Burrillville native Ted Carter, shown with his wife Lynda, will be honored in town Saturday for his promotion to rear admiral.

The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski

BURRILLVILLE — To his friends, he was just “Ted,” but Saturday he will be Rear Adm. Walter “Ted” Carter.

Carter, 50, who graduated from Burrillville High School in 1977 and attended the U.S. Naval Academy, is holding a ceremony in Burrillville to celebrate his promotion from captain to rear admiral.

Carter, was promoted on Sept. 11 at the joint War Fighting Center in Suffolk, Va., but he decided to have a ceremony at the Assembly Theater in Harrisville on Saturday so that his family and friends can share in his achievement. The event starts at 3 p.m. and is open to the public.

He was in Providence on Friday morning with his wife, Lynda, getting ready to meet friends who will be coming to the ceremony. Friends from the Naval Academy are also coming, he said.

Carter is commander of the Joint Enabling Capabilities Command out of Suffolk, Va., where he supervises a crew that travels the world to help set up command headquarters by providing planning, intelligence and communications for humanitarian crises, disaster relief or military support. He calls them his “catalysts, synchronizers and doers.”

For the past couple of weeks, a group of Carter’s high school friends have planned for the promotion ceremony and reception afterward, according to Jeffrey Farrell, who played soccer and hockey with Carter and was a year ahead of him in high school.

Farrell, who works as a sign artist, made a banner for Carter. Other friends put up bunting on the theater and placed a large American flag inside where he will be sworn in. Carter’s brother, Phillip, of Warwick, and his sister Alison Machaiek, who resides in Maine, will place new shoulder boards on his uniform during the ceremony. His wife will remove the captain’s navy cover from his hat and replace it with that of an admiral’s.

“Here is something you don’t see every day. Somebody from Burrillville getting promoted to admiral,” Farrell said. “People have no idea what it takes to come this far and become an admiral.”

It’s no small feat: of the 856 captains who were eligible for promotion, only 31 were selected, according to the Bureau of Navy Personnel.

Carter graduated in 1981 from the Naval Academy and was a fighter-jet pilot. Before his promotion, Carter was commander of the Carl Vinson, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and supervised a massive overhaul of the ship. He was awarded the U.S. Navy League’s John Paul Jones Award for Inspirational Leadership while commanding the Vinson.

When he was named commander of the Vinson and when he handed over command during a ceremony in Virginia, a group of his Burrillville classmates came for the ceremonies, said Sharon Davies.

Carter’s former history teacher Nancy Villatico, of Smithfield, who attended the Virginia celebrations, said she was glad he was bringing his success home to Pascoag. “He has never forgotten where he came from,” she said.

Carter said that Villatico and Jeffrey Farrell’s father, Irving, a French and Latin teacher at the high school and Navy veteran, were some of the teachers who lit a spark and encouraged him to excel. He said he wanted to come back to thank all the people who had helped him.

“I believe in what the Town of Burrillville still has to offer. The education I got set me up for success,” Carter said. “I want them to know how proud I am that I am from a small town in Rhode Island, and that I don’t want anyone to forget that.”

tpina@projo.com