Amon G. Carter Jr. Timeline
1920s-30s
1919
Amon G. Carter Jr. is born in Fort Worth and dubbed “Cowboy” by his father.
1929
Carter begins his active career, at age 10, with the Star-Telegram selling newspapers on the corner of 7th and Taylor, which eventually leads to an early morning delivery route; a TCU scholarship for the newsboy with best grades graduating high school was later created in his honor.
1934
Enters Culver Military Academy, Culver, Indiana; he graduates the following year.
1938
Enters University of Texas, Austin, in the business administration program.
1940s
1941
Enters the United States Army as a lieutenant with the 1st Armored Division at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
1943
Taken prisoner in Tunisia, North Africa, while serving as a forward observer. He is initially held in Italy, then transferred to Poland by the German Wehrmacht. During the 27 months he is a prisoner in Oflag 64, a camp outside Szubin, Poland, he manages to contact his father and tell him he is alive and that he is with other Texas prisoners of war. His father begins publishing updates for all the families in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Carter Sr. sends his son supplies and information through an underground contact in Portugal. Carter Jr. uses these materials to “publish” on toilet paper a newspaper for the camp. He also includes news from a friendly Polish contact at the train station who clandestinely listens to British radio and leaves news items in a wastebasket for Carter Jr. to recover later.
1945
German forces, in full retreat, move the prisoners of Oflag 64 to a camp outside Berlin, severing the connection between the Carters. The camp is liberated by advancing Russian units. Carter Sr.’s sources spend six weeks scouring Europe for Carter Jr., but he had been transferred to an Allied camp for American prisoners and released. The Carters are reunited by chance outside the 83rd Brigade Headquarters in Germany. Carter Jr. receives a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his service. In later life, he founds a national organization to help former prisoners of war, and for the rest of his life, he sends assistance to the Polish family that helped him when he was a prisoner of war.
1946
Carter is named director and treasurer of Carter Publications, Inc., which owns the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the WBAP radio and television stations.
1948
Carter Jr. is made national advertising director of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.