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Contact Info
Home Town Marlborough
Last Address Alexandria, VA
Date of Passing Jul 18, 1998
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Merle Landry Carey, 81, a retired Army colonel and Washington stockbroker, died of respiratory failure July 18, 1998 at Inova Alexandria Hospital, Alexandria, Virginia.
He retired from military service in 1963 after having served in the office of the Army's chief of research and development. His Army career included service as an artillery officer in Europe during World War II, occupation duty in Germany after the war, command of a tank battalion during the Korean War, a short tour in Vietnam in 1962, and an assignment as professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He attended the Command and General Staff College. His awards included a Silver Star and three Bronze Stars, and the Order of the Phoenix (Greece).
Colonel Carey was a resident of Alexandria, and he had lived in the Washington area since 1961. He was born in Marlboro, Massachusetts, and graduated from Boston College and the U.S. Military Academy in 1943.
After his Army retirement, he was a stockbroker with the firms of Alex Brown, Kidder, Peabody and PaineWebber. He retired in 1992. His wife, Sarah R. Carey, died in April. A son, Jonathan S. Carey, died in December 1996.
Survivors include a son, Charles R. Carey of Potomac; two brothers; two sisters; and three grandchildren.
Other Comments:
SILVER STAR
Headquarters, 3d Infantry Division, General Orders No. 5 (1946)
CITATION:: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Captain (Armor) Merle Landry Carey, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in connection with military operations against the enemy as Commanding Officer of a Company of the 12th Armored Division during World War II. His gallant actions and dedicated devotion to duty, without regard for his own life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Army.
Description The European-Mediterranean-Middle East Theater was a major theater of operations during the Second World War (between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946). The vast size of Europe, Mediterranean and Middle East theatre saw interconnected naval, land, and air campaigns fought for control of the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The fighting in this theatre lasted from 10 June 1940, when Italy entered the war on the side of Germany, until 2 May 1945 when all Axis forces in Italy surrendered. However, fighting would continue in Greece – where British troops had been dispatched to aid the Greek government – during the early stages of the Greek Civil War.
The British referred to this theatre as the Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre (so called due to the location of the fighting and the name of the headquarters that controlled the initial fighting: Middle East Command) while the Americans called the theatre of operations the Mediterranean Theatre of War. The German official history of the fighting is dubbed 'The Mediterranean, South-East Europe, and North Africa 1939–1942'. Regardless of the size of the theatre, the various campaigns were not seen as neatly separated areas of operations but part of one vast theatre of war.
Fascist Italy aimed to carve out a new Roman Empire, while British forces aimed initially to retain the status quo. Italy launched various attacks around the Mediterranean, which were largely unsuccessful. With the introduction of German forces, Yugoslavia and Greece were overrun. Allied and Axis forces engaged in back and forth fighting across North Africa, with Axis interference in the Middle East causing fighting to spread there. With confidence high from early gains, German forces planned elaborate attacks to be launched to capture the Middle East and then to possibly attack the southern border of the Soviet Union. However, following three years of fighting, Axis forces were defeated in North Africa and their interference in the Middle East was halted. Allied forces then commenced an invasion of Southern Europe, resulting in the Italians switching sides and deposing Mussolini. A prolonged battle for Italy took place, and as the strategic situation changed in southeast Europe, British troops returned to Greece.
The theatre of war, the longest during the Second World War, resulted in the destruction of the Italian Empire and altered the strategic position of Germany resulting in numerous German divisions being deployed to Africa and Italy and total losses (including those captured upon final surrender) being over half a million. Italian losses, in the theatre, amount to around to 177,000 men with a further several hundred thousand captured during the process of the various campaigns. British losses amount to over 300,000 men killed, wounded, or captured, and total American losses in the region amounted to 130,000.
