Writer James Jones & World War II
From Here to Eternity Author's Experiences Forged in U.S. Army
The author of three highly-acclaimed war novels -- From Here to Eternity, The Thin Red Line, Whistle -- James Jones based his books on his peacetime/WW II Army service.
James Jones was a 20-year-old Army private stationed at Schofield Barracks when the Japanese struck at dawn on December 7, 1941. The attack at Pearl Harbor, along with his other WW II experiences, would forever be seared into the consciousness of Jones, who would go on to write what many believe is the greatest war trilogy ever.
"It was not 'til the first low-flying fighter came skidding, whammering low overhead with his MGs [machine guns] going that we ran outside...aware with a sudden sense of awe that we were seeing and acting in a genuine moment of history," Jones later wrote of the Pearl Harbor attack in his 1975 book, WWII.
Born in Robinson, Illinois
James Jones was born in Robinson, Illinois, on November 6, 1921. His father, Ramon Jones (known as "Doctor Ray"), was a dentist while his mother, Ada Blessing Jones, was a homemaker. Both of Jones's parents died at relatively young ages: his mother at age 52 of congestive heart failure in 1941, and his 55-year-old alcoholic father of self-inflicted gunshot wounds in 1942.
Army Enlistment
Following graduation from Robinson Township High School in 1939, Jones enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps, assigned serial number 6915544. His first stop was Chanute Field, approximately 100 miles from Robinson.
Unhappy with his prospects in the Air Corps, Jones eventually transferred to the infantry. His new unit was the famed 27th Infantry Regiment, founded in 1901 shortly after the Spanish-American War. It was still the peacetime Army, with Jones now stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.
The peace was soon shattered on that fateful morning in 1941 when Japanese planes hit Pearl Harbor in a lightning attack. Killed in the raid were "three of the best friends I've had since I've been in the army," Jones later wrote his father in a letter.
Combat on Guadalcanal
As part of the newly-formed 25th Division, Jones and his comrades shipped out to the Pacific War in December 1942. Their destination was Guadalcanal, where Japanese planes attacked the troopships upon their arrival.
On the 'Canal, Jones fought as a corporal with the 27th Wolfhound Regiment. On the third day of fierce fighting for a complex of jungle hills called the Galloping Horse, a Japanese mortar shell wounded Jones in the head. "I came out of it with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for 'heroic or meritorious service,' which was given to me apparently by a process as random as that of the random mortar shell that hit me," Jones later recalled.
One of Jones's most horrific experiences came later, when he and a Japanese soldier engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat. Although badly wounded, the enemy soldier refused to die, with Jones finally killing him with only the greatest of efforts. Now covered with blood and excrement, Jones went through the dead man's pockets, discovering a photo of the soldier standing with his wife and child.
An old ankle injury, coupled with a diagnosis of psychoneurosis, eventually led to Jones's separation from the service. He was honorably discharged from the Army on July 6, 1944.
War Novels
James Jones eventually became one of America's most celebrated writers. His first novel, From Here to Eternity (Scribner's, 1951), based on his experiences in the peacetime Army, won the National Book Award. That was later followed by The Thin Red Line (Scribner's, 1962), set on Guadalcanal, and the final installment in his war trilogy, Whistle (Delacorte, 1978), based on his Army hospital stay in Memphis.
James Jones died at age 55 of congestive heart failure on May 9, 1977.
Excerpt from The Thin Red Line
"Ahead of them the LCI's waited to take them aboard, and slowly they began to file into them to be taken out to climb the cargo nets up into the big ships. One day one of their number would write a book about all this, but none of them would believe it, because none of them would remember it that way." - James Jones, The Thin Red Line (1962).
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