November 2010

These letters are posted newest to oldest.




The rest of the story…… To save money, Jim hitchhiked from Los Angeles (where he was discharged) back home to New York City in December 1943. The Navy game him $182.52 to cover his transportation home.  He said that people across the country were more than happy give a ride, meal or lodging to a “boy in uniform”.
He did not tell his mother in the last letter that he had actually been honorably discharged on December 10, 1943.  He had injured his knee playing high school football at Brooklyn Prep. I’m not sure why the Navy took him in and trained him to fly, just to discharge him for a pre-existing condition.
He was hired by American Airlines as a gate agent. By 1967 he was living in Maryland, and was the manager for American Airlines at (Friendship)Baltimore-Washington Intl Airport. He was getting ready to move his family to Tokyo to open the Japanese offices for American Airlines when he became completely disabled by a massive stroke. Although he worked tirelessly to rehabilitate himself, and regain the ability to speak and walk, he was never able to work again.
He moved to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1972 with his wife, Jean Johnson Chellis, and their four children. He died there in 1997.