James was studying for a Monday morning pop quiz on December 7, 1941. He was a student at the UT Galveston Medical branch. Eating lunch in his fraternity house that day he heard that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. The next day war was declared on Japan.
He was inducted into the US Navy in October 1943 at the age of 22.
James served his internship at NAS San Diego. Later while at Pearl Harbor, he was one of only twenty doctors who were interns outside the continental U.S.
Eventually James was assigned to the destroyer, USS McCaffery, DD-860.At one point James was the surgeon responsible for four different destroyers.
James’ most memorable wartime experience was when his ship was hit by a typhoon in the Pacific. Another time his ship was involved in a firefight with Chinese communists in a Chinese harbor.
James was discharged from the Navy on September 9, 1946. He has said by that time he felt like he was really cosmopolitan, a real world traveler!
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