CARTHAGE, Mo. — Across the world right now, there’s an E-7 Master Sargent in the U.S. Air Force who has excelled in military survival training and now teaches those skills to airmen – his story began in Carthage, Mo.
MSgt. Casey Carter is between global stations at the moment, making a transition out of Kadena AFB, Okinawa, Japan. He has served at this post since 2020 and taught survival refresher training to aircrew as the non-commissioned officer in charge of operations. While there, he earned his bachelor’s in fire science and was awarded the Navy Achievement Medal for setting up the Marines Survival School; two Pacific Command Awards; multiple Group/Wing Awards and made his current rank. With 14 years under his belt in the Air Force, Carter says this military life has been a great career move.
“I have a strong drive and determination to be the person everyone can rely on and am very motivated with everything I do and have accomplished,” he said. “The hardest truth I have learned in my military experience is that most people are not like that, and you have to push continually to make sure things get done when they are out of your control and you are relying on someone else. The thing that’s got me through my most difficult challenges would be my mentors and that I can retire sooner than most.”
Even at a young age, Carter surpassed expectations in athletics and found a passion in cross country. After graduating with the Carthage High School Class of 2003, Carter ran on a scholarship for Missouri Southern State University for two years until an injury closed that chapter of his life. His interest in the Fire Academy and EMT certification led him to volunteer with the Duenweg Fire Department for almost a year.
Then, “long-story-short” as Carter says, an opportunity emerged to pursue commercial fishing in Alaska. The 21-year-old spent two years in the Bering Sea on a long-liner, the Bristol Leader. On a fateful trip home, he met Sarah in Joplin and the two moved to Port Orchard, Wash., and were married in 2008.
Carter explored other career paths at this time, and discovered the Air Force had elite fire academies. He joined in May 2009 at the age of 24.
In Basic Military Training at Goodfellow AFB, Texas, Carter was the dorm chief and won top PT performer and BMT topflight out of his graduation class of 900 other airmen. He then obtained his three-month technical training for fire science.
His first duty station was Whiteman AFB in Knob Noster, Mo., where he served for over five years. At this point in his career, Carter decided to cross-train into a new field – Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE) Specialist.
He returned to Goodfellow and went through “Selection” at Medina Annex for three weeks. Carter graduated Selection top of the class and was sent to Fairchild AFB for technical school. This six-month training session included temperate, desert, costal, rain forest and arctic environments as well as medical, low and high angle rescue. He graduated in the summer of 2015 at the top of his class again, and was voted to win the Cadre Award.
Carter’s next training was for his instructor’s certification. During this eight-month stint, he was in charge of eight airmen and taught them survival in Colville National Forest, Wash., and was eventually in charge of 25 personnel.
Carter spent five years at Fairchild teaching: physical and psychological stresses of survival, hands-on training in post-ejection procedures and parachute landing falls, survival medicine and recovery device training and equipment procedures, food procurement and preparation, day and night land navigation techniques, evasion travel and camouflage techniques, ground-to-air signals, natural /manmade shelter construction and aircraft vectoring procedures. He also taught a winter at the Artic school in Fairbanks, Alaska, and two months in Vietnam for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency looking for past POW’s from the Vietnam War to repatriate them back into the U.S. and close ties with their families and at the Resistance school house teaching Code of Conduct training in evasion and conduct after capture.
In 2019, Carter deployed to Al Udeid, Qatar and Afghanistan to do sight visits throughout the country and speak on Personnel Recovery mission planning and recovery assets in the area of operations and response times.
He earned the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal with Combat Device, Air Force Achievement Medal, and Air Force Commendation Medal.
Carter is the son of Randy and Delia Carter, and he and Sarah have a 10-year-old daughter, Lyla.
