JAMES R. BOWERS, 2LT, USAF
James Bowers '50
Lucky Bag
From the 1950 Lucky Bag:
JAMES ROBISON BOWERS
Alton, Iowa
Big Jim's first act on entering USNA was a blissful two-hour slumber on a luxury bed of Bancroft, which characterized his stay at Navy. His academic attitude wasn't lax, however, as was testified by his starred lapels. Literature was one of his more serious hobbies, resulting in a vocabulary guaranteed to astound drags—part of his Eastern harem. Even with this abundance he often chose tennis or golf in preference to the strain of entertaining. In or out of the service, Jim's easy grin and polished wit will win him a host of loyal friends and insure success where hard work is necessary.
He was also on the second set of the Brigade staff.
JAMES ROBISON BOWERS
Alton, Iowa
Big Jim's first act on entering USNA was a blissful two-hour slumber on a luxury bed of Bancroft, which characterized his stay at Navy. His academic attitude wasn't lax, however, as was testified by his starred lapels. Literature was one of his more serious hobbies, resulting in a vocabulary guaranteed to astound drags—part of his Eastern harem. Even with this abundance he often chose tennis or golf in preference to the strain of entertaining. In or out of the service, Jim's easy grin and polished wit will win him a host of loyal friends and insure success where hard work is necessary.
He was also on the second set of the Brigade staff.
Loss
From the now-defunct website USNA 1950:
Jim completed basic pilot training at Randolph Air Force Base and was transferred to the 3575th Pilot Training Wing at Vance Air Force Base, Enid, OK. On his final cross country training flight from Enid to Waco, Texas, his plane, a T-28, developed engine trouble and crashed on a farm some twenty miles north of Reese Air Force Base, Lubbock, TX.
An article in the Corsicana Daily Sun (Texas) has some more details. The date of the crash was April 15, 1951.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
James was valedictorian of his class in June 1945 at St. Mary’s. He won the senior alumni essay contest and played on the football and basketball teams. In the senior play “Robinson Crusoe,” he played Captain Frederick Salvatore. He was program chair for Catholic Book Week in November, 1944. In his introductory talk, he pointed out the many benefits the student gets from a balanced reading diet for general information or for self culture. After school, he assisted as press feeder and sports reporter for the Alton Democrat. For most of his school years, he was mass server at St. Mary’s church.
James enlisted in the Navy Reserves in the spring of 1945, and after graduating from St. Mary’s, he reported to Great Lakes Naval Training. He had passed the Eddy test for radio technician training. James, S1/c, attended the Hugh Manley School in Chicago for pre-radio school. He wrote home that he enjoyed the food prepared by civilian women and wore dungarees to school instead of his regulation uniform.
From The Alton Democrat, June 20, 1946: After his basic and preliminary radio training, he was sent to Del Monte, Calif. There he passed the examinations for Naval Academy Prep school and went to Camp Peary, Md., where he studied for four months before taking competitive entrance examinations for Annapolis, along with 3000 other candidates picked from the fleet. He ranked 58th among the 194 successful candidates to pass the entrance examinations.
At the Naval Academy in March 1948, James and 20 other midshipmen attended a banquet honoring the ambassador of Portugal, Dr. Pereira, and the superintendent of the Naval Academy, Admiral Holloway. After graduation from the Naval Academy, James gave a talk to the Alton Rotary Club in June, 1949, on the cruises he took the past two summers to Oslo, Norway; Scotland; England and southern France.
James then transferred to the Airforce with rank of 2nd lieutenant and was assigned to training at Randolph Field, Texas. In February, he went to Vance Airforce Base at Enid, Oklahoma, for advanced training.
His wife was the former Jean Robinson Leh of Allentown Pennsylvania. Their 9-month-old son was James Wathier. James was also survived by his father George, a postmaster, his mother, two sisters and four brothers.
From The Alton Democrat, April 26, 1951, by Bill Bowers: “All-State honorable mention in the football 1944, All-State honorable mention in basketball-1945, All Diocesan Tournament First Team in basketball-1945 and all-American in the game of life-1927 to 1951. That was Jim Bowers, great athlete, a great soldier, and most of all, a great man. We, his family and friends will miss him as will the Air Force, but feeling his loss the most will be the world he would have lived in had his life not been terminated by an ill-timed trick of fate.”
He is buried in Iowa.
Photographs
From The Alton Democrat on April 26, 1951
Related Articles
Neil Armstrong, III '50, Silas Hart, Jr. '50, and John Harvey '50 were also a member of the 22nd Company.
Hamilton McDowell, Jr. '50, Wilbur Spradling, Jr. '50, James Wills, Jr. '50, Edward Hotz, Jr. '50, Cedric Peterson, Jr. '50, Lorenzo Daleo '50, George Duncan, Jr. '50, and Christopher Braybrooke '50 were also graduated from pilot training class 51-E, Williams AFB, Arizona, on August 4, 1951. (Sixty-seven Naval Academy graduates completed this class.)
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
