James Francis McCorriston was born in Trenton, New Jersey, in February 1925, but grew up in Florence, New Jersey. McCorriston's father was a farmer and pipe fitter, however, he died when McCorriston was six years old. During the Great Depression, his mother supported the family by raising and selling chickens. Because there were no high schools in Florence, McCorriston attended high school in Bordentown [Annotator's Note: Bordentown, New Jersey]. He graduated in June 1942 and decided to join the Army Air Force, but could not join because he was only 17 years old. Seeing signs for the Marine Corps and Navy, which both took 17 year olds, McCorriston flipped a coin to decide which service branch to join, which turned out to be the Navy. He went to recruit training in Newport, Rhode Island, then went to the Navy Training School at the University, Kansas, graduating in December 1942. From there, he was deployed to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii], where he was assigned to the USS Salt Lake City (CA-25). McCorriston was in a movie theater when he heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Being 16 years old, he knew he would be going into the military. Boot camp did not last long, but coming from a regimented family, he adjusted well and felt he received good training. McCorriston learned to tie knots and shoot a rifle. He arrived at Pearl Harbor on the USS Henderson (AP-1) and was awestruck when he first saw the port. After going ashore, he went aboard the Salt Lake City, which he was shocked to see was so big. The shipmates all got along well.

James Francis McCorriston was happy to be aboard a fighting ship like the USS Salt Lake City (CA-25). The first place he went was to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, which he was impressed by. The Salt Lake City then went to east and went on patrol. The ship was put on general quarters and McCorriston manned the number 19 20mm gun [Annotator's Note: Oerlikon 20mm antiaircraft automatic cannon]. His job was to operate the crank that raised the platform up and down. It was a three man crew including a loader and gunner. Thinking they had spotted Japanese transport ships heading to Attu and Kiska [Annotator's Note: both are islands are in the Aleutian Island chain off the Alaskan coast], the Salt Lake City began firing. However, the Japanese convoy was supported by the Japanese Navy which returned fire. This was when McCorriston realized they were in for a battle [Annotator's Note: the Battle of the Komandorski Islands on 26 March 1943]. Being an 18 year old, he did not find it to concerning, and figured his skipper knew what he was doing. The ship was hit by an enemy shell that killed a fellow sailor from New York. McCorriston accepted the battle as a routine assignment, and did not think about seeing Americans being killed for the first time. It did not register to McCorriston when the ship went dead in the water. The destroyers ran a ring around the Salt Lake City and put smoke out [Annotator's Note: a smokescreen] wrapping up the battle. The sailors moved ammunition from the after and forward magazines to the main deck, which did worry McCorriston.

Because James McCorriston had attended machinist mate school, he was transferred to the B Division [Annotator's Note: aboard the USS Salt Lake City (CA-25)] as a Fireman 1st Class, the equivalent of a Petty Officer 3rd Class, he then became a Watertender 3rd Class. For the remainder of the war, McCorriston served in the engine room. On his shift, he was a throttleman, which accepted the orders of the engine telegraph and worked the four throttles that controlled the four engines. McCorriston never thought about being torpedoed. He figured if they got torpedoed and went down, everyone would go down with him. He stayed in contact with his family, which consisted of his mother, through V-mail [Annotator's Note: Victory Mail; postal system put into place during the war to drastically reduce the space needed to transport mail]. McCorriston then went to the Gilbert Islands and the Marshall Islands. He says that being a machinist mate is similar to working in a machine shop back home. The food on the ship was fair, especially coming from a poor family. Morale on the ship was good. Being in the engine room, he did not remember much from the bombardment of Iwo Jima or going to Saipan. Mid-way through his service at Okinawa, McCorriston was transferred off of the USS Salt Lake City due to a back injury, which lead to a seven week hospital stay. He did not really know how the injury happened, other than being banged up going down a ladder. McCorriston never suffered from seasickness.

When James McCorriston left the hospital, he was assigned to the USS Fall River (CA-131), then he left the Navy. He does not remember how he heard about the president's [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] death. When the atomic bomb was dropped, McCorriston thought it was about time, and they saved a lot of lives. When he went home, he almost immediately went to work and joined the Reserves until 1959. He worked as a boiler operator in a steel mill, and the pay was not that bad. McCorriston got an apprenticeship and was transferred from the boiler room to the electrical shop and went to school there. He then used the G.I. Bill to go to different schools. He thinks the G.I. Bill is the best thing that has ever happened to the country. McCorriston taught school for 20 years after the war and believes teaching about the war is important. He thinks The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is important and believes there should be a draft. He thinks the Museum covers a lot and shows reality. He wants the future generations to do what they have to do and do it well.