The son of Greek immigrants, Karter spent part of his childhood in Anavryti, Greece, but his school years in the United States.
Though he qualified as a behind-enemy-lines parachutist, Karter chose instead to attend West Point where Congress had authorized an expanded Corps of Cadets to supply trained officers for a war that might prove lengthy.
There he met his wife, Elizabeth Carmen "Bunt" Whitman, who was serving with the US Defense Department Army Special Services, a USO-like organization.
[4] After leaving the Army, Karter worked as a nuclear engineer for American Machine and Foundry, helping build reactors for Pakistan and Iran under the Atoms for Peace program.
We finally found a compromise solution: we designed machines so that the working parts could be quickly replaced when they wore out.
Karter explained his motivation this way, "At my age, it is easy enough to think that I will be dead before the environmental crunch comes down on mankind.