Interview of Carroll N. LeTellier by Marcus Morton

March 27, 2013

Retired Major General Carroll LeTellier shares some of his life experiences in this interview from March 27, 2013. General LeTellier was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1929, and he describes The Citadel as he remembers it both as a child of a faculty member and as a cadet. He discusses some of the physical changes to the campus that have occurred since his graduation in 1949. General LeTellier points out that "some of [the buildings] have been created and re-created during my lifetime."

General LeTellier also explains some of the highlights of his military career. He gives insight to his impressions of and experiences in Korea, including how he discovered that a war had broken out there. General LeTellier jokes about not having been promoted as quickly as some of his peers even though he had held a company command position longer than the others and recalled wondering if he had been passed over because he had “parted his hair on the wrong side”; it turned out that he was too young and had to wait until his birthday. He also discusses his two tours in Vietnam and their differences. He describes his deployment to Lebanon between Korea and Vietnam as well. General LeTellier closes the interview with both advice he gave to fellow men in the Army who were weighing career options and some final reflections on having an education from The Citadel.

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