Reidsville Mr. Carl Cowart, age 94 passed away Friday, January 11, 2019 at Tattnall Healthcare Center. He was born in Tattnall County in the winter of 1924; one of seven siblings of the late, Mr. Tobe and Lucy Boyles Cowart, who knew the hardships of the “Great Depression”. Carl had a long and interesting life.
He served in the US Navy from the beginning of WW II, and served in the US Army during the North Korean Conflict. He was serving in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) at Camp Reese River, Nevada, and had just passed his 18th birthday, November 5th when the Japanese attacked our Naval Base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The CCC was immediately de-activated and most of its members, who had already had some military training, went into the Armed Forces.
On January 2, 1942, Carl enlisted in the US Navy and took his Boot Camp Training at Great Lakes, Illinois. He completed a course in Naval Communications at the University of Urbana/Champaign, Illinois and later took an extended course in Naval Communications at Norroton Heights, Connecticut. Upon its completion, he was assigned to a newly established branch of the Navy, a Task Force known as the US Naval Armed Guard.
It consisted of US Naval Gun Crews and Communications Personnel serving on board Allied Merchant Vessels. Carl’s first assignment was aboard a Norwegian Freighter, The S.S. Austvangen. The US Naval personnel serving in The Naval Armed Guard soon learned the number one target of the German Nazi U-boats in the North and South Atlantic, and the Caribbean Sea, was the Merchant Ships and their cargo.
Towards the end of the war in ETO, (Eastern Theater of Operations) the Naval Armed Guard personnel were transferred from Allied Merchant Ships to Amphibious Training Camps in England in preparation for Amphibious Landings on the beaches of Normandy, France (D-Day). With the ending of WWII, Carl was honorably discharged as a Petty Officer 2nd Class from the US Navy at Jacksonville, Florida. However, with less than a year of civilian life, he returned to the military- this time, with the US Army taking his basic training at Ft.
Jackson, South Carolina. He volunteered for the 82nd Airborne Infantry Division, stationed at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina and attended Parachute Jump School at Ft.
Benning, Georgia. On June 25, 1953, Carl qualified for his Master Parachutist Certificate. He volunteered and qualified for a unit of the Green Beret in July of 1954, and soon received his final Top Security Clearance and was assigned to the 77th Special Forces Group at Ft.
Bragg, North Carolina. He later served with the 187th AIR (Airborne Infantry Regiment) a Regiment of the 11th Airborne Infantry Division in the Far East Command. He was discharged from the US Army in 1956 with the rank of Sgt 1st Class and returned home where he followed construction work and eventually retired from Canoochee EMC in Reidsville, GA.
He was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW Post 7764) in Reidsville, serving as Quartermaster for 8 years. He was a member of the Reidsville Lions Club, serving as Publicity Director. He was forever grateful to Mrs. Betty Adams and Mr. Leland Gregory, who greatly influenced his becoming a member of the Reidsville Baptist Church.
He was preceded in death by his brothers, Elmer Cowart, Jr., Olan Cowart, Roy Cowart, and Arthur Cowart. He is survived by his sisters, Callie Peeples of Brunswick and Mary Nell Wilson of Ohio. Also survived by numerous nieces and nephews.
A visitation will begin at 1:00pm Monday, January 14, 2019 at Reidsville Baptist Church with a funeral services to follow at 2:00pm with the Reverend Chuck Jonas officiating. Interment will follow the service at Georgia Veterans Memorial Cemetery with military honors rendered by the US Army. Low Country Cremation and Burial is serving the family of Mr. Carl Cowart.
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