Lawrance J. Carter, Army, Sergeant -- Rest In Peace

Lawrance J. Carter, 25

Army, Sergeant
Based: Schweinfurt, Germany
1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: December 29, 2006
Baghdad (northwest area), Iraq
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Rancho Cucamonga
High School: Hillside Junior/Senior High (Campo)
Burial: Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside

A soldier is all that Army Sgt. Lawrance James Carter wanted to be while growing up in Upland. It was a family tradition. His mother, father, uncle and grandfather had all been Marines. His stepfather was an Army Green Beret, and his brother is in the Army.

When Carter enlisted in June 2001, he asked the Army to train him for combat. It was like anything important to him, family and friends said: He did it full-tilt…"That was Lawrance...," said his mother, Charles Evelyn Jones-Grays of Rancho Cucamonga, who served in the Marine Corps before her sons were born, then joined the Army National Guard... 

After Carter enlisted, he did four tours, the first two in Afghanistan, the last two in Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division in Schweinfurt, Germany.

He was trained as an infantryman. He completed airborne school and flew to the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he "went where the Army was and jumped out of planes, always at night, because you're a target in daylight," his mother said. "I spent four years holding my breath. Then he volunteered to be a gunner in the lead vehicle of a convoy."

Standing in the gun turret of an armored Humvee, Carter, 25, was one of two soldiers killed instantly Dec. 29 when a roadside bomb exploded near them in northwest Baghdad, said Army Maj. Wayne Marotto, public affairs officer for the 1st Armored Division.

"We stared at each other in our turrets," Army Pfc. Tam Pham wrote to Carter's family in an e-mail, "and exchanged a few words of motivation -- 'You ready, little brother?' 'Let's do this, big brother.'


"I mourn his loss, and the actions of that day are still fresh in my mind and will probably never leave my eyes. My only wish is to rewind that day and tell him how good of a friend and leader he was to me."

In addition to his mother and brother, Carter is survived by his stepfather, Ollie Grays; and his grandmother, Theola Evelyn Christy.

Read the entire LA Times article about Army Sergeant Lawrance J. Carter here and go here to visit Sergeant Carter's Guest Book.