HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Rotary Club met remotely July 5, with Rotarian Chris Carmichael hosting his brother, Sergeant First Class James Carmichael who is stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.
SFC Carmichael joined the club virtually from South Carolina, where he and his wife Jennifer are currently vacationing. He donned a York’s of Houlton hat as he shared experiences from his 22-year military career.
SFC Carmichael was born and raised in Houlton and joined the army in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1999. He graduated from AIT as a Heavy Wheeled Diesel Mechanic. He now lives in Fort Hood, Texas, and his daily job includes training soldiers on the ground.
He is grateful that he loves his job, and especially working with the soldiers. SFC Carmichael has been deployed to Afghanistan four times and has also been deployed to Korea and Poland. He has another deployment coming up in November to Lithuania.
SFC Carmichael’s military awards include the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal with five Oak Leaf Clusters, Army Achievement Medal with twelve Oak Leaf Clusters, NATO medal, Overseas Ribbon with Numeral Five, National Defense Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal with Four Campaign Stars, NCOPDR with Numeral Three, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal Seventh Award, Army Service Ribbon, Korean Defense Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, Meritorious Unit Citation, Valorous Unit Award, Joint Meritorious Unit Award, and Member of the Order of Samuel Sharpe.
Growing up on the “ridge” in Littleton, surrounded by potato fields which he worked in, is the memory SFC Carmichael shared. He told stories of getting stuck in his grandfather’s fields. These experiences might have helped contribute to SFC Carmichael’s desire to join the army and become a heavy diesel mechanic. He described his northern Maine family as very supportive, and he was also inspired by his neighbor, Mr. Bartlett, whom he watched carefully grow his crop of potatoes as well as harvest and market them, always taking good care of his equipment.
During his deployment in Afghanistan from 2005-2012, SFC Carmichael ran a welding and fabrication shop. He had a close relationship with the children in the area, and he built playground equipment for them to play on, including swing sets and seesaws. He knew a 9-year-old boy who was carried around on his father’s back, and had lost his legs by stepping on a landmine a year prior to Carmichael meeting him. Carmichael and his team built two artificial legs for the boy at his shop, which enabled the boy to walk again. Carmichael and his team members received Bronze Star Medals for this heroic and noble act of kindness.
At Fort Hood, he is Battalion Motor Pool Commander, and there are five battalions in his brigade. He described the high technology and shooting capacity of the 29 M1A2 Abrams tanks and 18 Bradley fighting vehicles in the brigade. Carmichael shared with the club several life-threatening experiences he and his soldiers experienced while overseas. Despite the courageous and dangerous work Carmichael and his brigade partake in daily, he notes that family is extremely important to the soldiers.
He states that he and the other soldiers “celebrate family in our day to day missions.” Carmichael shared photos of tanks being decorated for Christmas, and states that free time is spent and enjoyed with family whenever possible.
