James Marks, also known as The Chaplain, or Father Marks, was born in Davenport, Iowa. He had wonderful parents who made it possible for him to accomplish what he did in life. He had what he calls an ideal childhood. When the time came to decide what to do with his life, he wondered if there was a way that he could take responsibility for himself and work towards something worthwhile. After observing his friends over a period of time in how they were going into adulthood, he was uncertain as to what he wanted to do. He went through college at St. Ambrose College [Annotator's Note: now St. Ambrose University, a private Catholic university] in Davenport. He helped his parents during the Depression by working at the YMCA [Annotator's Note: Young Men's Christian Association]. He remembers vividly, standing in his family living room on an early summer Sunday when he seemed to receive a message to become a clergyman. He went to see the family pastor who was very happy that. A parishioner in their church had an uncle who was the Dean of the School of Theology at Boston University [Annotator's Note: Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts]. The dean, Albert Knudson, sent a letter accepting him into the fall semester. He learned all that he could about Boston in preparation for attending school there. He was working at an ice company and banked his earnings. When the time came to leave for Boston, it was difficult for him to do. [Annotator's Note: Marks gets emotional.]

James Marks arrived in Boston, Massachusetts from New York. He was shown to his room and was given a basketball. He then walked around Boston for a while and stopped in a restaurant. Everything worked smoothly and completely. He was assigned a room for school in a dormitory. He would walk to classes. He went to a different church every Sunday from September through Christmas. A local minister had a weekday radio program. After Marks joined the Navy, he returned to Boston and learned that that minister had taken his own life, which made Marks very sad. When he graduated, the United States was in World War 2 already. He felt that because he was unmarried and without children, it was partly his responsibility to support the country, as it had given him everything. To not serve would have been ungrateful. He was sent to Washington D.C. where he met about 15 others from all over the country. Some older chaplains were there, and they arranged three days of interviews. The chaplain who took him in tow upon his arrival, told him that his great-great-grandmother was a well-known socialite in the city. Marks was in Washington and then Norfolk, Virginia for two months before being sent to the South Pacific on a ship on anti-submarine duty. He appreciates having been in the South Pacific and seeing that part of the world.

James Marks was on a ship that was carrying people to American Samoa. The ship tied up at the pier and he decided to call a friend to let him know he was there. His friend took him on a driving tour of the island. The US Marine Corps was using it as a training base for preparing to invade Japan. His friend was a chaplain there. His friend took him to a location with some native huts and there was a house on stilts there. The friend told Marks a story about a plane that was flying from the United States to Asia with a crew of about seven men. The plane went down and began to sink. The crew got out with a raft and supplies. Marks believes that five or six survived. They went through their supplies quickly were drinking ocean water. Each one of them eventually died except for one. The one remaining survivor was Eddie Rickenbacker [Annotator's Note: Edward Von Rickenbacker was an American WWI fighter Ace and Medal of Honor recipient]. An American missionary was on a boat and saw the sail of the raft and found Rickenbacker nearly dead from exposure. He took Rickenbacker back to his home in the Samoas and left Rickenbacker with his wife. This wife was now living in the house Marks friend had brought him to. She brought them some Coca-Cola that been given to her by the Marines who were there. Rickenbacker recovered and the Marines there were able to get him back to the United States. Marks feels honored to have met these people.

James Marks was assigned to the USS Nassau (CVE-16), an escort aircraft carrier, as a chaplain. It was not a very fast ship but one of the main functions of the ship was to supply the forces on the ground. MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] had retreated down into the South Pacific and needed aircraft ready for the coming assaults. The Nassau carried aircraft to Brisbane, Australia. There was a dockworker strike going on, and there was no one to offload the aircraft. The decision was made to fly the planes off the deck while the ship was docked, and they did so without accident. Marks took a trip ashore and took a taxi tour around. He had a friend from Kansas who was interested in the shops in downtown Brisbane. This friend bought strawberries and they loved them because they got nothing like that on ship.

Most of the time, James Marks was the only chaplain assigned to the USS Nassau (CVE-16). If there was another it would have been a Catholic chaplain so there could be a Mass. He welcomed all chaplains who came aboard including Catholics. [Annotator's Note: Marks does not mention his religious affiliation, but he attended Boston University which was associated with the Methodist Church for a long time.] Marks was in Australia for a few days and then returned to the United States. After their return they were ordered to the Aleutian Islands. The Nassau was the only escort carrier up there with one torpedo squadron and one fighter squadron. He would always be saddened when someone died. The weather there changes constantly and made it very risky for flight operations. A hard aspect of his job was knowing the troops so well and being like brothers. Marks would often leave the ship to go on different bases. Part of his job was to represent the welfare committee which meant getting schedules of events for the troops to do or sporting equipment necessary to keep up morale whenever the opportunity arose.

James Marks stopped in Cold Harbor, Alaska [Annotator's Note: Cold Bay, Alaska] after leaving San Diego, California [Annotator's Note: aboard the escort carrier USS Nassau (CVE-16)] and headed to remove the Japanese from the Aleutian Islands. He walked up onto the top deck of the carrier in the middle of the afternoon. The air was so cold that the moisture in the air froze so that he was breathing in the particles of frosted air. He thought that was just perfect weather. On the way up they ran into a full-blown storm and he experienced seasickness for the first time. Three-fourths of the crew were so ill they were incapable of performing their duties. They were only in the Harbor for a couple of days and then went into Dutch Harbor, Alaska to drop off some Army personnel. Marks went ashore to see what the conditions were like. As soon as he got off of the boat, he sunk into three feet of mud. Nothing there was in a finished state. The bases were needed but they caused a lot of hardships. He never heard complaints though.

James Marks was at Attu Island, Alaska but did not go ashore. He recalls seeing the American soldiers going ashore, up to two divisions. They expected a hard fight with the Japanese. The Army did go ashore and looked for the Japanese, but they seem to have disappeared. His ship then returned to the United States and Marks was transferred to land duty in San Diego, California. He had a year of sabbatical leave and went to Harvard [Annotator's Note: Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts] to get his Doctoral Degree. He was later on land duty at Patuxent River, Maryland air base. He knew the pilots and became very well acquainted with them. He was at Patuxent River for two years and had one more year of shore duty in Boston, Massachusetts. The USS Wasp (CV-18) was based at Boston and would travel up and down the Atlantic and go to the Caribbean. A friend and coworker, Bill O'Connell would go on the ship with Marks. The Wasp was used to qualify new flyers with deck landings. One of Marks' duties was to say prayers at ten o'clock and he often would have to wait until the training stopped due to the noise of the aircraft.

James Marks was stationed in the Great Lakes [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, Illinois] on land duty as well as in Saint Louis, Missouri, Patuxent River, Maryland, and St. Albans Hospital, New York City. After his tour of duty on the USS Nassau (CVE-16), he was sent to the old Naval hospital in Chelsea, New York. [Annotator's Note: Break in recording.] Marks was a career chaplain and served 27 years [Annotator's Note: in the Navy]. Most chaplains were reservists. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks about significant difficult episodes.] Marks feels that people are used to going to war. He recalls an event that had the potential to be very difficult. He had been assigned to a heavy cruiser that was to be taken out of service and put in storage. Marks was told he had 48 hours to finish up business and ready to leave and return to Port Hueneme near Los Angeles, California. The ship's captain filled him in on what was going on. They did not leave the ship there, but it was boarded by Army personnel who were in construction brigades. Once the ship was out of range of communications, they learned they were headed to Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Islands, the atomic bomb test site. There would be four atomic bomb tests there. There were other ships there as well. They were there for two weeks and Marks had little to do. He went aboard the smaller ships that did not have chaplains and introduced himself to the troops aboard. He had been aboard all of them by the time the explosion took place. The ships all had to move 20 miles away to avoid the fallout from the bombs. There were plenty of potential hazards, but he never heard of any problems. After the tests, they stayed around for several days. Part of the tests were to see what kind of construction materials stood up the best under atomic attacks. Marks saw that the blast had completely melted a steel tower. He says that a lot of the enlisted men were scared, and he feels his presence helped with that.

James Marks had been present at Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Islands for atomic bomb tests. About two months later, he was in Great Lakes [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Great Lakes, North Chicago, Illinois] and received a letter that expressed appreciation for his concerns for the enlisted men. Marks feels that the enlisted men are helpless in so many ways and will run risks if they are not watched out for. The fact that the commander sat down and wrote him a letter made his work worthwhile. Marks himself had watched the explosion through the safety goggles the officers were given. The flash only lasted a couple of seconds and was very close to the ground. Marks was impressed with the amount of energy and power released and he knew then we had entered a new era.

James Marks was on a carrier [Annotator's Note: USS Wasp (CV-18)] that went up through Japan and China with the occupation force after World War 2 ended. One section stayed in Guam, the second went around Guam to Japan, China, the Philippines and back to Guam. The third came back to the United States for repairs and modernization. Marks was impressed by the fact that the United States was the only one who had control of affairs at that time. He retired in 1969. He was the chaplain at the Fargo Building with an office on the eighth floor [Annotator's Note: Boston Naval Shipyard; formerly Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston Navy Yard, now a National Park]. The ninth floor was the US Navy Admiral staff. Marks would walk through and see the WAVE [Annotator's Note: Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service; US Navy women's reserve] officers who liked him and would bring him things to read. [Annotator's Note: Marks laughs.] He got to know the admiral quite well and the admiral told him to let him know when he wanted to retire. Some weeks later Marks was doing the Easter sunrise service in the Charlestown shipyard. The admiral and a large part of his staff joined Marks on the Constitution [Annotator's Note: USS Constitution, or Old Ironsides] for the service and then Marks retired from the Navy. Marks received the Medal of Freedom from President Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: President Dwight David Eisenhower].

James Marks feels that World War 2 did not change him or his life. Being a clergyman, he's never had to carry a weapon except for one instance. He joined some officers to go ashore to a coconut farm in the South Pacific that had a great place to swim called Green River. The captain told him to carry a weapon if he was going, so he checked out a revolver and some ammunition. While the group was walking to the Green River, a native family was coming towards them being led by an old man with a walking stick. They waved at each other politely, but he says they kept a close on eye on them though. [Annotator's Note: Marks laughs.] Marks feels that America had no choice but to fight in World War 2. He is opposed to war, but he sees what is going on in the world and the level of distrust between governments and peoples and he worries that we are letting our guard down. He feels it is wiser to be ready for anything than not. He feels that the war should be an indication to the rest of the world of America's resolve against a Hitlerian worldview. He gets uneasy when he hears of events that are not to our welfare or wellbeing. Being a clergyman, he prays every day for the peace of the world because we live in a very dangerous world. He is worried about what tomorrow will bring. Marks hopes that our leadership today, and in the future, will produce a national feeling of responsibility. He feels we need the United Nations to encourage other people to create policies that produce peace, goodwill, and better lives for their people. He also thinks that The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana, is much needed to remind future generations that there was a Holocaust and a war that was fought for great ideals. The Museum is a standing reminder of all that happened and that many people died and suffered and that should not happen again.