Dick's Travel and Productions

Jim after being presented the Navy Silver Star, He was 20 years of age.

USS BARB

CAPTAIN EUGENE  B. FLUCKEY

MEDAL OF HONOR WINNER

NO MEMBER OF CREW EVER INJURED IN COMBAT

JIM RELAXING AS A CIVILIAN

POST WW II

BEFORE KOREA

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Jim Richard, my cousin, was born, and raised  in Taft, California.  He and his two brothers, Tony and Bill, and sister, Sylvia, were a passing part of my life as I grew up in the same community.  

Jim, and his brothers, were competitive, aggressive, smart, energetic and boistrous.  As the first born, Jim was the first into the Navy during WW II, and entered submarine service.  He had a storied series of patrols with the USS BARB, voyages interspersed with his fitful courtship of a Taft High co-ed, Helen Slentz.

They married in 1946; Jim re-entered the Navy in 1950 (Korea), fully committed to a life that took him from Machinist Mate to Commander. 

His career interacted directly with the development of submarine weaponry-from torpedos to ballistic missiles. 

He became expert in the management and repair of nuclear units which powered a generation of "Rickover" submarines. 

Father of five, Jim spent his "retirement" years helping to develop Q.E.D. He loved to garden, carve wooden ducks and repair clocks.  

He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Jim and these shipmates were the only armed Americans to invade the shores of any main island of Japan during World War II.  He autographed this picture for me when I saw him in the spring of 2004. 

ONE OF MY FAVORITE PICTURES OF JIM AND HELEN, ABOUT 1946.

 

L-R: JIM, YVETTE, HELEN, SUZETTE (YOUNGEST), BERNADETTE, TIM AND JIM JR.

c-1972