James Craig was born in August 1918 in Tennessee. His father worked for the Beaver Brothers. He did a lot of hauling for their store. Then they moved to a place where his mother’s family was from. The family planted crops. His father was a carpenter and a farmer. When he was eight years old, his father showed him how to use a two-horse plow. He would help his grandfather all the time. His great-grandfather bought six-hundred acres from the Cherokee nation. He did not fight in the Civil War. He lost the land to doctors to pay his bills. Craig went into the service in 1940. There was no money on the farm for them. He wanted to go to business school. In high school, he took bookkeeping and typing classes. His oldest sister got married when she was 14 years old. She had five children at the time. She lost her husband and had to move back into the family home. Craig told his mother he was going to Memphis [Annotator’s Note: Memphis, Tennessee] to get a job. His mother would have rather seen him join the Army, so that is what he did. He had a friend who served in World War One [Annotator's Note: World War 1, global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918]. This friend said he would take him to Memphis and did not want to see him in the infantry. He took him to the ordnance. On 15 August 1940, he joined the Army, only a few days before he turned 22 years old. Craig met a corporal who was in an ordnance company. After they finished their training, they were going to be sent to schools. Craig did not want to go to school. He was not a mechanic. He went to the ordnance shop at Fort Benning [Annotator’s Note: Fort Benning, Georgia] and learned how to take care of the guns. Then he learned how to order supplies for the company with a civilian clerk. He made 54 dollars a month. He made corporal while he worked there. They were living in pup tents [Annotator's Note: small sleep tents often shared by two soldiers]. Craig was good at shorthand.

James Craig was a corporal and knew shorthand. A commanding officer wanted him to be his secretary. Craig did not want the job. He was in division headquarters at Fort Benning, Georgia. A week later, he had to report to the major. After 10 days, he was replaced because his shorthand was not great. He returned to the company. They put him in charge of the motor pool. He was made a buck sergeant [Annotator's Note: the lowest rank of sergeant in the military] and was a warehouse manager. They went on maneuvers in Louisiana [Annotator's Note: a series of major Army exercises held in 1941 in northern and west-central Louisiana]. When they got there, they were divided into two teams. Craig and his unit would have to get parts for the trucks. He would have to go to Lake Charles [Annotator’s Note: Lake Charles, Louisiana] for parts. The lieutenant would leave Craig's maps to find them when he returned with the parts. When Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] happened, he was still a corporal. He was assigned weekend camp duty. The other man on duty was telling Craig everything he heard on the radio. In 1942, he went to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In July 1942, they received passes to go home. Gas was being rationed in the Carolinas.

James Craig knew he would be leaving home and did not know if he would get back. He was engaged to be married. After he went overseas, he got a Dear John Letter [Annotator's Note: a Dear John letter is a letter from a female to a male serviceman serving overseas breaking off a romantic engagement]. He got a pass to go home and see her. He wanted his high school ring back. [Annotator’s Note: Craig talks about how he met his wife.] Craig was shipped out to North Africa on 24 December 1942. They left the United States in October. They were the largest convoy that had taken off at the time. They had to be in quarantine in Casablanca [Annotator’s Note: Casablanca, Morocco]. They were in North Africa for almost a year. Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] was in charge of the 1st Armored Division. Craig was a runner. When they needed parts, he would go to the warehouses. Craig was a buck sergeant [Annotator's Note: the lowest rank of sergeant in the military]. He met de Gualle [Annotator's Note: French Army General Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle; later President of France] on a run one day. They had to go to Oran [Annotator’s Note: Oran, Algeria]. The warehouse for parts was large. One day, Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] came in and had a meeting with all of them. He said he would show Eisenhower how to win the war.

James Craig remembers when Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] made Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] the general. They left North Africa and went to Sicily [Annotator’s Note: Sicily, Italy]. Craig was still in charge of getting parts. He was unloading an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank], and got bombed twice in one night. He was standing on the docks as the German planes bombed. They left Italy in October 1943 and went to England. In England, he was still working the parts warehouse. He was there when Elizabeth was made queen [Annotator’s Note: Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom]. They wondered if they would make it home as D-Day got closer [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Craig was part of the first wave to hit the beaches.

James Craig was waiting to get on an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] to cross to the beach [Annotator's Note: for D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. They had to drive the truck off the boat onto the LST. Craig was manning a .50 caliber machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun]. As they drove off the LST, the truck was in water up to the driver's waist. They made it to the beach alright. They drove the truck into the hedgerows [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation] about three or four miles off the beach. They were not able to do any movement for a couple of weeks due to the fog and rain. While they were bombing, Craig had to get on a maintenance truck and leave with them. They had to use a bulldozer to scrape all the dead out of the streets. He saw Graves Registration picking up pieces of bodies. The death had a distinct smell. He saw houses with whole walls blown out. A tank had its transmission go out and Craig had to take a new one. War is hell. In Germany, Craig stayed with the maintenance battalion and carried their parts. They went back to the staging area and picked up a 90 mm gun to compete with the German’s 88 mm [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery].

James Craig was right at the Rhine River when the war shifted. They were guarding an electric dam. It was 1944 in December. They were sent back to the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Platoons were losing almost all their men. They won the battle. Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] pulled them out when they were about 30 miles from Berlin [Annotator’s Note: Berlin, Germany] and let the Russians take it. Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] was on the other side and could have helped take it. Craig left before they went to Berlin. Craig was kept there to help discharge people. He wanted to go home. He was in Indiana at the barracks there. He was in charge of keeping other men busy. Craig went to get his records of service. He was discharged on 31 August 1945. His service was up in 1943, but he chose to stay because he felt like he had a job to do.

James Craig thinks the war made him grow up. Before he was in the Army, all he knew how to do was farm. He has done a little bit of everything. He loved accounting. He also worked for Pacific Railway, and then worked for Chevrolet Motors. He had a family to feed. [Annotator’s Note: Craig talks about the different jobs he had after the war.] He was an assistant credit manager. He made 500 dollars a month. Sometimes he would sleep at work. He thinks museums [Annotator's Note: like The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] are important because it shows younger generations what they went through. Younger people are only looking for a good time, and not taking important things seriously. He is concerned for the future of the country. Where would they be if he did not fight? Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] was taking over everything.