Captain Melvin J. Carpenter USN Jan. 16 1920 - July 9, 2010 A 1966 BIOS Captain Carpenter is a native northeran Californian, born in Weed, who attended St. Mary's College of California where he was a member of Slip Madigan's famous football team "Galloping Gaels". Upon graduation from St. Mary's in early 1942 he received his basic Navy training at N.O.B. Norfolk and Princeton Officers School. During WWII he served  as Commanding Officer of the LCT 395 in the Aleutian campaign where he participated in the landings on Attu, Kiska, and Shemya. In late 1944 he was ordered to the South Pacific as commander LCT Group Forty and, as such, was involved in the landings on Anguar and Palau plus all LCT operations in Ulithi Atoll. ................................................................................................................................................................. In October  1945, after serving at the Amphipious Base, Coronado, for four months he was ordered to the Mine Warfare School and thence to the Pacific as Commanding Officer, USS Sprig (AM-384). During this tour he participated in the minesweeping operations in the Yellow Sea; Sasebo, and Nagasaki, Japan, entrance clearance minesweeping; Yangtze River entrance clearance minesweeping and the Tsushima Straits operations. In July 1946 he joined the Atlantic Fleet Mine Force as the USS Sprig was the last of the U.S. minesweepers to be returned to the U.S.

.. View Captain Carpenter's 1966 KAWISHIWI LOG BOOK

Captain Carpenter's next assignment was as Executive Officer of the USS Ellyson (DMS-19) where he for the next three years participated in springboard operations, Sixth Fleet deployments, rendering of services to other units of the Atlantic Fleet and many other operations in the Atlantic.  Upon reassignment from the Ellyson he attended the Navy Line School, Monterey, followed by a short  tour  in the Mine Warfare Branch of OPNAV.

In July 1952 Captain Carpenter was again orderedto the Atlantic Mine Force where he was to serve as Aide and Flag Secretary for the next two years. At this time he assumed command of the USS Fitch (DMS-25) and in February 1956 decommissioned the Fitch, the last of the destroyer  minesweepers to be decommissioned.

From April of 1956 to June 1958 Captain Carpenter served as Head of the Training and Operations Division in the Navy Section, Military Assistance Advisory Group, Taiwan. As such he was the personal advisor to the CinC, Chinese Navy; the chinese Naval Academy; the Command and Staff College and numerous other activities within  the Chinese Navy. Upon completion of two years in the MAAG he was assigned as a  student in the Naval Warfare Course at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. At the end of the year's course of instruction, he was transfered to the staff of the War college where he served as the  Assistant Secretary of the College for the next two years.

In August 1961 he assumed command of the USS Edson (DD-946). It was during this tour that two interesting episodes occured in that Edson assisted Hollywood in the making of the TV series "Ensign O'Toole" anf the Twilight Zone  film, "Thirty Fathoms Deep".
On 11 August 1961, EDSON sailed from Long Beach harbor to start her second WESTPAC deployment. She spent three months in operations with the attack carriers USS RANGER and USS TICONDEROGA and spent the month of December patrolling the straits between Taiwan and the mainland of Communist China. In January 1962, while en route from Kaoshiung, Taiwan to Yokosuka, Japan, EDSON was unexpectedly called upon to render emergency aid to a seriously wounded seaman aboard the Danish steamer MARGIT. In heavy seas, assistance personnel and medical supplies were high-lined to the civilian merchant vessel. Returning to Long Beach on 10 February 1962, EDSON soon resumed a normal EASTPAC destroyer schedule of operations until November 1962 at which time she entered the U.S. Naval Shipyard, Long Beach for regular overhaul. This period lasted until February 1963. Upon leaving the shipyard, EDSON proceeded to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii where she exercised in underway training. During the beginning of the training cycle on 17 March 1963, CDR J. J. HERRICK relieved CDR CARPENTER as Commanding Officer.

Upon departing the USS Edson, Captain Carpenter attended the interdepartmental seminar on Problems of Internal Security at the State Department Foreign Service Institute and then reported for duty on the Joint Staff, Commander-In-Chief, Pacific, in the Military Assistance Branch. In November 1965 he assumed command of the USS KAWISHIWI (AO-146).  He was commander until January 1967 when Capt. Donald Edge took Command.