James Eyre Wainwright was born in May 1925 in Whittier, California with one twin brother and two younger brothers. They left Southgate, California when he was around five years old. His father, who had been working for the Standard Oil Company, got a new job as a gas engineer with the Montana Power Company and he moved to Butte, Montana while Wainwright, his mother, and brothers went to Seattle [Annotator's Note: Seattle, Washington] to stay with relatives for a few months. Eventually, they joined their father outside of Warm Springs, Montana in 1933, where they lived in one of the power company's meter stations. School from first to eighth grade was in a one-room schoolhouse. The population was only a few hundred people. When Wainwright was in fifth grade, around 11 years old, they moved to Butte where he lived until joining the service in 1943. Wainwright and his twin brother enlisted while in high school, missing the final year of schooling. He was home on a Sunday when he learned about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was floored. He and his twin brother hoped to be assigned to the same unit.

James Eyre Wainwright was sent to Kearns, Utah and then to Santa Ana [Annotator's Note: Santa Ana, California] for training. Wainwright had always been interested in flying, so he and his brother chose to enlist in the Air Corps [Annotator's Note: the United States Army Air Corps, renamed the United States Army Air Forces in 1941]. Following college training in North Dakota, they did primary flight training in Visalia [Annotator's Note: Visalia, California]. Wainwright's brother washed out [Annotator's Note: failed out of the program], ended up working in electronics, served in Japan for six months after the war, and was then discharged. Wainwright advanced from training in Visalia to basic flight training in Merced, California then Hobbs, New Mexico for multi-engine training. He graduated with class 44-H as a second lieutenant and pilot.

James Eyre Wainwright was sent to Lincoln, Nebraska to assign crews. After assignment, he went to Rapids City [Annotator's Note: Rapids City, Illinois] for training as a crew member on B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] for about three months. The crew departed from New York on the Ile de France [Annotator's Note: the SS Ile de France, also called the SS Normandie] across the Atlantic and into the British Isles and finally a replacement center in Glasgow [Annotator's Note: Glasgow, Scotland]. This was Wainwright's first time leaving the country. This was around April 1945, and he had been assigned to the 326th Bomb Squadron of the 92nd Bomb Group [Annotator's Note: 326th Bombardment Squadron, 92nd Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force]. They flew a few local familiarization missions so they could find their way home. The countryside was difficult to navigate because there were no section lines, just pastures and woods all running in different directions. His crew would do what was called the Tour of the Ruhr, where the bombers would go to different fighter bases and take ground crew up to fly over the Ruhr [Annotator's Note: the Ruhr River or Ruhr Valley, Germany]. Colonel Jimmy Wilson [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel James W. Wilson] was the group CO [Annotator's Note: commanding officer] and Moose Hardin [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant General Ernest Charles "Moose" Hardin, Junior] was the squadron CO. Wainwright was present for the 300th mission party of the Group. They also played a baseball game that day.

James Eyre Wainwright [Annotator's Note: a second lieutenant in the 326th Bombardment Squadron, 92nd Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] participated in the Green Project [Annotator's Note: an effort to move soldiers from France to Morocco for subsequent return to the United States, as well as to transport French citizens from Morocco back to France, 15 June to 10 September 1945], run by Jimmy Wilson [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel James W. Wilson]. Many of the Group's flight personnel were sent home to train on the B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber], the rest including Wainwright were sent to Istres, France, about 30 miles from Marseilles [Annotator's Note: Marseilles, France], where there was a center where GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] were being discharged. There was a point system for being sent home [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. Wainwright's job was flying soldiers from Istres to Casablanca [Annotator's Note: Casablanca, Morocco] on a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber], a five-hour trip. They would layover night at Port Lyautey [Annotator's Note: now Kenitra Airport in Kenitra, Morocco], and bring French DPs [Annotator's Note: displaced persons] back to France. The Green Project was a lot of fun, and he was able to see Morocco. They would make three days of these trips, and then get a three-day pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]on the Riviera [Annotator's Note: the French Riviera on the south coast of France] or else to England, Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], or Rome [Annotator's Note: Rome, Italy]. Wainwright was also tasked with picking up crewmen from an RAF [Annotator's Note: Royal Air Force of Great Britain] field where work was being done on the Disney Project, working on a rocket propelled bomb [Annotator's Note: called a Disney bomb, a 4500 lb. Concrete Piercing/Rocket Assisted bomb; also called the Disney Swish] that could penetrate several feet of concrete meant to target sub pens [Annotator's Note: submarine pens]. Much of this postwar work would serve Wainwright in his future career as a pilot for Northwest Airlines [Annotator's Note: Northwest Airlines Corporation, now absorbed into Delta Air Lines Incorporated].

With the war ended in Europe, James Eyre Wainwright [Annotator's Note: a second lieutenant in the 326th Bombardment Squadron, 92nd Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force] mostly served by transporting troops within Europe. He was also able to travel and see much of the continent. He left Europe and returned to Butte [Annotator's Note: Butte, Montana] in July 1946, and was discharged as a first lieutenant. He stayed in the Reserves for two years and began a career as a commercial airline pilot. The airlines were looking to hire people with a college education, which Wainwright did not have. He went for further schooling in Santa Maria, California and then applied to a few airlines. In the meantime, he worked as a flight instructor at the Butte airport. Finally, he decided to go back college and was hired by Northwest Airlines [Annotator's Note: Northwest Airlines Corporation, now absorbed into Delta Air Lines Incorporated], working out of Minneapolis [Annotator's Note: Minneapolis, Minnesota]. He used the G.I. 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] for college. He remained with Northwest Airlines for 36 years, beginning in July 1949 as a copilot, promoted to captain in 1961, and retiring in April 1985. Wainwright kept up with his wartime crew for a while and was even the best man at his copilot's wedding.

The war made James Eyre Wainwright grow up. He was disappointed to have just missed out on the last mission [Annotator's Note: of the 326th Bombardment Squadron, 92nd Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force]. He sees his time in the military as training for his future career. A lot of people today probably do not remember much about World War 2, as compared to subsequent wars. People should know what the war was about, how the United States got into it, and what could have been done better. He met his wife while working at Northwest Airlines [Annotator's Note: Northwest Airlines Corporation, now absorbed into Delta Air Lines Incorporated]. She was a stewardess [Annotator's Note: flight attendant].