James R. Young

West Point, 1951

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Jose Andres Chacon on November 14, 2004:

James Russell Young, Jr Born August 25, 1927 - Died December 30, 1995 James Russell "Jim" Young, Jr. was born in Georgia on 25 August 1927 but was appointed to West Point from the Army of the United States. His West Point classmates recall: "When Youngy donned cadet grey, it was not civvies he doffed but khaki. He was thus able to use the knowledge obtained from previous experience to ride through plebe year. It was this same store-house which never failed him in academics, but reserved a slot high on our class scroll. His spontaneous laugh, glib tongue, and gregarious nature make success inevi-table." During his cadet days Jim was with the Camera and Russian Clubs all four years, on the Glee and Ski Clubs and the Chapel Choir yearling, cow and first class years, on the Howitzer staff cow and first class years, and was a Cadet Sergeant his first class year. Upon graduation Jim went in the Air Force and after flying training during 1951 and 1952 he reported to the 8th Bomb Squadron, 3rd Bomb Wing, 5th Air Force in Korea where he served from 1953 to 1954. In 1960 Jim attended the Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and on completion resigned his Captain's commission in the United States Air Force. [The writer-s wife Isabel, got her introduction to Jim Crow when we invited Jim Young and Fred Reichard to dinner at our humble Garden Villas (Houston) apartment. The next day, the landlady told my wife that we were not to have our N-word friends to the apartment.] Jim died in Flushing, New York on 30 December 1995. jac; 18284; wc 220 (9/30/2000)

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