James Basevi Ord - WOW.com

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing the history of James Basevi Ord who died in 1938 after the Japanese had begun their expansion into Asia but over a year before Germany invaded Poland on a pretext SGT John " Mac " McConnell. You mentioned that he died in a car crash and that he was a member of the USMC class of 1915 "the class the stars fell on." I looked up James Ord in the USMA Register of Graduates - he was graduate number 5378, was born in Mexico, taught at West Point [1917-1918] was awarded the DSM for valor during his service in WWI and attended school in France at their equivalent to CGSC at the Ecole Supérieure de Guerre. As was common up until Vietnam officers were given essentially brevet ranks in wartime and reverted to pre-war grades. He went from Captain to Major, back to Captain and then Major. As assistant to Douglas MacArthur and a wartime hero he probably would have advanced to flag officer rank if he was not killed in 1938.
That reminded me of a few classmates of mine from the class of 1980 - one died in a car crash in the spring of 1980 before we graduated another was murdered after he picked up a hitchhiker on his way to join our Infantry Officer's basic Class. Right now two of my classmates are 4 stars - Joe Votel, Vince Brooks and one is about to be promoted pending confirmation that he will command SOCOM - Tony Thomas.

Keep it coming John....