Connecting with Jimmy Carter

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President Jimmy Carter died at age 100 on December 29, 2024, the oldest former president of the United States. Plaudits and honors have poured in from around the world that highlight his incredible service to humanity well after his service as president ended; Nobel Peace Prize recipient, eliminating guinea worm, building housing for those left without, writer of nearly three dozen bestsellers, monitoring national elections, Sunday school teacher and family patriarch, among others, all done with humility, grace and a deep sense of purpose. He was indeed a respected ‘citizen of the world.’

None of that had yet manifested itself when I volunteered for the US Army in late August 1976 at age 20, though. Why I felt the need to volunteer at that age, I really can’t say. Perhaps the Bicentennial might have had something to do with it. If the patriots felt the need to “...pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor…” perhaps I should, too, I might’ve been thinking. So, volunteer I did.

My enlistment coincided with the presidential election of 1976 and by August, Jimmy Carter, a relatively unknown governor of Georgia, had already accepted the Democratic nomination for president at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It was an election I followed closely, having taken quite an interest in national politics in high school and so I packed a number of weekly magazines about the election to take with me to basic training at Fort Jackson, SC in late August just to keep up. I shouldn’t have bothered. All nonessential items were immediately confiscated, including my magazines. It was the first and last election I would not be able to follow.

By January, we had a new commander-in-chief, President Jimmy Carter, and I was in Signal School at Fort Gordon (now Fort Eisenhower) near Augusta, GA until graduating as a Distinguished Graduate as a Radio Operator/Morse Code on February 3, 1977. I was to immediately report to Fort Benning, GA (changed to Fort Moore and now back to Fort Benning, but named for a different one) for Jump School (I learned from the Green Beret colonel trying to recruit me that Morse Code was a specialty only used by Special Forces and, as a city kid, I wasn't that serious a GI Joe, however I also didn't want to disappoint him too badly either so I compromised and went to airborne training instead).

Fort Gordon and Fort Benning are about 270 miles across Georgia and so I opted to drive my 1974 Plymouth Duster that I had retrieved from my family home near Cleveland, OH while on short leave just after graduating signal school. Traveling south along Interstate 75 to State Route 280 to Fort Benning, I saw a sign for Plains, Georgia with a billboard that read ‘Home of the President’ and decided to detour for a visit. It really was quite rural with Plains home to about 240 or so at the time with a Main Street only a few blocks long.

Not having much time before I had to report to Fort Benning, I visited the Carter family peanut warehouse along Main Street and found a pay telephone just outside. Thinking it a great opportunity to call home, I dialed long distance and got my Ma on the phone. I explained that I was in Plains and talking outside the Carter warehouse. There was a bit of quiet at the other end and she simply asked ‘How’s the weather?’ My Ma was clearly unimpressed. Still, I wandered the town, stopped outside Carter’s home with the Secret Service presence, bought gas at brother Billy's gas station and saw the small train depot that served as Carter’s ‘national headquarters’ with a giant smiling peanut on its platform. It wasn’t yet the National Historic Park it is today and so I saw the town as it was since its settlement in the early 19th century, rural and small.

After Jump School in February, I was assigned to HQ, 82nd Signal Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, NC (then it changed to Fort Liberty, then back again to Fr. Bragg, but, again, named for a different one; sheesh already). I would actually see President Carter personally for the first time as he sped by in a motorcade in a rather plain light brown sedan with a black top while visiting Pinehurst, NC near Fort Bragg sometime in early 1978. I just happened to be standing on the rural route visiting the area and saluted as he passed by. Carter saw me and waved back.

Later that year Carter would call on the 82nd Airborne to rescue Americans caught in the Zaire civil war (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) in May 1978, but were ordered to stand down just two hours before takeoff as Belgium and France sent the Foreign Legion, among others, to rescue Europeans trapped between the rebel groups and African Union forces instead. The ensuing chaos involving the massacre of hundreds of civilians by the rebel forces was infamously known as the Five Days of May in contemporary news reports, but now known as the successful Battle of Kolwezi (there were reports that Zaire president Mobutu Sese Seko initially orchestrated some civilian casualties in order to convince the French, Belgian and American forces to intervene).

With an honorable discharge in August of 1979, I returned to civilian life in Cleveland and involved myself in some local politics as a Chief Deputy Clerk of the Cleveland Municipal Court. Following a love interest to Washington, DC for a weekend, I found a full time job on the staff of the President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control (Grace Commission) not long after in 1982 and stayed working for different nonprofits and Democratic Party political work until 2022, a total of about 40 years, the last 15 years as a feature writer in collectibles, also thanks to Jimmy Carter.

One of the nonprofits I worked with had a friend who was a former White House staffer to President Carter at the White House. With my interest in politics I was asked if I knew a collector for some personal White House memorabilia. I did find a collector not long after and received a Jimmy Carter signed White House lapel pin and an official White House photo as my first payment in collectibles. I even worked for a time with a political collector who had gone fishing with Jimmy Carter several times who got his start in the 1976 Carter campaign selling campaign buttons and eating the campaign peanuts as a member of the famous Peanut Brigade. His stories and recollections about those fishing trips and the campaign were great fun.

But my connection with Jimmy Carter doesn’t end there. During at least two different book signings in Washington, DC, I was able to meet the former president and First Lady and have them personally sign the White House photo I had earned long before. They were both very gracious about it and signed it on the plane back to Plains and had it mailed to me not long after. I’m quite grateful for them to go through that extra effort.

Altogether, I would have had some personal interaction with Jimmy Carter in many ways over many years, while in military service, hearing the stories of his former White House staffer, working with his fishing buddy, handling personal memorabilia, visiting with the Carters at book signings and reading many of his nearly three dozen books.

So, my somewhat initial unclear patriotic enlistment in the US Army is more than just a memorable one. That experience alone has been a personal privilege just to serve, but it has been wonderfully heightened by my very distinct personal honor to have somewhat brief personal interactions with the Carters who were truly 'great citizens of the world.'