James enlisted in the Texas National Guard June 1936. He was called up for national service on November 25, 1940. He trained at Camp Bowie Texas.
He was trained and served in the US Army Corps of Engineers. He has an interesting military resume. James served in Alaska from 1942-43, India in 1944, Iran from 1944-45, and Korea from 1946-48 doing occupation duty.
His most memorable moment was while sailing on the USS General A.E.Anderson. They were in the Pacific about 2500 east of Melbourne Australia. The ship was attacked by a Japanese submarine which fired several torpedoes at the ship. Luckily the ship’s crew managed to steer the Anderson away from the torpedoes. A British bomber arrived on the scene and dropped several depth charges on the submarine then flew away. James never found out if the submarine was actually hit, but no more torpedoes were fired at the Anderson that day.
James attained the rank of T/Sgt. and was acting 1st Sgt. while stationed in Korea. He was awarded the Good Conduct, and American Asiatic-Pacific medals. He also was awarded the European, CBI and Korean occupation medals.
He was discharged from the military on December 7, 1948 at the age of 28.
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