After completing Aviation Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, Florida, Jim was commissioned on June 7, 1968. He earned his wings as a Naval Aviator on July 1, 1969. He spent most of his 20 year Navy career flying the P-3 Orion.

In August 1971, Jim joined VP-31 as a student pilot at Moffett Field in California. In July 1972, while stationed on Guam with VP-48, he received a Navy Commendation Medal for his actions as the co-pilot on a P-3 that participated in the location and rescue of five B-52 aircrewmen who had been downed in the Philippine Sea. After Naval Postgraduate School, serving on the staff of the Commander Middle East Force, and the Naval War College, Jim was with VP-47 from 1980 to 1983. He received the Navy Achievement Medal for his actions as the Operations Officer for VP-47 in support of a major joint USN/JMSDF annual exercise in the Sea of Japan.

For his final tour in the Navy, Jim flew a P-3 for the Naval Research Lab (NRL). In 1988, he was the aircraft commander for an NRL airborne magnetometry experiment in the Antarctic flying out of Rio Grande, Argentina. Jim retired from the Navy in June 1989 but continued working at NRL. In 2007, he spent 78 days in Kandahar managing the complex logistics and mission flight planning for a unique multi-sensor airborne study of most of Afghanistan.

After retiring from NRL, Jim lived in Maryland next to the Chesapeake Bay. He enjoyed watching the birds, like the purple martins that would visit each summer and the osprey that hunted for fish in the bay. Jim passed away on September 28, 2019 after a second battle with cancer.

We love you and miss you, Dad! Debbie and Tracy