Robert Harvey Carden
SGT in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : Co A
ASN#12143428 Casualty: Wounded
Born 1921 in AL, Died 1968
Artist
County of residence at enlistment: Queens County, NY
Other residence(s): East Setauket, NY
United States Army, European Theatre of Operations
Occupation before the war: student
College education before the war: Pratt 2 years
Robert Carden was born on March 29, 1921 in Alabama, an only child. His father had had a series of surgeries in the 1914-1917 period, and suffered a disability of some sort. He died in 1924 in New York, when Robert was only four. Robert and his mother found a home with three of her siblings and several nieces in Jamaica, NY.
By 1930 they were boarding with a family in Queens and Robert's mother was working as a clerk in a department store.
Robert showed artistic talent and spent two years studying art at Pratt. He was a student there when he registered for the draft, on February 2, 1942, and likely still a student when he enlisted on September 2, 1942. Like many other New York art students, he was assigned to the 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion.
After serving with the unit in Europe during the war, he was discharged with the rank of SGT and returned to New York. There he married Helen Pappas in 1947.
In 1950 he and Helen were living in Queens, and Robert was working as a commercial artist in a commercial studio. Little else is known of his life or work.
Robert was living in East Setauket, NY, on the north shore of Long Island, when he died on April 28, 1968. He is buried at Sea View Cemetery in Mount Sinai, NY.
Sources:
1925 NY census
1930 census
1942 draft card
1942 enlistment record
1947 marriage record
1950 census
1968 US Headstone Applications for Military Veterans
1968 Find a Grave record
1968 Social Security Applications and Claims Index