On this day (October 1st) one hundred years ago, a boy named James Earl Carter Jr. was born in Plains, Georgia. This boy would go on to be (among many other accomplishments) the governor of the state of Georgia, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and the 39th president of the United States. But before that, Jimmy Carter began his career as a Naval Academy midshipman in the class of 1947.
Yearbook photo of Jimmy Carter from the 1947 Lucky Bag.
Before coming to the Naval Academy in 1943, Carter attended Georgia Southwestern College for one year in 1941 and spent an additional year at Georgia School of Technology. Carter wrote in his autobiography, “Even before I started in the first grade of school, I had already decided that I wanted to go to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, and my father agreed completely with that decision.”
While attending the Naval Academy, Carter ran on the cross country and track teams. His classmates referred to him as a “well-liked, low profile guy”. His entry in the 1947 Lucky Bag states “the only times he [Jimmy] opened his books were when his classmates desired help on problems. This lack of study did not, however, prevent him from standing in the upper part of his class. Jimmy’s many friends will remember him for his cheerful disposition and his ability to see the humorous side of any situation.”
President Jimmy Carter at the U.S. Naval Academy graduation, 1978.
While Carter was at the academy, there was an accelerated three-year program in place of the usual four-year program due to the immediate need for naval officers during World War II. Humanities classes were cut as the curriculum focused more on engineering and naval science. While Carter started at the Naval Academy in 1943 and is a member of the class of 1947, he graduated and was commissioned as a naval officer in June 1946. His final standing was 60 out of 820 graduates.
Carter became a nuclear submarine officer in the Navy. He resigned from active duty upon his father's death from cancer in 1953 and moved back to Georgia to take over the family’s farming business.
Works Cited:
Addie, Bob. Carter: No Stranger to the Football Scene. The Washington Post, September 23, 1976.
Argetsinger, Amy. The Class of the Naval Academy Has 50th Reunion. The Washington Post, June 5, 1996.
Dang, Dan Thanh. Carter Tells Ex-Classmates to Boost ‘Academy’s Image’. The Baltimore Sun, June 5, 1996.
Evans, Rowland and Robert Novak. Why Ex-Submariner Jimmy Carter Keeps Torpedoing His Old Service. The Washington Star, October 16, 1978.
First Black Graduate Looks Back. The Capital, April 10, 1995.
Long, Justin A., MIDN 1/C. President Carter Joins Class of 1947 in Celebrating 50th Class Reunion. The Trident, June 28, 1996.
Lucky Bag. United States Naval Academy, 1947.
Morris, Wilson. Class of 1947. The Cincinnati Enquirer, September 5, 1976.
Shipmate Magazine. Date unknown.
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