Anthony Carroll

Col. Anthony Carroll

Col. Anthony Carroll (Ret.), 82, of Carlisle, died Monday, April 29, 2013 in the Carlisle Regional Medical Center.

Born  October 8, 1930 in Butler, Pa he was a son of the late  Anthony Carroll and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Vickey.

Col. Carroll graduated from Butler High School in 1948 and holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Troy State University in Alabama and a Master’s Degree in Business from Shippensburg University.

Col. Anthony Carroll has served in the military uniform for more than 36 years.  He enlisted in the Butler unit of Pennsylvania National Guard in 1947, while a junior in high school.  He worked for the National Guard in Butler until he was called to active duty at the outbreak of the Korean Was in 1950.

He served as a sergeant first class with the 28th Infantry division at Camp Atterbury, Indiana until 1951.  Commissioned an Infantry Lieutenant in 1952, he completed airborne training the same year.  He completed flight training in 1953 and flew with the 45th and 24th Infantry Divisions in Korea during 1953-1954. He then served with the 1st Calvary Division in Japan until 1956.

Col. Carroll flew for four years as a test pilot with the Army Aviation Test Board at Fort Rucker, Alabama, where he pioneered the arming of the Army helicopters with anti-tank guided missiles, rockets and other weapons.  Demonstrating the French SS-11 ATGM for President Eisenhower and top defense officials, he scored three direct hits on tanks at the maximum 2-mile range, convincing the President that helicopters could destroy tanks.  He was selected to fire the first nuclear weapon from an Army helicopter, had that project proceeded.

He flew the last Army P-51 Mustang and was the first Army pilot qualified to fly helicopters under instrument weather conditions.  He was sent to Okinawa in 1961 to oversee the arming of the first helicopter gunships to see action in the Vietnam War.  In 1963 he was assigned as one of the original members of the newly formed 11th Air Assault Division at Fort Benning, Georgia and participated in the testing and evaluation of the Army’s new airmobile concept.  In 1965 the division was re-designated as the 1st Air Cavalry Division and deployed to the Central Highlands of Vietnam where it fought the first American division-scale battle of the war against the North Vietnamese 325th Division at Plei Me only weeks after arriving in Vietnam.  Then a Major, Carroll served in this and other campaigns as the executive officer of an airborne infantry battalion, making a number of parachute jumps in Vietnam.  From Vietnam, he returned to the Aviation Test Board where for the next four years he again participated in the test and evaluation of numerous experimental aircraft and new Army aircraft and weapons systems.

In 1970 he returned to Vietnam for another year of combat duty, serving first as the deputy commander of the 164th Combat Aviation Group the largest unit of its type in Vietnam.  Later he took command of the 214th Combat Aviation Battalion, which operated 155 combat aircraft over a 15,000 square mile area, which included the U Minh Forest, the Mekong River Delta and parts of Cambodia.  The battalion he commanded included officers and enlisted men from the Royal Australian Navy and the Vietnamese and Cambodian Air Forces, as well as the US Army.  He flew more than 660 hours in combat operations and had over 10,000 hours of flying time during his career.  After this second tour in Vietnam he was assigned to the Department of the Army Staff in the Pentagon, where he managed development of programs for new weapons systems.

He attended the US Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, the Army’s highest level of military education.  After graduation he was assigned to the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, where he was responsible for the preparation of plans and exercises to test worldwide nuclear war procedures.

In 1976 he was selected to command the 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.  Following this command he returned to Carlisle and taught global military strategy at the Army War College for five years.

He received 54 awards and decorations for valor and service, including 2 Legions of Merit, 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 4 Bronze Stars, 23 Air Medals, 2 Meritorious Service Medals, the Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry and Honor Medals, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Master Army Aviator Badge, US and Vietnamese Parachutist Badges, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Badge, and the Army Staff Badge.

Colonel Carroll retired as a regular Army Colonel in 1983 with more than 36 years of military service.

Colonel Carroll is survived by his loving wife of 62 years Virginia Lawhead Carroll; three children: daughter Debra Cline of Colorado, son Daniel and wife Karen of Carlisle and daughter Dotty Price of Carlisle, a sister: Barbara Browning, of Florida, a sister-in-law: Helen Carroll, of Maryland, 5 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at the Ronan Funeral Home, 255 York Road, Carlisle on  Monday. May 6, 2013 at 12 Noon, with the Rev. Dwight D. Schlaline  officiating.  Burial with military honors will follow in  Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.  Visitation will be at the funeral home on  Monday from 11:00 A.M. until time of service.

In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be directed to The Salvation Army, 125 S. Hanover St., Carlisle, Pa 17013.

On-line condolences may be expressed at www.ronanfh.com.