US Army Private James Corley was born in Rock Hill, Walton County, Florida on June 3, 1912, the son of Ms. Eula Corley. Very little information is known of his family or upbringing prior to his enlistment. But we do know that he and his mother were living on Route #4 in Santa Rosa County as early as 1940 when he registered for the draft. At the time, he was working as a truck driver for James Gustavus Pace who owned huge tracts of land used for lumber, paper and turpentine production in the Pace, Florida area.
The attack on Pearl Harbor found James still working for Mr. Pace as the young men of Santa Rosa flocked to the enlistment offices to sign up for America's call to arms. James would enlist on November 25, 1942, and was immediately sent to Camp Blanding, Florida for processing and orientation. After basic training he was assigned to the 903rd Air Base Security Battalion with the US Army Air Corps. The concept of an "air base security force" was Britain's response to the German paratroopers who would capture air bases in advance of their ground troops. To protect these bases the British formed security forces staffed by personnel who were outside their regular front line soldiers. On February 12, 1942, America adopted the British air base philosophy.
In response, the US Army approved the recruitment of 53,000 African Americans into the Army Air Corps for the purpose of ground defense of forward air bases effective in June 1942. Their training was set up at Camp Ripley, which is near Little Falls, Minnesota. In the meantime, American ground forces attacked the Japanese stronghold at Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea on August 25, 1942. By September 7th, the enemy had been defeated and the area had been cleared of all enemy forces. Construction battalions immediately landed and began to develop the area as an advanced submarine base, a large shipping port as well as numerous airfields to serve as staging areas for future operations.
And it was to Milne Bay that the 903rd Air Base Security Battalion was sent to defend the base from any ground force attack. While stationed here, Private Corley died a non-battle related death on November 6, 1945, from unknown or unlisted causes. Perhaps information will surface in the future but for now it is unknown. Regardless of his cause of death, Private Corley served his country in her time of need and gave his life doing so!
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