More detail on this person: Retired Army Col. Anthony Carroll, 82, of Carlisle, Pa., died Monday
in the Carlisle Regional Medical Center.
He was born Oct. 8, 1930, in Butler, and was a son of the late Anthony Carroll and Mr. and Mrs.
Arthur Vickey.
Carroll graduated from Butler High School in 1948 and had a bachelor's degree from Troy State
University in Alabama and a master's degree in business from Shippensburg University.
Carroll has served in the military uniform for more than 36 years. He enlisted in the Butler unit of
the 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 War in 1950.
He was a sergeant first class with the 28th Infantry division at Camp Atterbury, Ind., 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.
Carroll flew for four years as a test pilot with the Army Aviation Test Board at Fort Rucker, Ala.,
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 two 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, Ga., and participated in the testing and evaluation of the Army's new
airmobile concept. In 1965, the division was redesignated 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 U.S. Army.
He flew more than 660 hours in combat operations and had over 10,000 hours of flying time during his
career. After his 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 U.S. 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,
N.C. 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 two Legions of Merit, three
Distinguished Flying Crosses, four Bronze Stars, 23 Air Medals, two Meritorious Service Medals, the
Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry and Honor Medals, the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Master
Army Aviator Badge, U.S. and Vietnamese Parachutist Badges, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Badge, and the
Army Staff Badge.
Carroll retired as a regular Army colonel in 1983 with more than 36 years of military service.
Carroll is survived by his loving wife of 62 years Virginia Lawhead Carroll; three children,
daughter, Debra Cline of Colorado, son, Daniel and his wife, Karen, of Carlisle and daughter Dotty
Price of Carlisle; a sister, Barbara Browning of Florida; a sister-in-law, Helen Carroll of
Maryland, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
CARROLL - Visitation for retired Army Col. Anthony Carroll, who passed away Monday, April 29, 2013,
will be at Ronan Funeral Home, 225 York Road, Carlisle, Pa., from 11 a.m. until the time of the
service Monday. Funeral services will be at the funeral home at noon Monday with the Rev. Dwight D.
Schlaline officiating. Burial with military honors will follow in Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be directed to The Salvation Army, 125 S. Hanover
St., Carlisle, PA 17013.
Online condolences may be expressed at www.ronanfh.com.
Published in Butler Eagle from May 4 to May 5, 2013
This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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