"Cal" Carpenter is Colonel Clarence A. Carpenter, U. S. Air Force (Retired), wartime pilot and Meteorologist. He lives on ALMAR Farm, a 70-acre retirement home near Rosman, N. C., in the scenic Great Smoky Mountains. He retired in l966, at the age of 44, to "do just what I wanted to." This has included dabbling in farming, animal husbandry (including the legendary Wild Russian Boars he writes about in his earlier book, "The Walton War and Tales of the Great Smoky Mountains"); and writing his experiences on the farm in his earlier "The Best from ALMAR Farm in Western North Carolina." He was a part-time newspaper columnist, winner of several state and one national journalism awards; feature writer and feature editor. His earlier aviation stories have been published in "Air Force and Space Digest" and other magazines. He was born in Macon County, near Franklin, North Carolina. His family moved to Canton, North Carolina and he attended North Canton Elementary School and Canton High School--was graduated in the class of l939. Later he received the BS Degree in Meteorology from Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, and the Master of Science degree in Meteorology from the New York University, Graduate School of Engineering, New York, New York. He attended several other schools post-high school, in service and service-connected. A senior pilot, Col. Carpenter flew C-46, C-87 and B-24 variations over the "Hump" in the India-China Theater in l943 and l944, during World War II. In l948-49, during the Berlin Airlift, he served as Staff Weather Officer at Airlift Headquarters and flew C-54 aircraft across Communist East Germany into Berlin. In l958 he was a military meteorologist and pilot at the nuclear bomb tests at Eniwetok and Bikini, Marshall Islands. At the time of his retirement, he was serving as Staff Meteorologist at the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories and the Electronic Systems Division of the Air Force Systems Command, at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts.
