GI Reporter Earned Silver Star in Afghan Ambush
November 16, 2009
Stephens Media|by Ashley Hamershock
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The 24-year-old Army combat cameraman was nearing the end of his 12-month tour and thought he'd completed his last combat mission. Then his boss got pinkeye and asked Carter to fill in on the mission deep within Shok Valley, a well-known sanctuary of the Hezeb Islami al Gulbadin terrorist organization.
Arriving with his gear, the Texas native got a hint of what was to come.
"The team just started stripping my whole kit apart, saying, 'You're not going to need this' because we were going just pretty much vertical. That's when I was like, 'Wow, OK.' "
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"My bag got shot," Carter says. "It ripped through my camera and batteries and my Camelbak. I felt the Camelbak water running down my back. I thought I'd been shot. ... I was so pumped through with adrenaline. I thought, 'You gotta be kiddin' me.' "
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As it turns out, the cameraman never used his camera that day. It now sits in a museum in Fort Meade, Md.
