Chris Carawan was born in 1926 in Washington, North Carolina into a family of seagoing people. His father was a sea captain, and his mother's family owned a shipping company. His father always said that someday Carawan would join the Navy, but so many ships were being sunk off the East Coast when the time came for him to enlist, he didn't want any part of that branch of service. Carawan's father passed away when he was 15, the year of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], and although everyone wanted to fight, Carawan had to wait two years before he could get his mother to sign his enlistment papers. He went to the recruiting center with two friends, all declaring their desire to remain together. They were sent to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where within two days they were split up, and Carawan headed to Camp Croft, South Carolina for basic training. He trained as a rifleman, radioman, and company clerk, and became very popular because he sometimes had charge of issuing weekend passes. Carawan went on maneuvers in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Maryland, and was at Fort Meade, Maryland, when he was assigned to the 106th Infantry Division. In early 1944, he deployed on the HMS Aquitania from New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York], zig-zagged [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] across the Atlantic Ocean, and landed in Gourock, Scotland. After a short time, he was moved south to Banbury, England to continue combat training. Amidst the hard times, Carawan said they had some good times, too. There were Hollywood stars to entertain them, Carawan recalled, including Glenn Miller [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Major Gelnn Miller; popular big band bandleader].

Jumping forward to when Chris Carawan was in Belgium, replacing the 2nd Infantry Division's positions weapon-for-weapon, he was manning the radio and had been reporting confusing "noises." On 16 December [Annotator's Note: 16 December 1944], their position was shelled for three early morning hours, and then attacked across a 27 mile line they had to defend without backup. Two of the regiments were caught on a "peninsula" and Carawan's 424th [Annotator's Note: 424th Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division] was on a side ridge looking down. It was beginning to get cold, and their clothing was inadequate for the climate change, and they were only lightly armed. The Germans started coming up the hill, and the Americans started picking them off. Carawan remarked that some of the Germans seemed drugged. They were hollering and carrying on in English as they approached. On retreat they would yell, "We'll be back," to which one of Carawan's buddies would reply, "We'll be waiting." The onslaught abated, but after noon, the attack resumed, and this time the assault included tanks, and the men knew then they "had big problems." The regiments on the "peninsula" were surrounded and the men were killed or captured. Carawan's regiment was able to hold its position for about three days, but their ammunition ran low. Carawan was going back to headquarters regularly for replacement radio crystals, and would take as much ammunition as he could carry back. On one trip, Carawan's right foot was hit by mortar fire. He didn't know then that his foot was broken, and a medic patched his wounds and gave him his boot, so that Carawan could return to his company. The Germans continued advancing, and the division's headquarters had to be moved out of Saint-Vith [Annotator's Note: Saint-Vith, Belgium]. All the soldiers' personal belonging were left behind; they were losing ground and personnel; and the weather got worse, delaying the supply lines. But Saint-Vith was an important crossroads, and Carawan's unit formed a perimeter around the town, on the assurance that the 7th Armored Division was coming to their aid. It was true, but the American tank division was still a hundred miles away, and Carawan said he watched as many as ten German tanks arrive at a time. The Americans held on as long as possible, fell back, and reformed the perimeter on successive occasions.

When F Company [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 424th Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division] got word to take the town of Manhay, Belgium on the night of 24 December 1944, Chris Carawan said they had three tanks, and he figured they had it made. The town had a major highway running through it and the Americans needed to hold it. But the enemy had their tanks parked in the streets between the building of the town and when the American infantry crossed an open field to go in, the tanks opened up on them. One of Carawan's good friends and the company's executive officer [Annotator's Note: second in command] were killed that night; altogether about ten of Carawan's company were lost. The Germans knocked out all three of their tanks and they had to withdraw. On Christmas morning, Carawan's unit was determined to prevail and changed their tactics. Manhay was shelled and rather than going over the open field, the American infantrymen went around its edges. They got unexpected air support, and the two tanks that were giving the Americans the most trouble pulled back into the hills and dug in. Carawan said they killed so many Germans they were stacked up "like wood." The Americans had a little break that evening, and Carawan and a buddy came upon something leaking from a rail car. It was good wine, and the GIs [Annotator’s Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] drank from their steel helmets, and barbecued a few chickens that found running in the streets. The next day they started going after the Germans up the hill. A flamethrower, bazookas, additional tank support and air cover helped to set them on the offensive, which they maintained from then on. On 29 December, Carawan's name was pulled out of a helmet, and he won the lottery for a long weekend pass to Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. He spent three days in Paris in the beginning of 1945, but doesn't remember any of what happened during that time.

Chris Carawan said the Americans were not prepared for what happened in Belgium. They didn't have food, they lived on K-rations [Annotator's Note: pre-cooked combat ration] for a month, or the proper clothing. Carawan suffered frostbite on both feet. The temperature was close to zero, and he remembers a replacement saying they couldn't be expected to dig a hole in the frozen ground. Carawan told him that as soon as the bullets starting zinging past his head, he would be digging in "like a gopher." They had to dig in every night unless they were in a village where they could take refuge in abandoned buildings. Carawan said they learned a lot in a short period of time. Oftentimes, the soldiers felt that if they had been properly equipped, they wouldn't have been pushed back. "It was a real tough time," according to Carawan, and the loss of personnel was devastating. Once they broke out, they took so many little villages that Carawan couldn't name them all. The momentum changed, and the weather improved, and their air support arrived. At this point in the interview, Carawan describes and compares firearms and equipment. He tells the tale of a reconnaissance mission when he came under enemy fire from a barn; he had to break through ice in a river and sink into it to hide. As the advance continued, the Americans started taking more prisoners. Rethinking his three day leave in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], Carawan commented that it was a great relief to get out of combat, even for a short time, and he remembers hearing Glenn Miller's [Annotator's Note: USAAF Major Glenn Miller; popular American big band bandleader] band play for the troops, and attending a show at the Folies-Bergere to see the girls. He stayed in a hotel and had a hot bath, and said the locals were really nice. When he went back to the front, his unit [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 424th Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division] was moving further into Germany and crossed the Rhine [Annotator's Note: Rhine River] fairly soon. He was with the same company throughout his time in the Army and, against advice, got close to the men with whom he served.

As they moved into Germany, Chris Carawan remembered one battle when a man was shot and fell across the top of his foxhole and froze there. Days later, when the unit [Annotator's Note: Company F, 2nd Battalion, 424th Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division] was about to move out, someone finally came to pick up the body. He also recalled a time when he had gone to headquarters for a radio replacement, and as he was walking back, noticed the snow popping up around him. He dove and crawled, barely missing sniper fire until someone took the sniper out. Carawan found it hard to bear the fact that the Germans killed the Belgian civilians who tried to help the Americans. After the massacre at Malmedy [Annotator's Note: Malmedy, Belgium], many of the GIs [Annotator’s Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] vowed they would never take another prisoner. As they moved into Germany, the GIs were prohibited from talking to the locals, and would suffer a 45 dollar fine if they were caught talking to the pretty girls. Carawan said the Germans had so much propaganda pushed on them, that they mistrusted the GIs. He remarked that the Germans thought the Americans would give up the fight when President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] died, but they soldiered on. Carawan was repositioned at Rheims, France, then sent to Saint-Nazaire [Annotator's Note: Saint-Nazaire, France] to clean out a pocket of Germans that had been surrounded at the largest submarine base in France. Afterward, he was sent back to Hildesheim, Germany and moved into an old Ford Motor Company carburetor factory there, where some of the officers appropriated cars that had been stashed there for sale on the black market. At the end of the war there were thousands of German prisoners, old and young, male and female, that had been taken. The Americans separated them into groups, keeping the "really bad" guys for punishment later. The rest were corralled into areas surrounded by barbed wire perimeters. The locals began to trust the American soldiers, and Carawan remembers a girl who started laundering the soldiers' shirts. The local populations were so hungry they would fight over the American's garbage cans to get food scraps.

At the end of the war, Chris Carawan said there were thousands of German prisoners that had been taken. The Americans tried to separate them into groups, keeping the "really bad" guys for punishment later. The rest were corralled into areas surrounded by barbed wire perimeters. He recalled only one occasion when he came near a concentration camp; he pushed away an old, ragged, smelly prisoner who was nagging at his pocket. Later he discovered that the man had put six tiny sugar spoons, probably his only remaining possessions, into Carawan's pocket in gratitude for his liberation. In October 1945 Carawan had enough points to return to the United States, some of them earned through his four campaign stars and the Combat Infantryman's Badge. His whole regiment [Annotator's Note: Carawan was a member of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 424th Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division] was brought back together from France, arriving in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. Although he wasn't allowed to bring in four beautiful beer steins he had bought, he did get to keep a German helmet and pistol as souvenirs. He got married during a 45 day convalescence leave and he and his new bride returned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina and lived in a hotel until his discharge came through. He opened a radio repair and sales business, then got into television school on the G.I. Bill. During his postwar career, he worked for the Philco Corporation and American Motors. He then moved into furniture sales and manufacture. He still works a little bit in that business. He noted that he had a difficult time getting back into civilian life and has counted on his faith to get him through. He thinks that Americans of today have come to recognize the contributions people of his generation made toward the democracies they enjoy. Belatedly, he received the French Legion of Honor Award and has come to understand more clearly the reasons Americans fought in the war.