H.C. "Mike" Carmichael, a retired Oklahoma Highway Patrol tooper and Pearl Harbor survivor, died Monday. He was 85.
Services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at New Haven United Methodist Church under the direction of Moore's Southlawn Funeral Home.
Carmichael was born Feb. 12, 1921, in Kellyville to Carolyn (Powell) and Harmon Creed Carmichael.
He graduated from Kellyville High School and attended Sapulpa Junior College on a basketball scholarship.
Carmichael enlisted in the Marine Corps on Nov. 30, 1939, and was serving a two-year stint with the Navy Yard police in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when it was bombed Dec. 7, 1941.
He directed and handled emergency traffic at an intersection near dry-dock during and after the attack.
Later he joined the 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division, in Melbourne, Australia, to help replace the casualties of Guadalcanal.
He was later made platoon sergeant while in the Russell Islands off Guadalcanal.
In 1945, Carmichael survived the battle for Peleliu Island, where more than 5,000 Marines lost their lives in one of the bloddiest battles of World War II.
He was made gunnery sergeant in Okinawa and was on his way home to the states when the bomb that ended the war was dropped on Japan.
Carmichael's Marine Corps training led to employment as an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper in 1946.
He was in the first graduating class of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol Academy after the war and initially was assigned to Seminole County.
He married Kathryn Forbes in 1948.
One of the highlights of his 20-year career was representing the Oklahoma Highway Patrol at the World's Fair in New York City in 1964.
He retired in 1966 and moved to Tulsa, where he served 18 years in the GMAC Finance Department before retiring in 1983.
Carmichael was active in the St. Francis Auxiliary, the Oklahoma Retired Troopers Association, the Pearl Harbor Survivors and the Marine Corps League, where he spoke recently during the 2006 Medal of Honor Day Ceremony.
He also was a member of New Haven United Methodist Church, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Masons.
He is survived by a son, John Carmichael of Claremore; a daughter, Patti Kerr of Bartlesville; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
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