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| Quartermaster 3/c James Skeldon served on the USS Swordfish in the Pacific. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55842631/james-adam-skeldon http://www.oneternalpatrol.com/uss-swordfish-193.htm |
James Adam Skeldon never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on December 28, 1919 in Ottawa, Canada. His parents Albert and Maude were born in Illinois and Canada, respectively. The family moved to New York where his father worked as an odd jobs laborer. James had one older brother, four younger brothers, and three younger sisters. By 1940 James was still living at home. He had completed two years of high school and
He volunteered for the US Navy in August 1942. He became a quartermaster third class serving on the submarine USS Swordfish. Swordfish began its war service in Manila on December 8, 1941. It completed 12 successful missions.
On December 22, 1944, Swordfish was sent from Pearl Harbor to Okinawa on a photo-recon mission ahead of the planned invasion. The cause of her demise remains unknown. One report that claims it was sunk by a Japanese destroyer on January 12, 1945 is not backed up by Japanese naval records. It may be more likely that it was sunk by a mine. All hands, including MM3c Johnson, were listed as lost as of January 12, 1945.
His cenotaph grave is at Fairview Cemetery in Edwards, New York.
Last year on this date I profiled Harold Allison, minesweeper USS Terror. You can read about Harold here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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