James Patterson was born in 1921 in Portland, Tennessee. He has one brother and one sister. He is the oldest child. His father grew up in a poor family in Tennessee. They were sharecroppers [Annotator’s Note: a tenant farmer who gives a part of each crop as rent] who raised tobacco. His father put himself through school. His father was not drafted in World War One [Annotator's Note: World War 1, a global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918]. His father sang for preachers and held meetings. His father was 12 years older than his mother. His parents had their own farm when Patterson was born. His father wanted to be his own boss. His father became a broker in the oil business. He heard about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] from his parents who heard about the attack on the radio. Patterson had a civil service job when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He married his wife shortly after. They were married for a year before he was called up. He joined the reserves. His job was to help open new bases. He had to get his parents' permission to enter the service because he was not 21 years old yet. Six months later, he was called up for service in June or July of 1942.

James Patterson was called up on 23 February 1943. He was sent to boot camp with a bunch of other reservists. They learned discipline, how to march, do drills, and follow orders. Patterson’s wife wanted to come to be with him. He was sent to Canyon, Texas for college training. They received college credit for it. They were introduced to flying. His wife got a job as a bookkeeper at the airport. They had physical education. Patterson had ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] training. He could march the guys to and from meals. He did not have to serve KP [Annotator's Note: kitchen patrol or kitchen police]. He delivered mail to the guys. His wife was with him and he could spend time with her on the weekends. Classification was when they took tests to determine if they would be a pilot, bombardier, or navigator. Patterson was called on to be a part of the secret service in the cadet program. They wanted to know if he saw civilians speaking to enlisted men. He was to write a letter to someone and tell them of anything unusual. He did send letters every once in a while. He did not have anything to report.

James Patterson remembers classification was the hardest part of becoming a cadet. They were considered privates as far as their pay was concerned. The classification would determine if they became a pilot, bombardier, or navigator. He graduated in May 1944. They were put in a tank and given oxygen. They had to see how long they could go without full oxygen. Patterson was rated as a co-pilot. He wanted to be an instructor because he was married and his wife was expecting their first child. He wanted to fly B-25s [Annotator's Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber] and B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber], but he did not get any of those. He was a good co-pilot and wanted to be a first pilot. He did not want to fly the B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber], but ended up as a co-pilot on a B-24. Patterson did not want any heroes on his crew. He wanted a crew to do their missions as safely as possible. Patterson and the first pilot would switch seats every other mission. He met his crew in Lincoln, Nebraska. They went to Idaho for bombing, navigating, and gunnery training. There were a lot of crashes. Most of the crews had at least one engine failure. They were sent up for photography work. The second bomb bay was a dark room for the film. They trained for three months before they went overseas. [Annotator’s Note: Patterson talks about his friend's flying missions.]

James Patterson trained in Oklahoma City [Annotator’s Note: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma]. His crew was like a family. They would swim and play volleyball together. They were sent to Savannah, Georgia to get their assignments for Europe. Patterson had his first child while he was in training. They took a C-54 [Annotator’s Note: Douglas C-54 Skymaster] to Hawaii. When they got there, they did not have orders waiting for them, so they had a 10-day vacation. Finally, they got orders to go to New Guinea. They left at two-thirty in the morning. When they arrived in New Guinea, they once again had no orders waiting orders for them, so they played poker and volleyball while they waited. They were told they were going to fly a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] to Maruti Island [Annotator’s Note: Maruti Island, New Guinea] to deliver it to a nighttime bombing squadron. When they got to Maruti, they were assigned tents. It rained that night. They did not dig any trenches to drain the water, so the tent started to fall down.

James Patterson started flying missions to take photographs of the islands. [Annotator’s Note: Patterson talks about his wife’s friend’s boyfriend.] When Patterson got to Morotai [Annotator’s Note: Morotai, Indonesia] he ran into a good friend of his from home. He was part of the 2nd Photo and Reconnaissance Mapping Squadron. They mostly did mapping because they did not have accurate flying maps. Patterson did what he was called to do. He flew all of his missions. The Japanese could not get supplies, and their airfields were bombed. They did get shot at, but never were hit. Seventy-five percent of the time they flew over the water. Landing in the water in a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] would be suicide because the water would come in through the bomb bay. If they had to crash land, it would be in the jungles.

There was a prisoner of war camp near where James Patterson was stationed [Annotator’s Note: in New Guinea]. They put all the prisoners in a trench and set them on fire. It rained a lot. The barracks were good. It looked like a resort. The food was not great. They had to fly about 300 hours before they could go home. The women in Sydney [Annotator’s Note: Sydney, Australia] were anxious for romance. Patterson’s job was to make maps. He was a hero to his family. He was going to be in charge of two crews going to Biak [Annotator’s Note: Biak Island, Papua New Guinea] to pick up two new planes. Several pilots had checked the plane, but they would not fly it. Patterson was told to get it in the air and it would be okay. [Annotator’s Note: Patterson describes the plane and its flaws.] This was the closest call he had in his time of service.

James Patterson and his crew flew over water for several hours before doing their mapping work. Their missions ran between eight and ten hours. They mapped until the clouds got bad. They flew through a lot of rain. [Annotator’s Note: Patterson uses his hand to show how they would have to fly through the weather.] Most of their landings were good. They had auto-pilot on the planes. The crew was like a family. They had to kill time when they were not flying. In the States, they trained the navigator to fly at night. They had to keep an eye out for other aircraft. One pilot would take a nap while the other stayed in control of the plane. They did not have a bathroom on the plane. They would play pranks on each other. The gunners were trigger-happy. The gunners wanted to shoot down a plane that would not respond. Patterson decided not to shoot them down because they were unarmed.

When James Patterson and his unit went to Manila [Annotator’s Note: Manila, the Philippines], they went into some of the shops. When they heard the war was over, they wanted to have a crew party to celebrate. The crew was going to play a joke on him. They were on leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in Manila and then went back to their base. Patterson got his own crew when they returned. Patterson was a first lieutenant. Patterson met a man in the Navy and let him ride on the plane. After the war was over, they were waiting to get on a ship to go home. They could apply to fly the missions to take men home. They flew back to San Francisco [Annotator’s Note: San Francisco, California]. Patterson took a train to El Paso [Annotator’s Note: El Paso, Texas].

James Patterson let the taxi driver watch him go in. His wife introduced him to his son. His son recognized him from what his wife had told him. He was in the reserves automatically for four years. After the war, he finished his degree and went to work for an oil company. He wanted to fly a P-51 [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] for the fun of it. He joined the active reserves and became a captain. He separated from the military in 1958 or 1959. He used the GI 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].

James Patterson enjoyed flying. He misses flying. His nephew took him to Mount Pleasant, Texas where there was a hangar with World War Two planes in it. Patterson had been around all the planes there. This guy would take school children up in the C-47 [Annotator’s Note: The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota] and the pilots could fly the planes. Patterson got to fly the C-47 for old times’ sake with the guy as a co-pilot. It all came back to him. He wanted to do his job. He was upset with the Japanese. He wanted to fly and to stay with his wife as long as he could. He wanted to serve his country.