Q: In the mid-2000s — during the height of the Iraq war – the AJC published a series of articles from a young captain in the U.S. Army. I’d love to know if the young captain made it out of the war and, if so, how and what he is doing now.
—Mark Tucker, Norcross
A: Lt. Col. Chris Carter, who gained national attention through media reports in the first year of the Iraq War, served three tours in Iraq and retired from the Army last year.
He teaches Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) at Hart County High School in Hartwell.
Carter, who is from Watkinsville, was a captain on his first tour when he and a fellow officer unfurled a UGA flag at the presidential palace in Baghdad, which was broadcast live on Fox News in April 2003.
“I didn’t realize we were live,” Carter told Q&A on the News last month. “Someone said go get the flag, we’re going to be on Fox News. If I realized that we were going to be live, I would have been much more enthusiastic when I said ‘Go Dawgs.’ But at the same time, people were shooting at us from the other side of the river.”
In another incident that received widespread media attention, Carter left his armored vehicle to rescue an Iraqi woman on a bridge during a battle that year.
An Associated Press reporter was embedded with Carter’s unit.
“I’m just a small-town guy who probably got more attention than he deserves,” he was quoted as saying then.
Carter also was a professor of military science at the University of Alabama-Birmingham before he retired. He’s married and has three children.
Andy Johnston with Fast Copy News Service wrote this column. Do you have a question? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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