Andrew Carter

From Hogan's Heroes

Sergeant Andrew Carter is one of the main secondary fictional characters who appeared in the 1960s sitcom, Hogan's Heroes. He was played by Larry Hovis.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 World War II 1.2 Post-World War II 2 Awards

[edit] Biography

Sergeant Carter is born sometime in the early 1910s in North Dakota, a member of the Sioux Indian nation. Not much is known about his family background, other than that his great-grandfather has fought alongside Sitting Bull and that he has a cousin. Carter, as he grew up, became a member of the Boy Scouts, has read the novel, Robinson Crusoe, has learn to play the trumpet and has gone to Rutherford B. Hayes Polytechnic High School. While at Rutherford B. Hayes, he at some point accidently blew up the school's chemistry lab, the cafeteria and the balcony level of the auditorium. After graduating from Rutherford B. Hayes Polytechnic, he goes to a very good business school to continue his education. Carter then goes to Muncie, Indiana, where he runs a drug store, planning to later take the state's pharmaceutical exam for his license. While in Muncie, he met his girlfriend, Mary Jane, whom he plans to marry. He also owns a motorcycle.

[edit] World War II

Sometime after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Carter joins the USAAF, while putting off until the end of the war his marriage to Mary Jane and his taking the pharmaceutical exam. In spite of not doing too well on the obstacle course, Carter finish basic training and, with the rank of Lieutenant, he is assigned to the 182nd Bomber Group. During one of the group's bombing raids over Germany, his bomber is shot down, and he is captured and placed inside a POW camp. Carter soon escapes the camp, and heads for Stalag 13, where he is met in the woods by Sergeant Olsen, whose place he temporarily takes in the camp. While inside the camp, he meets Colonel Hogan and the other members of his Anti-Nazi organization, who quickly informs him that they would be helping him to get back to England. After helping the other prisoners outwit the German spy Wagner, who has been placed among them to find out about their escape plans, by sitting in a barber chair when Hogan was showing the spy their barber shop, and having his hair cut by LeBeau who at one point would move his hair to make him look like Adolf Hitler, Carter is eventually sent back to England by leaving camp through Oscar Schnitzer's truck. It is never fully explained, but Carter is soon sent back to the camp, with a reduction of rank, now that of a Technical Sergeant. (While never explained within the series itself, in the show's history, the Carter character's returns to the camp is because Leonid Kinskey, who has played Sergeant Vladimir Minsk in the pilot episode, The Informer, has refused to sign a contract when the show is picked up by CBS for the 1965-66 television season, as he thought that the series took the Nazis too lightly.) Carter, who at some point receives a Good Conduct Medal, is, because of his expertise in chemistry, put in charge of making bombs and grenades and other explosive materials for Hogan and the other prisoners to use on their missions. He also shows himself to be very good at impersonating German officers (especially Hitler) on the phone and in person. Personality wise, Carter is a kind-hearted, somewhat boisterious and enthusiastic, if naive, individual, who is given little respect by both Corporals LeBeau and Newkirk, in comparison to that given to his fellow Sergeant, Sergant Kinchloe, since the pair would more often call him by his first name, Andrew, instead of Sergeant, as is required by proper military protocol, and abusing him in general. During the course of the series, (within its very first year) his girlfriend, Mary Jane, leaves him for an air-raid warden. For a time he contemplates escaping, even asking Colonel Hogan's permission to do so, before finally deciding not to go.

[edit] Post-World War II

Nothing is know about what happens to Sergeant Carter at the end of the war, although it is to be assumed that he is, along with the other prisoners at Stalag 13, liberated by the advancing Allied armies.

[edit] Awards

Carter is supposed to have been awarded the following Medals for his actions: the Silver Star Medal, the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart, the Commendation Medal and the Good Conduct Medal. As a prisoner of war, Carter would be eligible, as of 1985, to have the Prisoner of War Medal awarded retroactively.