WW II Then and Now: A gunner who cooked Elmer Carpenter

　
During World War II, Elmer E. Carpenter was a Marine Corps cook and a machine gunner.
"When he was in camp, he was chief cook," explained Richard Getz, who submitted information about Carpenter’s military service to The Repository. "But when he was in battle, he was a gunner."
Well-known in the area for running The Trading Post store in Massillon, and making fishing lures to sell there, Carpenter joined the Marines in June of 1942. He had taken mechanical engineering at Buchtel High School in Akron, and that’s a skill he used for a short time at Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., drawing parts for anti-aircraft guns and reading blueprints.
But the Marines put him to work on the battlefield.

BATTLES FOUGHT
Serving with the 4th Marine Division, Carpenter participated in military engagements at Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. He was wounded when three Marine divisions landed on Iwo Jima. A mortar shell exploded in front of him right after he left his landing craft.
Many of the injured from that invasion were taken to Hawaii. Others were shipped to San Francisco. Carpenter ended up in Chicago at Great Lakes Naval Hospital, where he remained for four months. The wounds healed. Scars remain.
He was discharged Oct. 11, 1945.

Elmer Carpenter sold an array
 of hunting equipment with his fishing lures at
 a store at two locations on South Erie Street

AFTER THE WAR
In 1949, Carpenter opened The Trading Post in Massillon, selling live bait, fishing lures, fishing supplies and hunting equipment from the store on South Erie Street.
He built a larger structure next to the original building in 1965, starting that year to manufacture and sell his own line of Assassin Lures. With help from his two sons, he still is manufacturing the lures, selling them in his store and living in quarters above the shop.
Getz pointed at a Marine insignia that adorned the front of Carpenter’s hat in an old military photograph.
"That Marine Corps insignia — he always has one of them on his collar," said Getz. "He’s still a Marine, I guess."



　


Elmer Carpenter stands amid the fishing gear
— including Assassin fishing lures he manufactures —
 that he sells in his store,
 The Trading Post on South Erie Street in Massillon

Elmer E. Carpenter
Massillon

U.S. Marines

1942-1945

Sergeant

Machine gunner/chief cook

4th Marine Division

Pacific Theater

Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima

Honors: Purple Heart

Age: 87


　

Elmer Carpenter of Massillon wore these dogtags
 during his service as a Marine in the Pacific Theater of World War II