Remembering the Life and Memory of...
SPC Jimmy W. James
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Hometown: Willingboro, NJ. Died: December 21st, 1990, Operation Desert Shield. Unit: Army, 51st Chemical stationed in Struttgart Germany at Nellingen Barracks. The following "first person" account was sent to us on February 16, 2012, by SSG James Decker (retired) and is unedited....
"Jimmy was assigned to the 51st Chemical stationed in Struttgart Germany at Nellingen Barracks. 51st Chemical deplored on December 4, 1990 to the gulf. On December 19, 1990 I was sent with the advance party to Identify the route for our departure on the 21st. Once I returned I briefed my commander on where the break points, fuel stops, and mapped out directions for him and his staff. On the departure date I was informed that t felt comfortable enough that they didn't need me to lead the convoy. We left the port just before dark I was in one of the last vehicles in the convoy. We were driving and I noticed that we had passed our turn I didn't have a radio in our vehicle I wait about 15 min. To see if they had figured out their error I then had my driver start passing vehicles so I could catch up and stop the convoy so we could turn around as I got close to the vehicle Jimmy was driving I watched it start to veer off the road and flip over burying the top half in the sand. I had my driver pull over to a stop I jumped out and ran to the vehicle Sgt Gastnuea jumped out of his vehicle and he and I worked at a team to pull one person from the passenger side and while sgt Gastneau cleaned the sand from the soldiers face I ran to the drivers side and started digging the sand away from the drivers side. There was a lot of activity going on now people were trying to move the vehicle. I dug and dug finally I was able to hold Jimmy's hand and I reached his wrist I checked for a pulse and found that he was still alive but I couldn't get him out his side of the vehicle was jammed into the sand I felt his pulse fade and about then I had to move so they could attach the lift and raise the truck. It was too late he had died while I held his hand. The whole thing took perhaps 10 min. From start to finish we had saved one but loss another. The sad thing is if we hadn't missed that turn we would have been at our location and would have had one more life that day. " |
http://articles.philly.com/1991-06-21/news/25789100_1_plants-trees-ceremony-letter
Six months have passed and the envelope remains unopened, resting against another envelope that is still sealed. Both will stay that way for at least 19 more days, maybe forever.
The mother of Army Specialist Jimmy James has been unable to look at the contents of both envelopes since they were hand-delivered by a government employee only days after her son died Dec. 21 in a transport vehicle accident in Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield.
One letter was written by Jimmy James, the other by his mother, Maria James.
"July 9 is his (23d) birthday. Maybe I'll open it (his letter) then," said James, a single mother from Willingboro now left with one son.
She and her 15-year-old son, Terry, were joined by about 65 people yesterday at Willingboro's Mill Creek Park to remember Jimmy James and plant three mature elm trees in his memory. The planting, which also included a grove of 100 elm seedlings, was part of the Union Carbide Corp.'s "Rooting for America" promotion, a two-year-old program that plants trees for various occasions.
The ceremony was also attended by Gabrielle James, the soldier's 22-year- old German wife. They had been married only six months when he died.
"I can go there (the park) and know there is part of my son there," said Maria James, stressing that the ceremony was appropriate because it did not exploit her son's death and ensured a living memorial for friends in Willingboro's Hispanic community. The family has lived in the township since 1968.
She described her son as a person of extremes, his shyness concealing an unyielding determination to act on his convictions. She said he always dreamed of becoming a soldier, and as a teenager found respite in sketching and won awards for his work.
At 17, he gave up the long hair, earring and heavy metal music for fatigues and a crew cut. She respected his convictions even though she didn't always agree with them.
"I knew he was a child, but he didn't always think like one," she said of her son's teenage years. "I sometimes wonder if he wasn't a man inside a little boy's uniform."
Gov. Florio, the keynote speaker at yesterday's ceremony, said Jimmy James was a hero whose death "brought home the true cost of the liberty we must sometimes defend."
Maria James did not see her son for three years until the Jan. 2 viewing in Ohringen, near Stuttgart. During that period he was nicknamed "Spider" by the 51st Chemical Company because of his quiet persistence.
He called her twice a week during those years and frequently wrote letters.
"I think the hardest part for us was when the soldiers started coming home and we knew Jimmy wouldn't be one of them," she said. "You cry till you can't cry no more. The pain is so bad you can't breathe."
She said he seemed to know that he would die.
In his letters from Germany, he made his family promise to support each other if he should die.
Several days before the accident, she dreamed he was dead. "It was like Jimmy knew, and I knew. I knew my son wasn't going to come home. I don't know why," she said.
"To me he was an angel, an angel of God," said Maria James. "He was an American and he was my son."
Six months have passed and the envelope remains unopened, resting against another envelope that is still sealed. Both will stay that way for at least 19 more days, maybe forever.
The mother of Army Specialist Jimmy James has been unable to look at the contents of both envelopes since they were hand-delivered by a government employee only days after her son died Dec. 21 in a transport vehicle accident in Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield.
One letter was written by Jimmy James, the other by his mother, Maria James.
"July 9 is his (23d) birthday. Maybe I'll open it (his letter) then," said James, a single mother from Willingboro now left with one son.
She and her 15-year-old son, Terry, were joined by about 65 people yesterday at Willingboro's Mill Creek Park to remember Jimmy James and plant three mature elm trees in his memory. The planting, which also included a grove of 100 elm seedlings, was part of the Union Carbide Corp.'s "Rooting for America" promotion, a two-year-old program that plants trees for various occasions.
The ceremony was also attended by Gabrielle James, the soldier's 22-year- old German wife. They had been married only six months when he died.
"I can go there (the park) and know there is part of my son there," said Maria James, stressing that the ceremony was appropriate because it did not exploit her son's death and ensured a living memorial for friends in Willingboro's Hispanic community. The family has lived in the township since 1968.
She described her son as a person of extremes, his shyness concealing an unyielding determination to act on his convictions. She said he always dreamed of becoming a soldier, and as a teenager found respite in sketching and won awards for his work.
At 17, he gave up the long hair, earring and heavy metal music for fatigues and a crew cut. She respected his convictions even though she didn't always agree with them.
"I knew he was a child, but he didn't always think like one," she said of her son's teenage years. "I sometimes wonder if he wasn't a man inside a little boy's uniform."
Gov. Florio, the keynote speaker at yesterday's ceremony, said Jimmy James was a hero whose death "brought home the true cost of the liberty we must sometimes defend."
Maria James did not see her son for three years until the Jan. 2 viewing in Ohringen, near Stuttgart. During that period he was nicknamed "Spider" by the 51st Chemical Company because of his quiet persistence.
He called her twice a week during those years and frequently wrote letters.
"I think the hardest part for us was when the soldiers started coming home and we knew Jimmy wouldn't be one of them," she said. "You cry till you can't cry no more. The pain is so bad you can't breathe."
She said he seemed to know that he would die.
In his letters from Germany, he made his family promise to support each other if he should die.
Several days before the accident, she dreamed he was dead. "It was like Jimmy knew, and I knew. I knew my son wasn't going to come home. I don't know why," she said.
"To me he was an angel, an angel of God," said Maria James. "He was an American and he was my son."
