Honor Flight DFW profiles and interviews

James was born in Frisco Texas, graduating from high school in 1938. Moving to Dallas and living with his sister on Live Oak Street, James attended business college and worked part time. One day he decided that the Navy might be a good fit so he joined up and on January 16^th, 1939 he started basic training in Norfolk, Virginia.

What’s interesting is that James told this author that the door that he walked into the training base at Norfolk in 1939 is the same door he walked out of 21 years later when he retired from the Navy!

James soon found himself assigned to the battleship, U.S.S. New Mexico, traveling through the Panama Canal and eventually docking in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. At Pearl, James was transferred to the WWII four piper destroyer mine layer, U.S.S. Tracey. During this time in the Navy, it was somewhat of an honor to be assigned to one of the WWII era destroyers. They were called four pipers because of the four smoke stacks.

On December 7^th, 1941, Seaman Rylie, aboard the Tracey, was raising the flag on that sunny Sunday morning. It appeared that it would be another slow, beautiful Sunday when planes began diving on the harbor. First it was thought that these were American planes, but as they flew over, strafing and bombing, the large red meatballs were clearly seen emblazoned on the Japanese aircraft.

James remembered a young crewman on the Tracey being one of the first casualties. He was standing at the stern of the ship when he was hit by gunfire. Ironically, this sailor was often teased because he had taken the maximum amount of insurance, $10,000, in case he was killed. He said that his family could really use it in case he didn’t come back.

James and another crewman used a 30 caliber machine gun to fire on the attacking planes. He thinks that they hit at least one, which crashed on shore. Some days later, James retrieved a parachute from the downed aircraft. He regrets that sometime during the war however, he lost this souvenir. James was detailed immediately after the attack, to search the U.S.S. California for bodies. He says that the next few days were a blur, and that he didn’t eat until the evening of the 8^th.

In the fall of 1942, the Tracey was detailed to mine the approaches to “The Slot,” the sea lane between Guadalcanal and Savo Islands. Mine lying generally happened at night, and on this particular night, just before the furiousness of the night battle between U.S. and Japanese navies, the Tracey layed mines that were immediately hit by Japanese forces coming down “The Slot.” The night battle that ensued earned this area the name “Iron Bottom Sound,” because of the large amount of ships from both sides sent to the bottom.

The Tracey had earlier participated in the Battle of Midway in the spring of 1942. At one point the Tracey laid a smoke screen around the stricken U.S.S. Yorktown. Unfortunately the carrier, which had been hit by Japanese dive bombers, was hit by a torpedo from a submarine, and sunk soon after.

James was later transferred to an invasion tanker. He was part of the ships shore party and often found himself on shore with a group of sailors that were handpicked for the job. Once, James and the shore party were taken into a cove where the Japanese were hiding 25 suicide boats. The crews began torching the boats and were surprised that some of the boats engines were stamped “GMC.”

One interesting story is when the tanker James was assigned to was fueling a PT boat in a remote harbor. James looked down to the smaller vessel and amazingly saw a friend from the nearby town of Prosper Texas. The two friends started talking when a Japanese plane attacked from over a mountain. The PT boat cast off quickly and sped away, firing at the plane. This was the last time James ever saw his friend.

James’s ship participated in actions around Saipan, Guam, Palilu, and Okinawa. At one point, James had the opportunity to visit his old ship, the U.S.S. New Mexico. He found an old friend on board who said that they had recently been hit by a Japanese kamikaze aircraft. The wreckage was scattered all over the ship. What was interesting was that the pilot of the suicide airplane was a woman!

James ended the war on a transport Coast Guard ship heading back to the states. It was very crowded and the sailors heading back could occasionally become unruly. James said that the Chief Specialist in charge of the ships security was actor Victor Mature!

James got out of the Navy in October 1945. Like many serviceman from WWII, he found out that civilian life didn’t suit him. He quickly joined the Navy once again, finally retiring out of the same doors that he had walked in so many years before.

James worked for Ford Motor Company in Dallas until 1970; he then worked for Western Electric until 1985. Not wanting to completely retire, James then began raising, and racing horses until 1996.

When asked what visiting the WWII Memorial will mean to him, James says that he will remember all the men he knew that didn’t come back, including the young sailor on the Tracey that was killed on December 7^th, 1941.