Elijah Johnston
SGT Slyder
MS1
5 February 2015
Staff Sgt. Ty M. Carter
Ty Michael Carter was born in Spokane, Washington in
January 1980. He would enlist in the Marine Corps where he attended the Marine Corps Combat Engineer School in 1998.
Carter was stationed in places such as Japan, Egypt, and
California. In 2002 he was honorably discharged from the
Marines and he would enroll in college and study biology at Los
Medonos Community College in California. After graduating college and the birth of his daughter he decided he still had a passion to serve in the military.
Carter enlisted in the U.S. Army on Jan. 3, 2008, and attended the Cavalry Scout Basic Training
Course at Fort Knox, Ky. In April 2008, he was sent to Fort
Carson, Colo., to join 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th
Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. In May of 2009, Carter deployed for 12 months to the Nuristan
Province, Afghanistan. His heroic actions in the Battle of COP
(American Combat Outpost) Keating earned him his medal of honor. COP Keating was company sized outpost in Nuristan. It was located at the bottom of a constricted bowl shaped valley.
At about 6 AM on Oct.3, 2009 enemy forces launched a combined attack on COP Keating and the nearby Outpost
Fritsche. Staff Sergeant Carter displayed an excellent example of the warrior ethos during this battle. The four statements that compose the warrior ethos are: I will always place the mission first, I will never accept to defeat, I will never quit, and I will never leave a fallen comrade.
During this 12 hour long fight where Carter and his men were outnumbered 300 to 53 it would of been very easy to surrender and concede defeat to these overwhelming odds.
Regardless of how hopeless it seemed Staff Sergeant Carter and his men always placed the mission first and their heroic actions resulted in them being able to successfully hold their ground against the attacking enemy. Carter would risk his life and run
from cover while taking heavy fire from machine guns and
RPGs to resupply his fellow soldiers on multiple occasions.
At one point Carter and three other soldiers were forced to take cover in a nearby humvee. A few moments after entering the vehicle it was hit with three to four RPGs. One of them detonated on the turret and destroyed the .50 caliber machine gun while also spraying the inside of the humvee with shrapnel.
Even after suffering wounds from this he refused to accept defeat. He would crawl thirty meters under heavy fire to safety despite being freshly wounded. From his new position he was able to lay down fire which would kill a few enemy soldiers and successfully repel the initial attack.
Eventually Carter and one other soldier became separated from the rest of the B troop soldiers. They were low on ammo and left without a working radio. They grew concerned that the rest of the outpost had been overrun but they refused to quit and they decided they needed to find a way to get in
