A tribute to James Earl Carter, Jr., the 39th President of the United States.

Former President Jimmy Carter has died. He was born James Earl Carter Junior on October 1st, 1924 in Plains, Georgia. The small farming community nurtured the future president, and he graduated from public schools before entering the US Naval Academy. He graduated in 1946 and became a submariner. He served in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and rose to the rank of lieutenant. In 1953, he was the senior officer with the pre-commissioning crew of the USS Sea Wolf when news came that his father had died, he resigned his naval commission and took his. Family back to Georgia where he took over the Carter Farms, but leaving the Navy didn’t mean he left public service in 1962 he won election to the Georgia Senate. He lost his first run for Georgia governor in 1966 but won the next election, becoming Georgia’s 76th governor on January 12, 1971. Carter served as the Democratic National Committee campaign chairman for the 1974 congressional elections. He defeated Ford in the 1976 presidential election and served as president from January 20, 1977 to January 20, 1981. He will always be remembered for his response to the hostage crisis in Iran. On November 4th, 1978, Iranian students stormed the American embassy in Tehran and took 53 US citizens and government employees hostage. The act was against international law, and Iran’s government refused to return the captives. Carter launched an attack into Iran to rescue the Americans. A small team of American service members were poised to execute a daring strike to free the 53 Americans, but it was not to be. On April 25th, 1980, Operation Eagle Claw came to an end on the floor of the desert near Tehran. Five Air Force members and three Marines were killed when the rotor of the helicopter sliced into the fuselage of a C-130 transport. The Iranians did not release the hostages until President Ronald Reagan took office after defeating Carter in the 1980 election, but the Carter administration also included significant foreign policy accomplishments. The Camp David Accords paved the way for peace between Egypt and Israel. Carter signed the Panama Canal Treaty which turned the canal over to Panama after 70 years of US control. He negotiated and signed the second strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with the Soviet Union. Carter also established formal US diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. Domestically, Carter deregulated energy, transportation, communications, and finance. In 1982 he founded the Carter Center in Atlanta. The men and women involved in the Carter Center worked to resolve conflict, promote democracy, protect human rights, and prevent disease and other afflictions. On December 10, 2002, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Carter for finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts and advancing democracy and human rights. Carter and his wife are also known for their untiring work for Habitat for Humanity. The two volunteered one week a year for the nonprofit organization which helps needy people in the United States and in other countries renovate and build homes for themselves, and his Navy service has not been neglected in his legacy. The USS Jimmy Carter, a Seawolf class nuclear attack submarine, was commissioned in June 2004. Former President Jimmy Carter, the thirty-ninth president of the United States, is dead.