial ease of the American fighters’ first week on land was explained when they discovered the intricate defensive network of caves and tunnels that the Japanese created on Luzon. The intention of the caves and tunnels was to draw the Americans inland, while allowing the Japanese to avoid the initial devastating bombardment of an invasion force. Once Americans reached them, the Japanese fought vigorously, convinced they were directing American strength away from the Japanese homeland. Despite their best efforts, the Japanese lost the battle for Luzon and eventually, the battle for control over all of the Philippines.

A U.S. Army report on the long Battle of Luzon records that on April 6, 1945, SGT Carter’s 63rd Infantry Regiment was positioned near Mount Mataba, 15 miles northeast of the Philippine capital city of Manila:

Preparations were made to attack objectives A, B, and X, and on the 6th, following an artillery preparation, Company E jumped off for Hill A. Company G [Carter’s unit] attacked on Hill X. When within about 200 yards of the crest of their objectives, the companies ran into intense machine gun, knee mortar, small arms and 150mm mortar fire. To neutralize the enemy positions, M7s were used as well as 4/2 and 81mm mortars.

At age 30, SGT Melvin M. Carter was killed in the Battle of Luzon. His brother-in-law, PVT George F. Nelson was also lost in the important and costly struggle to take Luzon.

Four months after U.S. forces took control of the Philippines, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On September 2, 1945, Imperial Japan surrendered, bringing an end to World War II.

SGT Carter was laid to rest in his hometown of Jefferson City, Tennessee, and his name is inscribed at the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial in Knoxville (Pillar XII, Bottom Panel).

Sources
East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association: Melvin M. Carter
The Dandridge Banner, March 26, 1942: With Our Boys
Go For Broke National Education Center: Luzon
HISTORY.com: United States invades Luzon in Philippines
Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, History 63rd Infantry Regiment, Luzon P.I., p. 27: MT Mataba Operation, 4-6 April
HonorStates.org: Melvin M. Carter
Burial Site: Find a Grave