Veteran spotlight: Summit Place resident Tony James

Tony James, resident of Summit Place of Daniel Island, joined the U.S. Army to travel - he wanted to see the world.

“I just wanted to go overseas,” said James. “It was the only way I could do it, by going into service.”

After joining in the early 1940s, the 21-year old did basic training at Camp Wood, Texas where he remembers crawling through the mud for half a mile while carrying an army rifle above his head as it “rained cats and dogs.”

“I learned how to be a good solder,” James said.

After training, James was sent by the Army to St Louis, Missouri to finance school and was later stationed at a hospital in San Francisco.

There, after realizing that World War II was almost over and he hadn’t been deployed, the Richmond, Kentucky native tried to convince an officer to let him go into battle.

“I wanted to go overseas. It was about the end of the war. I went in and told them I want to go overseas. He went ‘you want to go overseas?’ I said, ‘Yes I do.’ He said, ‘I can arrange it for you.’” James recalled the memory with a laugh.

On New Year’s Day in 1945, James left on the Queen Mary out of New York for a four and half day crossing to England. He was sent across the channel to Denmark and Belgium. There, James was shot by a German soldier dressed in an American uniform. He recovered in a French hospital in Paris, where he could look out of his window at the Eiffel Tower. He was later presented with a Purple Heart.

At that time, James had the option to leave the war, but insisted on returning. He was in Belgium when he heard the war was over.

“I had a good time,” said James, who is now 91 years-old. “I’d do it again if they let me.”