Length of Service: 8 years

Units assigned / Deployments: Jim completed boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California in 1982. Upon graduation he was assigned an MOS of 0341 (mortarman) and attended Infantry Training School at Camp Pendleton followed by Sea School in San Diego. His first duty assignment was as a member of the recommissioning marine detachment aboard "The Battleship,” USS New Jersey. In addition to a WestPac cruise the New Jersey was deployed to Central America off the coast of Nicaragua as part of a blockade operation (1983). Shortly after the blockade began, he was redeployed to the Mediterranean for naval gunfire support operations off the coast of Beirut Lebanon (1983-1984). He next received orders to 1st Battalion 4th Marines stationed at Twentynine Palms, California and assigned as the mortar section leader for Bravo Company (1984-1986). He ended his career as a Red Hat Mountain Leadership instructor at the Mountain Warfare Training Center near Bridgeport, California (1986-1990).