James Edward McGee
Staff Sergeant, 1333 Army Air Forces Base Unit
James was born the 26th of October 1912 in Marlborough, Massachusetts. He was a 1932 graduate of the Marlborough High School and a 1938 Graduate of Suffolk Law School. He worked as a clerk in City Hall in Marlborough as well as with the Works Progress Administration while living with his sister at 52 Pearl Street in Marlborough.
He enlisted into the Army Air Corps the 17th of June 1942. He received training at the Air Technical Training School in Goldsboro, North Carolina as well as the Army Air Forces Technical Training Command at Seymour Johnson Field in Florida. He also trained at the Air Corp Replacement Training Center in Miami Beach Florida. He was assigned to the 1333 Army Air Forces Base Unit as part of the China-Burma-India theater and departed for the pacific. Meeting his new unit in Tezgaon, China James and his unit assisted with the movement of cargo and personnel over “The Hump” which was the Himalayan Mountains to support operations against the Empire of Japan. James flew with aircraft to various places in theater including India.
On his way back to the United States and discharge from the Air Corps, the C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft that James was flying in crashed into a portion of the Himalayan Mountains killing all 40 returning servicemen aboard. The mountainous terrain did not allow for the recovery of the bodies and it was not until 1950 that James remains were repatriated to the United States. He is buried in a group burial at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St Louis, Missouri Section 78, Site 1034B-C. McGee Avenue in Marlborough is named in his honor.
