Forward Operating Base Carpenter, near Salman Pak

Salman Pak

Salman Pak is a city approximately 15 miles south of Baghdad near a peninsula formed by a broad eastward bend of the Tigris River. It is named after Salman the Persian, a companion of Muhammad who is buried there....

, Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, honored Specialist Four

Specialist (rank)

Specialist is one of the four junior enlisted ranks in the U.S. Army, just above Private First Class and equivalent in pay grade to Corporal. Unlike Corporals, Specialists are not considered junior non-commissioned officers...

 (SP4) Thomas Carpenter, Jr., U.S. Army, who was killed in a sapper attack on his base at Kontum

Kontum

Kon Tum is the capital town of Kon Tum province in Vietnam. It is located inland in the Central Highlands region of Vietnam, near the borders with Laos and Cambodia....

, Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

, on January 10, 1968. His name is engraved on Panel 34E, Row 15 of the Vietnam War Memorial. FOB Carpenter was named by Charlie Troop, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, out of Fort Hood, Texas

Fort Hood, Texas

Fort Hood is a United States military post located outside of Killeen, Texas. The post is named after Confederate General John Bell Hood. It islocated halfway between Austin and Waco, about from each, within the U.S. state of Texas....

, when they established the base in 2003. SP4 Carpenter was a flight mechanic with the 615th Transportation Company Detachment attached to the 57th Aviation Assault Helicopter Company at Kontum. Born December 12, 1946, he was a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Tuscaloosa is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west central Alabama . Located on the Black Warrior River, it is the fifth-largest city in Alabama, with a population of 90,468 in 2010...

. He was one of 7,257 casualties among over 300,000 African-Americans who served in the war.