James Woolsey

[Detail from video] James Woolsey at 102 years old. War: World War I, 1914-1920; World War II, 1939-1946 Branch: Army Unit: USS Alpine Service Location: France; Germany; England; Hawaii; United States; also: Pacific Theater; Okinawa Island (Ryukyu Islands); Enewetak Atoll (Marshall Islands); Luzon (Philippines) Rank: Sergeant; Boatswain's Mate Place of Birth: New York, NY

At the tender age of seventeen, James Woolsey joined the Army to fight in the "Great War," World War I. As Woolsey recalled in an interview conducted when he was 102 years old, "When you joined the Army, you weren't handed a gun; you were thrown a gun. And if you couldn't catch it, you were out." In his narrative Woolsey relates the fascination with automatic weaponry and the gruesome results of the use of gas. After the war, he began playing the piano and became a musician at the urging of his family. In December 1941 he was on vacation in Hawaii, where he witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor. At the age of forty-one he reenlisted in the US Navy and became a radar decoder. During his service in the Pacific Theater, Woolsey was wounded during the battle to take Okinawa. He also performed with the USO and helped to compose the song "USO Boogie" for Glenn Miller and his band.