John Manuel Carves (July 29, 1921 – December 20, 1943)

71st Bombardment Squadron, 38th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force

By Lisa Bostick and John Lancaster

Early Life

John Manuel Carves was born in Jacksonville, FL, on July 29, 1921 to Manuel and Demitra Carves. Both of his parents were born in Greece, Manuel around 1880 and Demitra around 1894; they came to the US around 1910, during the first wave of mass Greek immigration to the country.¹ Between 1890 and 1921, over 400,000 Greeks immigrated to the US, where they settled primarily on the East Coast in Florida and New York.² After arriving in Florida, Manuel Carves began working in the restaurant industry. In 1924, three years after John was born, he worked at the Stratford Restaurant in Jacksonville, FL, where he remained until at least 1936.³ Significantly, by 1930 Manuel owned the restaurant and he and his wife had become naturalized US citizens. The Carves family lived in a home, which they owned, at 2160 Myra St., close to downtown Jacksonville and just blocks from the St. Johns River. Along with his parents, John lived at this address with his sister Antigone (born 1915); brother Gus (born c. 1916); two uncles from his mother’s side, Spiro and Bill Kaptain; and his twelve-year-old cousin Agnes.⁴

1939 Palm Beach High School Yearbook Photograph

As we see from his 1939 high school yearbook photograph, John was around seventeen- years-old when his family lived in West Palm Beach, FL; a Greek community still exists in this area.⁵ Standing at six feet, one inch tall and weighing 165 pounds by the time he was twenty, John was an athlete and participated in several team sports in high school. He played on the Palm Beach Wildcats basketball team in the 1938-1939 and 1939-1940 seasons.⁶ He also played the center position on the school football team, where he helped achieve a winning season in 1939-1940 by scoring seven points in their final game of the year; they beat the Lake Worth Trojans 30-26 in this finale.⁷ During his senior year, John was one of twenty-eight players from Palm Beach and neighboring Lake Worth and Pahokee High Schools invited to play in an All-Star game against players from Mt. Carmel High School in Chicago, IL.⁸ John’s enthusiasm for sports led him to non-playing positions with his high school teams as well. In 1938, he served as assistant manager for the football team, and in 1940 as manager for the baseball team.⁹

Along with his athletic pursuits, John participated in the Pan-American Club at Palm Beach High School; he was also a member of Lodge Number 1352 of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, also known as the Elk’s Club.¹⁰ By the time he graduated high school in 1940, John lived with his parents, brother Gus, sister Antigone, and four-year-old nephew Theodore in a home owned by Antigone’s husband, George Miller, at 333 Greenwood Dr. in West Palm Beach, FL. Miller, twenty years older than Antigone, was also originally from Greece. He, Manuel Carves, and Gus Carves supported the large family by working as proprietors of a liquor store.¹¹ As business and homeowners, the Carves family likely enjoyed a greater level of economic stability throughout the 1930s during the Great Depression. While his father, brother, and brother-in-law worked, John was able to complete high school at a time when only about thirty percent of American teenagers graduated, as many felt pressure to leave school and join the workforce to help pay family bills.¹² Even more rare for the time, John attended college at the University of Florida (UF), where he had an active social life as part of Sigma Chi Fraternity.¹³

Military Life

On February 16, 1942, while home from UF, John Carves registered for the draft in West Palm Beach, FL.¹⁴ He enlisted in the US Army Air Force on May 6, 1942.¹⁵ Following his initial phase of training at the classification center in Nashville, TN, he reported to Maxwell Field in Montgomery, AL for pre-flight school in November 1942.¹⁶ In March 1943, he reported to the Greenville, MS Army Flying School to continue his flight training.¹⁷ John received his wings while stationed at Blytheville, AR. His proud parents, along with his seven-year-old nephew Theodore, attended the ceremony. There, he also received his commission as Second Lieutenant in the Army Air Force.¹⁸ After his graduation from Blytheville Army Air Field, John transferred to the Columbia Army Air Base in Columbia, SC for combat training.¹⁹

Through much hard work and dedication, John became a pilot for a B-25 Mitchell, a twin-engine bomber, with the 71st Bombardment Squadron, 38th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force.²⁰ Involved in the Pacific Theater of Operations, the 38th Bombardment Group attacked Japanese targets, transported Allied troops, and supplied ground forces in the Territory of New Guinea. The first medium bomb group of the US Army Air Force to be permanently deployed to New Guinea, the 38th played a pivotal role in destroying Japanese forces by flying low altitude bombing missions.²¹ Operations in New Guinea proved essential to advancing the liberation of the Philippines from Japanese occupation and subsequently forcing the Japanese to redirect some of their resources away from the Central Pacific front.²²

On December 20, 1943, John participated in a coordinated bombing attack on one of the airstrips of Alexishafen Airfield, located near the north coast of New Guinea, then used by the Japanese Army Air Force.²³ John, who served as co-pilot during the mission, flew alongside Pilot Clanton, Navigator Morse, Radio Operator Klimko, and Gunner Sexton.²⁴ Flying in formations of three planes each, his squadron, the 71st Squadron of the 38th Bombardment Group, attacked the airstrip at an altitude of 200 feet. During the mission, the lead plane of the third flight group, which John co-piloted, encountered machine gun fire from below, which hit John in the hip and stomach. Although Navigator Morse and Radio Operator Klimko attempted to provide first aid while in the air, the wounds proved fatal. John M. Carves died before the plane landed.²⁵

Legacy

One of the first units to be deployed into the Pacific Theater, the 38th Bombardment Group participated in a total of nine campaigns and proved critical to winning the war in the Pacific. The 38th received four Distinguished Unit Citations, twice as many as any other US Army Air Force unit. For its aid in liberating the Philippine Islands from Japanese occupation, the 38th Bombardment Group also received a Philippines Presidential Unit Citation.²⁶ In 1992, the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) dedicated a marker within the US Embassy in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, which honors Allied troops who fought and died in the Southwest Pacific Theater of the war, including those in John Carves’ unit.²⁷

Just weeks after John’s death, Florida newspapers announced that he was killed in action overseas.²⁸ On January 30, 1944 his family held a memorial service for him at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in West Palm Beach.²⁹ Additionally, both the 1945 and 1947 editions of the UF school yearbook dedicated memorial pages to former students who lost their lives in World War II. John Carves is remembered in both editions.³⁰ In March 1944, three months after his death, John Carves was awarded the Silver Star. Later that year, representatives from the Army presented the award to his parents following a memorial service for their son, again held at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. The citation for the award, which was read aloud at the service, read in part that John earned the Silver Star for his “gallantry in action” while fighting against the enemy in the Southwest Pacific.³¹ Because he lost his life in battle, he was also awarded the Purple Heart.³²

1952 West Palm Beach City Directory

John’s family continued to live together in West Palm Beach following the war. In 1950, his parents, Manuel and Demitra, lived in a home directly next to the ocean, at 7201 South Flagler Dr. They lived at this address with John’s brother Gus, Gus’s wife Mary, and their two daughters Mary and Diana; as well as with John's sister Antigone, her husband George Miller, and their son Theodore, who had been present to see John earn his wings in 1943.³³ As we see from the 1952 West Palm Beach city directory, in the years following World War II Manuel Carves, Gus Carves, and George Miller all worked together at an establishment called Miller’s Bar, owned by and named after George.³⁴ That the family both lived and worked together indicates they were especially close-knit.

Initially, John was interred in the British New Guinea Cemetery, near where he died. In 1949, Manuel Carves, who was John’s next of kin, chose to bring his son’s remains back to Florida to be reinterred nearer to his family and in the state where he lived and studied. John M. Carves rests in St. Augustine National Cemetery among his fellow Veterans in Section D, Site 124.³⁵

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