Captain James King
U.S. Marines – Logistics
1st Marine Logistics Group
Iraq/Afghanistan’08-‘10
U.S. Marines – Logistics
1st Marine Logistics Group
Iraq/Afghanistan’08-‘10
James King was born in November 1983 in Houston, TX two months premature. He spent an extra 3 months in the hospital and the doctors worried James might not reach his full growth potential. That worry turned out to be very misplaced. His dad was from Abilene, TX and his mom is from Beaumont TX. They met at Trinity University in San Antonio, Tx. His father graduated from law school and after a short career as a litigator he decided law was not his calling.
In 1983 the family moved to Charlottesville, Virginia where his mom’s brother Edward lived. His dad and Edward were best of friends. In 1986 the two men hired a guide and planned a mountain climbing trip in the Grand Tetons. Despite their extensive training, Edward slipped out of his harness, fell and was killed. The trauma of the accident proved to be too much, and the family moved back to Houston.
James and his two older brothers, Stuart and Carrington, attended St. Francis Episcopal school, a small Christian school in downtown Houston. James’s father had grown up on a ranch and he bought a 100 acre ranch in Waller, TX where they raised beef cattle. This was the perfect setting for an athletic family of boys. James and his brothers enjoyed all aspects of the great outdoors, shooting BB guns, swimming in the pond, building bonfires, playing paintball and just being boys.
In 1995 James’s parents decided they wanted to raise the family in a small town setting rather than a big metropolitan area like Houston. It had been 9 years since Edward’s accident and the family decided it was time to move back to Virginia. The family packed the car, including their pot belly pig, and headed for Charlottesville, VA. James recalls getting some strange looks at the rest stops when they walked the pig.
Once back in the Charlottesville area, the boys were enrolled in St Anne’s-Belfield in Charlottesville. Carrington was a lacrosse player and James followed in his footsteps. James loved lacrosse and also played football. James was a B student and recalled working very hard for his grades. History really captured his interest, and he wanted to study history in college.
It was September 11th of James’ sophomore year in 2001 and he was in the library that morning getting in some extra studying. Mr. Clarke, the school Chaplain, came to the library and told James he needed to come to the auditorium. There the student body watched the events of 9/11 unfold on a small television in the center of the auditorium. James recalls becoming very angry, finding the 9/11 attack unacceptable and was filled with a desire to do something.
James continued his high school career with his studies and lacrosse. He suffered an ACL tear playing football and that kept him off the athletic fields for his full junior year. James had his eye on the University of Virginia (UVA) as well as the Naval Academy, Maryland, Notre Dame, and a handful of other schools. Unfortunately, James was not high on UVA’s radar at that time, so he focused on other schools. Sometime during his senior year James received a phone call from the coach of UVA asking him if he would like to come and play lacrosse. This was a dream come true for James. He would play the sport he loved for the defending national champions.
When James arrived at UVA he enrolled as a history major with the dream of being a history teacher. On the lacrosse field the bar to play with the defending national champions was high and the coach suggested James red shirt his freshman year. During his freshman year the Navy ROTC unit caught his eye. With the events of 9/11 still fresh in his mind, James had a desire to serve his country. He felt that while he lived in the United States and enjoyed all the privileges and freedoms that come with that, he hadn’t really done anything to earn them. He went to visit Major Henderson, the Marine officer instructor and told him, “I want to be a Marine officer.”
James entered the ROTC at UVA in his sophomore year. While tying his shoes before the start of an ROTC training session, James noticed an attractive freshman nursing student, Kelly Truax, who was attending UVA on an ROTC scholarship. He thought, “I get to hang around with her, this is going to be great.” What James didn’t know, was Kelly was an outstanding high school gymnast. He quickly learned that he couldn’t keep up with Kelly during pushups. The ROTC unit commanding officer also noticed and got up into James’s face and told him, “You’re going to have to get stronger!”
Morning PT, a full schedule of classes and 3 hours of lacrosse each day began to wear down James. Major Henderson suggested the Platoon Leader’s Course (PLC) instead of ROTC. PLC was a summer program where candidates attended Officer Training School in Quantico, VA. This would allow him to keep his grades up, play lacrosse and still become a Marine Officer. PLC is a screening process to determine if a candidate is suited to be an officer in the Marine Corp. Between his junior and senior year James attended a six-week program where everyone is evaluated in leadership, academic ability and physical fitness. After six weeks of being very tired, sleep deprived and hungry all the time, James passed. After his senior year at UVA he had to do it again. James recalls forging some strong relationships built through shared hardship.
Although James and Kelly were no longer on the same path into the military they were on the same romantic path. With 6 months remaining before graduation, James proposed to Kelly, and she accepted. James had one year of lacrosse eligibility remaining. Although he had limited playing time he loved being part of the team, but he knew his lacrosse talent had taken him as far he was going to go. James let his coach know he was going to forego his 5th year.
James graduated in May of 2007 with a history degree and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant. On July 28th James and Kelly were married. James immediately headed to Basic School for 6 months at Quantico where he learned to be an infantry officer. James pointed out that every Marine Officer learns the infantry basics and what it is like to lead Marines in combat. When it came time to select his military occupational specialty, James’s top choice was infantry. He really wanted to lead Marines in combat. His second choice was logistics. He knew he wasn’t going to be a career Marine and logistics skills would come in handy in the burgeoning family wine business. When he received his orders, he was initially disappointed to find he was going to be a logistics officer and not be leading Marines into combat. At the time there was a huge need for logistics officers, and he took solace in knowing these skills would be valuable later in his career. A Logistics Officer is responsible for moving supplies, equipment, and munitions around the battlefield. James described a Logistician as a Jack of all trades, master of none. First and foremast, they were problem solvers.
James graduated from The Basic school and headed to Camp Johnson in North Carolina for three months to learn to be a logistics officer. During his training James became very familiar with the MRAP. The Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle has a distinctive “V” shaped hull designed to deflect the blast of an IED away from the vehicle occupants. This was an improved design over the Humvee which was only six inches off the ground. Each weekend he would drive 5 and a half hours each way to visit Kelly, who was completing her senior year at UVA. At the conclusion of Logistics School James was sent to Camp Pendleton in California to join the 1st Marine Logistic Group. By this time Kelly had graduated from UVA, was commissioned as an Ensign and received orders from the Navy to report to Balboa Naval Medical Center in San Diego serving as a Navy Nurse Corps Officer.
James and Kelly packed up their belongings and headed to California. James received orders to deploy as a truck platoon commander to Camp Al Taqaddum in the Al Anbar Province in Iraq. Typically, James would have checked in with the group of Marines he would be leading, and the unit would go through a six-month work-up to prepare for deployment. This would not be the case. James was told, in Iraq he would assume command of a group of reservist Marines from Rhode Island. In July of 2008 James boarded a C-130 and headed to Iraq.
The Marines James would be leading were very experienced. Some had multiple deployments under their belts. James approached his Marine reservists with great humility and told them, “I don’t know anything so teach me everything you know. I’m willing to learn everything you know. We’re in this together.” James spoke about his unit with great respect. “These were the best Marines I ever had. They worked so hard.”
The first order of business was the routine “left seat-right seat” training where the outgoing unit takes the incoming unit on several missions to teach them enemy tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) they had seen. This lasted for approximately a week. James said the enemy also knew when the change-over was taking place and they would often test the new troops.
Camp Al-Taqaddum was located between Fallujah and Ramadi. James’s unit was responsible for resupplying the Marines in Camp Fallujah and Camp Ramadi with fuel, water, ammo, mail, etc. On a typical day James would lead a convoy of 15 military vehicles and civilian truckers, to either Fallujah or Ramadi, sleep there and head back to Camp Al-Taqqaddum the next morning. If the convoy came under attack their response to was to return fire but keep moving.
In the autumn of 2008, the decision was made to hand control of the country back to the Iraqi’s which meant the US forces were to keep a low profile. The resupply convoys were now switched to night missions which added a level of complexity. In November of 2008 James was leading a night convoy when the mine roller hit an IED. The convoy came to a stop and James was prepared to call in a Nine Line (casualty evacuation helicopter). After some tense waiting the radio crackled “we’re good”. It was a ‘soft hit IED’ and several Marines escaped with grade 3 concussions and recovered.
James talked about the game of cat and mouse between the US and the insurgent IED makers. The US adapted to the IEDs by adding mine rollers. These devices attached to the MRAP and extended 15 feet in front to the vehicle. The weight of the roller would detonate the pressure plate and limit the damage to troops and equipment. The insurgents then learned that they could use a cell phone signal to detonate the IED. The US adapted by using Electronic Warfare Officers who could use electronic countermeasures to jam the signal. The enemy adapted to that by placing the signal just outside of the “bubble” created by the electronic countermeasures.
The company commander asked for volunteers for a new mission and James volunteered before he even heard the purpose of the mission. James was looking to get ‘away from the flagpole’ and move closer to the action. A combat logistics company was being formed to resupply and support a combat company in southern Iraq. James was selected for the mission and he recalled there were very few roads and troops were driving in open desert. Despite the war, James’s described the country as beautiful. “There was really nothing out there. In the desert it’s so dark you can see the entire Milky Way.”
They arrived at a small combat outpost with only a dirt berm and a few Marines for security. After a month they headed north to an airfield near the Sinjar Mountains where they conducted resupply missions for 2ndRecon near the Syrian border. The Recon group was conducting missions to interdict drugs and foreign fighters coming over the border and ‘killing bad guys’.
James and his Marines spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in the desert, but the Marine Corp made sure they ate well. The meals were flown in by the Commandant and Sergeant Major who came to shake hands with the Marines and tell them they were doing a good job. “It was pretty special.”
James talked about one of the most memorable experiences he had in Iraq when he was given the opportunity to go on a foot patrol. Excited to finally serve in an infantry capacity, James was the radioman on a mission to a Yazidi village in a remote mountain location to look for IED making materials. The search found no weapons or bomb making material. The interpreter told James “These people haven’t seen coalition forces since 2003. They like coalition forces and want to invite us to have a meal.” Having no place else to be, the Marines accepted the invitation and set up security around the village. James recalled the village had 60 or 70 people whose primary business was goat herding.
The Yazidi’s treated the Marines as honored guests. They were taken to the nicest cinder block structure in the village. Inside the building there was a room with one light bulb, and the Yazidi’s started a generator to power the bulb. The Marines implored them to turn off the generator to save what precious fuel they had. The answer was no. The Yazidi’s slaughtered their best goat, cooked some rice and everyone sat down to a traditional Iraqi meal. Later they smoked hand rolled cigarettes.
“We didn’t let are guard down. We were always taught ‘be polite and professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet’, but what I realized after that encounter in particular was that 99% of people all over the world are just like you and me and they are just trying to take care of their families, keep them safe and trying to make a living”.
On the trip back from the Sinjar Mountains James unit was tasked with picking up a piece of heavy equipment in Bagdad that was no longer operational. James confirmed with his intelligence officer that the route back to the base was safe. The convoy proceeded back to base and reached a point on the route where they encountered Iraqi Security forces who advised them there was a known IED on the route. There was an alternate route, but they could not use it because it was a holy time and if they did use that route it would cause friction between the local Marines and the local Iraqis. James talked with his Marines, and they decided to travel the initial route. They made it back to base without incident.
James filed his after-action report noting that they had been supplied with outdated intelligence. James thought his report was detailed and professional, but it raised some eyebrows throughout the chain of command and the Marines that provided the outdated intelligence were put through remedial training. James assumed that was the end of it. With all his Marines alive and uninjured, James returned to Camp Pendleton in March 2009.
Much to his surprise, James next assignment was to Medical Battalion. He would be overseeing Navy Corpsmen and prepare them to serve in Marine units. This was not a desirable assignment. James learned that the Marines, like any organization, has its politics and apparently, he had ruffled some feathers with his after action report. James said that if he had it to do over, he would write the after action report the same way. His job was to keep his Marines alive. James made the most of this time in the Medical Battalion and enjoyed the Navy officers he reported to.
After several months the Navy Commander in charge of Medical Battalion asked James if he would like to go to Afghanistan. He jumped at the chance to lead Marines and he was told he would be headed to Afghanistan in a month. James reported to Combat Logistics Battalion 1 and they did abbreviated training in California before deploying to Camp Dwyer in Helman Province in Afghanistan. It was the fall of 2009 and James was responsible for 300 Marines and sailors who would provide tactical weapon logistics support to five infantry battalions operating in the area. James’s responsibilities kept him on the base dealing with management, staffing and personnel issues.
This deployment lasted until the Spring of 2010 when he returned to Camp Pendleton and was reassigned to Medical Battalion. His time came to extend his enlistment, but he elected to move on to other things in the civilian world. Kelly still had a year remaining on her tour and James had to figure out what to do next.
In 2012 James returned to the family business and took a position to manage and train 15 people in the Tasting Room at the family business, King Family Vineyards in Crozet, Virginia where he has advanced to managing the day-to-day operations of the business.
James, you have led through your actions. Forgoing your last year of a sport you loved, being separated from your wife immediately after you were married, volunteering for a foot patrol in enemy territory and giving your time and resources to support your fellow veterans. The country is lucky to have someone with your character.
In 1983 the family moved to Charlottesville, Virginia where his mom’s brother Edward lived. His dad and Edward were best of friends. In 1986 the two men hired a guide and planned a mountain climbing trip in the Grand Tetons. Despite their extensive training, Edward slipped out of his harness, fell and was killed. The trauma of the accident proved to be too much, and the family moved back to Houston.
James and his two older brothers, Stuart and Carrington, attended St. Francis Episcopal school, a small Christian school in downtown Houston. James’s father had grown up on a ranch and he bought a 100 acre ranch in Waller, TX where they raised beef cattle. This was the perfect setting for an athletic family of boys. James and his brothers enjoyed all aspects of the great outdoors, shooting BB guns, swimming in the pond, building bonfires, playing paintball and just being boys.
In 1995 James’s parents decided they wanted to raise the family in a small town setting rather than a big metropolitan area like Houston. It had been 9 years since Edward’s accident and the family decided it was time to move back to Virginia. The family packed the car, including their pot belly pig, and headed for Charlottesville, VA. James recalls getting some strange looks at the rest stops when they walked the pig.
Once back in the Charlottesville area, the boys were enrolled in St Anne’s-Belfield in Charlottesville. Carrington was a lacrosse player and James followed in his footsteps. James loved lacrosse and also played football. James was a B student and recalled working very hard for his grades. History really captured his interest, and he wanted to study history in college.
It was September 11th of James’ sophomore year in 2001 and he was in the library that morning getting in some extra studying. Mr. Clarke, the school Chaplain, came to the library and told James he needed to come to the auditorium. There the student body watched the events of 9/11 unfold on a small television in the center of the auditorium. James recalls becoming very angry, finding the 9/11 attack unacceptable and was filled with a desire to do something.
James continued his high school career with his studies and lacrosse. He suffered an ACL tear playing football and that kept him off the athletic fields for his full junior year. James had his eye on the University of Virginia (UVA) as well as the Naval Academy, Maryland, Notre Dame, and a handful of other schools. Unfortunately, James was not high on UVA’s radar at that time, so he focused on other schools. Sometime during his senior year James received a phone call from the coach of UVA asking him if he would like to come and play lacrosse. This was a dream come true for James. He would play the sport he loved for the defending national champions.
When James arrived at UVA he enrolled as a history major with the dream of being a history teacher. On the lacrosse field the bar to play with the defending national champions was high and the coach suggested James red shirt his freshman year. During his freshman year the Navy ROTC unit caught his eye. With the events of 9/11 still fresh in his mind, James had a desire to serve his country. He felt that while he lived in the United States and enjoyed all the privileges and freedoms that come with that, he hadn’t really done anything to earn them. He went to visit Major Henderson, the Marine officer instructor and told him, “I want to be a Marine officer.”
James entered the ROTC at UVA in his sophomore year. While tying his shoes before the start of an ROTC training session, James noticed an attractive freshman nursing student, Kelly Truax, who was attending UVA on an ROTC scholarship. He thought, “I get to hang around with her, this is going to be great.” What James didn’t know, was Kelly was an outstanding high school gymnast. He quickly learned that he couldn’t keep up with Kelly during pushups. The ROTC unit commanding officer also noticed and got up into James’s face and told him, “You’re going to have to get stronger!”
Morning PT, a full schedule of classes and 3 hours of lacrosse each day began to wear down James. Major Henderson suggested the Platoon Leader’s Course (PLC) instead of ROTC. PLC was a summer program where candidates attended Officer Training School in Quantico, VA. This would allow him to keep his grades up, play lacrosse and still become a Marine Officer. PLC is a screening process to determine if a candidate is suited to be an officer in the Marine Corp. Between his junior and senior year James attended a six-week program where everyone is evaluated in leadership, academic ability and physical fitness. After six weeks of being very tired, sleep deprived and hungry all the time, James passed. After his senior year at UVA he had to do it again. James recalls forging some strong relationships built through shared hardship.
Although James and Kelly were no longer on the same path into the military they were on the same romantic path. With 6 months remaining before graduation, James proposed to Kelly, and she accepted. James had one year of lacrosse eligibility remaining. Although he had limited playing time he loved being part of the team, but he knew his lacrosse talent had taken him as far he was going to go. James let his coach know he was going to forego his 5th year.
James graduated in May of 2007 with a history degree and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant. On July 28th James and Kelly were married. James immediately headed to Basic School for 6 months at Quantico where he learned to be an infantry officer. James pointed out that every Marine Officer learns the infantry basics and what it is like to lead Marines in combat. When it came time to select his military occupational specialty, James’s top choice was infantry. He really wanted to lead Marines in combat. His second choice was logistics. He knew he wasn’t going to be a career Marine and logistics skills would come in handy in the burgeoning family wine business. When he received his orders, he was initially disappointed to find he was going to be a logistics officer and not be leading Marines into combat. At the time there was a huge need for logistics officers, and he took solace in knowing these skills would be valuable later in his career. A Logistics Officer is responsible for moving supplies, equipment, and munitions around the battlefield. James described a Logistician as a Jack of all trades, master of none. First and foremast, they were problem solvers.
James graduated from The Basic school and headed to Camp Johnson in North Carolina for three months to learn to be a logistics officer. During his training James became very familiar with the MRAP. The Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle has a distinctive “V” shaped hull designed to deflect the blast of an IED away from the vehicle occupants. This was an improved design over the Humvee which was only six inches off the ground. Each weekend he would drive 5 and a half hours each way to visit Kelly, who was completing her senior year at UVA. At the conclusion of Logistics School James was sent to Camp Pendleton in California to join the 1st Marine Logistic Group. By this time Kelly had graduated from UVA, was commissioned as an Ensign and received orders from the Navy to report to Balboa Naval Medical Center in San Diego serving as a Navy Nurse Corps Officer.
James and Kelly packed up their belongings and headed to California. James received orders to deploy as a truck platoon commander to Camp Al Taqaddum in the Al Anbar Province in Iraq. Typically, James would have checked in with the group of Marines he would be leading, and the unit would go through a six-month work-up to prepare for deployment. This would not be the case. James was told, in Iraq he would assume command of a group of reservist Marines from Rhode Island. In July of 2008 James boarded a C-130 and headed to Iraq.
The Marines James would be leading were very experienced. Some had multiple deployments under their belts. James approached his Marine reservists with great humility and told them, “I don’t know anything so teach me everything you know. I’m willing to learn everything you know. We’re in this together.” James spoke about his unit with great respect. “These were the best Marines I ever had. They worked so hard.”
The first order of business was the routine “left seat-right seat” training where the outgoing unit takes the incoming unit on several missions to teach them enemy tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) they had seen. This lasted for approximately a week. James said the enemy also knew when the change-over was taking place and they would often test the new troops.
Camp Al-Taqaddum was located between Fallujah and Ramadi. James’s unit was responsible for resupplying the Marines in Camp Fallujah and Camp Ramadi with fuel, water, ammo, mail, etc. On a typical day James would lead a convoy of 15 military vehicles and civilian truckers, to either Fallujah or Ramadi, sleep there and head back to Camp Al-Taqqaddum the next morning. If the convoy came under attack their response to was to return fire but keep moving.
In the autumn of 2008, the decision was made to hand control of the country back to the Iraqi’s which meant the US forces were to keep a low profile. The resupply convoys were now switched to night missions which added a level of complexity. In November of 2008 James was leading a night convoy when the mine roller hit an IED. The convoy came to a stop and James was prepared to call in a Nine Line (casualty evacuation helicopter). After some tense waiting the radio crackled “we’re good”. It was a ‘soft hit IED’ and several Marines escaped with grade 3 concussions and recovered.
James talked about the game of cat and mouse between the US and the insurgent IED makers. The US adapted to the IEDs by adding mine rollers. These devices attached to the MRAP and extended 15 feet in front to the vehicle. The weight of the roller would detonate the pressure plate and limit the damage to troops and equipment. The insurgents then learned that they could use a cell phone signal to detonate the IED. The US adapted by using Electronic Warfare Officers who could use electronic countermeasures to jam the signal. The enemy adapted to that by placing the signal just outside of the “bubble” created by the electronic countermeasures.
The company commander asked for volunteers for a new mission and James volunteered before he even heard the purpose of the mission. James was looking to get ‘away from the flagpole’ and move closer to the action. A combat logistics company was being formed to resupply and support a combat company in southern Iraq. James was selected for the mission and he recalled there were very few roads and troops were driving in open desert. Despite the war, James’s described the country as beautiful. “There was really nothing out there. In the desert it’s so dark you can see the entire Milky Way.”
They arrived at a small combat outpost with only a dirt berm and a few Marines for security. After a month they headed north to an airfield near the Sinjar Mountains where they conducted resupply missions for 2ndRecon near the Syrian border. The Recon group was conducting missions to interdict drugs and foreign fighters coming over the border and ‘killing bad guys’.
James and his Marines spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in the desert, but the Marine Corp made sure they ate well. The meals were flown in by the Commandant and Sergeant Major who came to shake hands with the Marines and tell them they were doing a good job. “It was pretty special.”
James talked about one of the most memorable experiences he had in Iraq when he was given the opportunity to go on a foot patrol. Excited to finally serve in an infantry capacity, James was the radioman on a mission to a Yazidi village in a remote mountain location to look for IED making materials. The search found no weapons or bomb making material. The interpreter told James “These people haven’t seen coalition forces since 2003. They like coalition forces and want to invite us to have a meal.” Having no place else to be, the Marines accepted the invitation and set up security around the village. James recalled the village had 60 or 70 people whose primary business was goat herding.
The Yazidi’s treated the Marines as honored guests. They were taken to the nicest cinder block structure in the village. Inside the building there was a room with one light bulb, and the Yazidi’s started a generator to power the bulb. The Marines implored them to turn off the generator to save what precious fuel they had. The answer was no. The Yazidi’s slaughtered their best goat, cooked some rice and everyone sat down to a traditional Iraqi meal. Later they smoked hand rolled cigarettes.
“We didn’t let are guard down. We were always taught ‘be polite and professional, but have a plan to kill everyone you meet’, but what I realized after that encounter in particular was that 99% of people all over the world are just like you and me and they are just trying to take care of their families, keep them safe and trying to make a living”.
On the trip back from the Sinjar Mountains James unit was tasked with picking up a piece of heavy equipment in Bagdad that was no longer operational. James confirmed with his intelligence officer that the route back to the base was safe. The convoy proceeded back to base and reached a point on the route where they encountered Iraqi Security forces who advised them there was a known IED on the route. There was an alternate route, but they could not use it because it was a holy time and if they did use that route it would cause friction between the local Marines and the local Iraqis. James talked with his Marines, and they decided to travel the initial route. They made it back to base without incident.
James filed his after-action report noting that they had been supplied with outdated intelligence. James thought his report was detailed and professional, but it raised some eyebrows throughout the chain of command and the Marines that provided the outdated intelligence were put through remedial training. James assumed that was the end of it. With all his Marines alive and uninjured, James returned to Camp Pendleton in March 2009.
Much to his surprise, James next assignment was to Medical Battalion. He would be overseeing Navy Corpsmen and prepare them to serve in Marine units. This was not a desirable assignment. James learned that the Marines, like any organization, has its politics and apparently, he had ruffled some feathers with his after action report. James said that if he had it to do over, he would write the after action report the same way. His job was to keep his Marines alive. James made the most of this time in the Medical Battalion and enjoyed the Navy officers he reported to.
After several months the Navy Commander in charge of Medical Battalion asked James if he would like to go to Afghanistan. He jumped at the chance to lead Marines and he was told he would be headed to Afghanistan in a month. James reported to Combat Logistics Battalion 1 and they did abbreviated training in California before deploying to Camp Dwyer in Helman Province in Afghanistan. It was the fall of 2009 and James was responsible for 300 Marines and sailors who would provide tactical weapon logistics support to five infantry battalions operating in the area. James’s responsibilities kept him on the base dealing with management, staffing and personnel issues.
This deployment lasted until the Spring of 2010 when he returned to Camp Pendleton and was reassigned to Medical Battalion. His time came to extend his enlistment, but he elected to move on to other things in the civilian world. Kelly still had a year remaining on her tour and James had to figure out what to do next.
In 2012 James returned to the family business and took a position to manage and train 15 people in the Tasting Room at the family business, King Family Vineyards in Crozet, Virginia where he has advanced to managing the day-to-day operations of the business.
James, you have led through your actions. Forgoing your last year of a sport you loved, being separated from your wife immediately after you were married, volunteering for a foot patrol in enemy territory and giving your time and resources to support your fellow veterans. The country is lucky to have someone with your character.