James T. (Jim) Wynne – Private to Sergeant.

Served with distinction in the Hq1 Light Machine Gun Platoon from October 20, 1942 to October 13, 1945. 

Jim Wynne is an outstanding example of the “Greatest of the Greatest Generation.” Reared on a tobacco farm, he rose to military leadership, successful management in industry, and affluent leadership in community and church activities – a path of achievement associated with most members of the “Great-est of the Greatest Generation.” 

Jim says: “I was born July 30, 1922 in Battleboro, North Carolina a farming community, and entered the Army at Camp Croft, South Carolina in October 1942. 

At the first opportunity, I volunteered for airborne training and was sent to Camp Blanding, Florida rather than the Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia. An experiment was being conducted at Camp Blanding to determine whether it would be more efficient to train entire units at the Parachute School in Fort Benning, rather than continue to train individuals and then assign them to airborne units.  

At Camp Blanding, I was assigned to the 508^th Parachute Infantry Regiment (508^th PIR). At the time, the regiment consisted of a cadre of airborne qualified officers and noncommissioned officers (NCOs), and only enough officers and men to form the First Battalion. We were housed in barracks in an abandoned Civil Conservation Corps (CCC) camp. We recruits had to complete both a basic infantry program and the Airborne School physic-al training program. The latter was designed to insure that candidates for the school attained the high mental and physical standards required of parachutists.

Our days were busy. When we were not learning how to be soldiers, the cadre administered the airborne school program. It included miles of running, calisthenics, hand-to-hand combat and the many unique ways designed by the cadre to stress our capabilities.