Eugene N. James was born in Brewton, Alabama. His father was a Methodist minister, and they spent a lot of time in West Virginia. They lived alongside the Ohio River and would swim in it for fun. He attended West Virginia Wesleyan [Annotator's Note: West Virginia Wesleyan College] in Buckhannon, West Virginia. He liked school. James had two younger brothers. Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] did not bother them too much at the time. James enlisted in the Navy in Clarksburg, West Virginia, then later transferred to the Marines. He completed most of his flight training in Pensacola [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida]. It was not hard, and he enjoyed flight school. Flying was terrific. He felt training prepared him well.

When Eugene N. James completed flight training, he was shipped to Sistersville, West Virginia and then on to Cherry Point, North Carolina [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point]. He flew Corsairs [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter aircraft], which were pretty and fast planes. He mostly flew off Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. He remembers when the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] were dropped. James could have gone home, but did not have anything to do at home so he stayed in Japan as part of the occupying force, near Yokosuka [Annotator's Note: Yokosuka, Japan]. The Japanese people were docile and polite. When he returned home, he used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] to attend the University of Detroit [Annotator's Note: The University of Detroit Mercy in Detroit, Michigan]. James joined back up and flew planes off carriers during the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953]. Project Danny's [Annotator's Note: a plan for Marine Corps Corsairs to attack German V-1 launch sites in France] goal was to go bombing in Brest, but the war ended before it was carried out. James started his own construction business after the war. [Annotator's Note: James reads a poem about the Corsair.]