Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States who died Sunday, was known in life as a proud son of the state of Georgia. But he also had a strong connection to the state of Connecticut.
Jonathan Alter is author of the biography, "His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life." Alter told Connecticut Public Radio that the late president's affinity for the Nutmeg State started not long after he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946.
“Jimmy Carter — after he graduated from Annapolis — went out on various ships and didn't have a particularly happy experience,” Alter said. “[He] decided to apply to submarine school to become a submariner.”
In 1948, Carter found himself in Groton at the Naval Submarine Base New London’s Submarine School.
“They would go out on subs into the Atlantic [Ocean] and they would recreate the great submarine battles of World War II,” Alter said. “This was his only real taste of what it felt like to be in combat because he was just a little young for World War II. So you got to kind of get a vicarious sense, being on these subs off the Connecticut coast, of what it felt like to be in those World War II battles.”
Carter served as an officer aboard the USS Pomfret and the USS Barracuda, among other duties, until leaving the Navy in 1953. He left to take over operation of the family peanut farm in Georgia after his father passed away. The ensuing decades would take Jimmy Carter from the peanut farm, to the White House, to a role as elder statesman and warrior for those in need. And, as it turned out, Connecticut needed Carter in 2005 when the Navy seemed set to close the Naval Submarine Base New London.
“They were going to move it to Georgia and they got a letter from Carter saying, ‘Keep it in Connecticut,’” Alter said. “They kept it in Connecticut. And of course his fellow Georgians were furious.”
Alter said Carter did not base his actions on sentiment for a place like Connecticut where he had spent some happy years. Instead, he said Carter was convinced it would be cheaper and more sensible to expand the Groton base and keep the submarine fleet there.
“This was one of the remarkable things about Jimmy Carter,” Alter said. “He did what was right. And in that case, his analysis of what was right was to keep the base in Connecticut.”
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