Chapter 5

War and Peace

Sunday afternoon, December 7, 1941, seventeen-year-old Jimmy Carter was home alone listening to music on the radio. Suddenly, the music stopped. An announcer came on. “We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin. The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by air . . .”

Like all Americans, Jimmy was shocked. He wasn’t sure where Pearl Harbor was located. What did this attack mean? When his family returned home, Jimmy discussed the news with his father. They learned that Japanese bombs had killed over two thousand servicemen. Another thousand were wounded in the attack. The next day, Jimmy and his father listened as President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war between the United States and Japan. The United States had officially entered World War II.

A few days later, the Carters received word that Jimmy’s uncle, Tom Gordy, had been captured by the Japanese on the Pacific Island of Guam. That news brought the war even closer to Plains. Everyone prayed that Tom would make it home.

Meanwhile, America prepared for war. The United States was fighting in Europe against the Germans and the Italians, and in Asia against the Japanese. Several of Jimmy’s high school classmates joined the army or the navy. Jimmy did not sign up. He planned to serve his country as a naval officer after he graduated from Annapolis. The navy would need good officers like him in the difficult times ahead.

Jimmy (bottom right) posed with his high school graduating class in 1941.

Mr. Earl spoke with the district congressman, Steven Pace, about Jimmy’s going to Annapolis. Congressman Pace suggested that Jimmy begin college, and maybe, in another year, he would consider appointing him to Annapolis. So Jimmy began classes at Georgia Southwestern College in Americus. He did so well in chemistry that the professor gave him a part-time job as a lab assistant. He finished the year with excellent grades, but Congressman Pace failed to appoint him to Annapolis. Jimmy began to doubt that he would ever get into Annapolis. He switched to Georgia Tech in Atlanta to study engineering. Finally, in 1943, Congressman Pace appointed Jimmy to Annapolis.

Annapolis

In June, Jimmy boarded a train for Annapolis, Maryland. Like other midshipmen, Jimmy took classes in seamanship, navigation, astronomy, engineering, and naval plans and procedures. He took a special course in identifying ships and planes. When the outlined image of a ship or plane was flashed onto a screen for a fraction of a second, he could recognize it. He also learned to fly seaplanes, which take off and land on the water.

Each summer the midshipmen trained for battle on older battleships. These training missions were dangerous because the war continued in Europe. German submarines patrolled the ocean, ready to attack enemy ships. Jimmy was assigned to the USS New York, an ancient battleship. He did everything from scrubbing the decks — and the toilets — to manning an anti-aircraft gun. He wore a life jacket at all times and slept on the deck near his anti-aircraft gun station in case of attack.

Rosalynn

At the end of summer, Jimmy returned to Plains on a short leave from the naval academy. His sister Ruth introduced him to her best friend, Rosalynn Smith. Rosalynn had been admiring the photo of Jimmy that hung on Ruth’s wall. She thought he was the handsomest young man she had ever seen. Jimmy liked Rosalynn too and invited her to go to a movie. When he returned home that night, he told his mother that he had met the girl he wanted to marry.

Like Jimmy, Rosalynn was born in Plains and attended Plains High School. She was active in church and attended the same summer revival services that Jimmy did. The revivals made an impression. She later wrote, “God was a real presence in my life.”

Rosalynn, who is three years younger than Jimmy, studied hard in school and earned good grades. When she was in the third grade, the teacher asked her to help teach the second-graders who were having trouble in math. It was an honor. Rosalynn dreamed of faraway places as she read books like Heidi, Hans Brinker, and Robinson Crusoe. When she was in seventh grade, she won a prize of five dollars for getting the highest grades in the class. That would be more than seventy-seven dollars today!

Rosalynn was only thirteen when her father became seriously ill. Jimmy’s mother, Miss Lillian, often stopped by the house to help nurse Rosalynn’s father. One day, Mr. Smith called Rosalynn and her brothers to his bedside. He explained that he was not going to get well. “You are good children,” he said, “and I’m depending on you to be strong.” He told the children that he wanted each of them to go to college. It was a promise that Rosalynn intended to keep. Her father died soon after, and Rosalynn worked hard both at school and helping her mother at home. However, as soon as she graduated from high school, she began attending Georgia State College for Women.

Jimmy and Rosalynn pose for a wedding photo.

Good news

Rosalynn had finished her first year of college when she met Jimmy. A few weeks later, on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The bomb flattened the city and killed more than a hundred thousand Japanese people. Three days later, the US bombed another Japanese city, Nagasaki, killing tens of thousands more. Jimmy was on board a ship with hundreds of other sailors. They sat on the deck and listened as President Truman spoke over the ship’s radio. He described the atomic bomb that had been dropped on Japan. Jimmy later wrote about the experience, “There was no way to understand the meaning of the nuclear weapons used in the attack on two Japanese cities.”

Soon after the bombing, Japan surrendered. World War II was over. People across the country rejoiced. In Plains, church bells rang and people gathered to pray. Rosalynn thanked God that Jimmy would not have to go to war.

The Carters received more good news. Tom Gordy, Jimmy’s favorite uncle who had been reported captured and then dead, was found alive. During the war, the Japanese had forced him to work on a mountain railroad system. He’d been beaten and starved. But he recovered quickly once he was treated in an American military hospital. He lived many more years — long enough to see Jimmy elected governor of Georgia.

Jimmy received more good news when Rosalynn agreed to marry him. They were married on July 7, 1946, in Plains. Only their families and a few close friends attended. Right afterward, Jimmy and Rosalynn left Plains to begin their life together in Norfolk, Virginia. A year later, their first child, John William Carter, was born. They called him “Jack.”

Atomic submarines

In 1948, when Jimmy’s assignment on the USS Wyoming was coming to an end, he applied for submarine school. The navy’s submarine service selects officers who are smart, dependable, calm, and able to make good decisions quickly. Submariners must be in top physical condition. Jimmy fit the description perfectly.

In submarine school, Jimmy learned how to operate a submarine. Rescue drills took place in a giant water tank. In one exercise, students entered the tank through the bottom and swam up through one hundred feet of water to the surface. That’s like climbing a ten-story building!

After Jimmy graduated from submarine school, he was sent to Hawaii. Life in Hawaii suited the Carters. Jimmy learned to play the ukulele, a kind of Hawaiian guitar, and Rosalynn danced the hula. She made bright floral shirts for Jimmy, little Jack, and the new baby, James Earl Carter III. They called the baby Chip. A third son, Donnel Jeffrey, called “Jeff,” was born two years later after the Carters had moved to Connecticut.

Jimmy’s navy crewmates called him “Jim.” They said he was smart, organized, and serious. He later wrote about his life in submarines: “We would stay submerged for long periods of time, working in stockinged feet. We would hear all kinds of strange sea-creature sounds and could detect ships at extraordinary distances.”

Jimmy, eager for a new challenge, applied to work in the navy’s new nuclear submarine program. He learned everything he could about nuclear energy. The work fascinated him, and he put all his determination into preparing to become the engineering officer and learning how to operate the navy’s new nuclear submarine, the Seawolf. A call from home changed everything. Jimmy never sailed with the Seawolf.