Captain James Carl Fey, known to his family and friends as Jim, graduated from the U. S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) in 1960 in the second graduating class. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force and married Elaine Estes.

Jim went through various pilot training programs. First, he attended flight school at Bartow Air Force Base (AFB), Florida; then at Vance AFB, Oklahoma, where their son, Mark Richard Fey, was born. From there, Jim and the family were transferred to Luke AFB, Arizona. While stationed at Luke, Jim was sent on TDY to Nellis AFB, Nevada, for additional training and to attend the Air Force's survival school.

Following his Luke assignment, Jim was assigned as an F 100 pilot in the 510th Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS), at Clark AFB, Philippines. While stationed at Clark, their daughter, Laura Lynn Fey, was born.

In January 1964, in response to the growing conflict in Southeast Asia, the Air Force assigned the newly designated 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) - formerly designated as the 3rd Bomb Wing - to England AFB, Louisiana. Jim's squadron, along with several others, was reassigned to the 3rd TFW and relocated from Clark AFB to Louisiana.

Immediately after the August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, the 3rd TFW began deploying its units to Southeast Asia on TDY rotational duty while the others trained state-side in their ground Close Air Support (CAS) role.

During the Wing's rotational deployments, the Air Force realized their tactic for providing nighttime Close Air Support (CAS) needed to be revised. To address this problem the Air Force developed a new nighttime CAS procedure, code-named "Operation Night Owl." In July or early August 1965, the 510th TFS returned to Louisiana from TDY in Southeast Asia to train using the new nighttime CAS procedure.

The night of October 19, 1965, was the second night of the 510th TFS flying these training missions. It had been drizzling and foggy for days, but they flew anyway because the Air Force wanted to deploy the squadron back to Southeast Asia, specifically to Vietnam, by the end of the month. When Captain Fey's flight of four F-100's got to the practice range, the lead plane made a low pass over the target and dropped some flares to illuminate the target, but the flares did not ignite. Jim was following directly behind that lead aircraft, but immediately after the lead plane dropped the flares, Jim's plane crashed and burrowed into the ground, destroying the plane, and killing him instantly.

At the time of his death, Captain Fey had five years of active-duty service as a USAF fighter pilot. He had flown 151 CAS combat missions in Southeast Asia. Jim was buried with full military honors - including a flyover of F-100s from the 510th TFS in the traditional "Missing Man" formation - in the USAFA cemetery, in Colorado.