James O. Evans was born in 1925 in Rustin, Louisiana. His father owned a cotton farm and from an early age Evans worked the farm with his five brothers. He went to school and enjoyed hunting. The Great Depression hit his family very hard and he can recall one Christmas that he received only a small peppermint stick. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Evans recalled wondering about his uncle who was in the Marines at the time. After completing high school, Evans worked at his uncle's dairy farm and the military deferred him because he was considered an essential worker. Evans decided to volunteer and enlisted in the Army and was sent to Fort Knox [Annotator's Note: Fort Knox, Kentucky] for basic training for 17 weeks. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer adjusts the microphone on the interviewee at 0:06:16:000.] He recalled enjoying the food immensely. He learned to drive and maneuver tanks and half-tracks [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks]. He scored high in all his firearms courses. Evans was then sent to Camp Bowie in Brownsville, Texas for advanced infantry training for five months. While at Camp Bowie, he volunteered for paratrooper school and was selected. He thought his training was easy and he received the Expert Infantry Badge. In the winter of 1944, they sent Evans to Camp Mackall, North Carolina to form a combat team. They practiced jumping with all their equipment.

Once James O. Evans completed all his training, he was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division and sent to Fort Meade, Maryland, where he boarded the Queen Elizabeth and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. The trip lasted seven days. He recalled his eating lots of beans on his journey. He arrived in Scotland in the spring of 1945 and began to quickly move into Germany. He noticed that the cities had been obliterated. The Germans were still resisting to surrender, so Evans experienced some enemy fire and witnessed one of his superior officers die from a sniper hit. His unit was then sent to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany] by train, and on one of the stops he saw an old German soldier sitting down who told him the war was over and the Japanese had surrendered. Evans and the 82nd Airborne were some of the first Americans to arrive in Berlin. He remembered the city was in rubble. He stayed there for three months as a squad leader and pulled guard duty until he received transfer orders to Frankfurt, Germany to be part of the United Supreme European Theater of Operations to guard for General Eisenhower's [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] headquarters. He recalls being the commander on New Year's Eve [Annotator's Note: 31 December 1945] and making sure nothing bad happened.

In May 1946, James O. Evans was serving with the United Supreme European Theater of Operations in Frankfurt, Germany when he received orders to return home. He remembered the journey home was very slow. He was discharged in 1946 and went to college on the G.I. Bill. Evans believed that the discipline of military service really helped him in his life. His service helped him get out of poverty and he was able to receive an education to improve his life.