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<em>James C. Wayne</em> was born on 15 December 1923 in Porter Township, Michigan. He died on 28 October 1971 in Saigon, Vietnam. During almost half a century in between he spent a lifetime dedicated to his country, to his family and to flying.</div>
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Jim entered West Point on 1 July 1942 following his graduation from high school in Elkhart, Indiana. The accelerated three-year wartime course included pilot training and he graduated in 1945 as a second lieutenant and pilot. The next few months included P-40 transition and gunnery followed by two years flying P-47’s in Germany; then a year as a Tactical Officer at Lackland Air Force Base.</div>
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In 1949 Jim attended the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and from there he went to the University of Michigan where he earned Masters’ Degrees in Aeronautical and Electrical Engineering in 1951 and 1952.</div>
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Following a brief assignment at Patrick Air Force Base he entered B-29 combat crew training at Randolph Air Force Base and then, as aircraft commander, took his crew to Barksdale Air Force Base. However, by then the need for B-29s had diminished and the group was broken up. Jim went to Waco for navigator training and later to Savannah where he was pilot on a B-47 crew until late 1957.</div>
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At this point Jim’s Master’s in Electrical Engineering and the new missile technology caught up with him and he spent most of the next ten years in the highly classified business of ballistic missile trajectory programming. Following a year of orientation and training at Inglewood, California. Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, the Atlantic Missile Test Range, Florida, and various contractor facilities, he became Officer-in-Charge of the Thor Program at the Trajectory Center, Headquarters, Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force Base in August 1958. He served at the Trajectory Center until December 1963, successively as Staff Engineer; Chief, Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile Section; Assistant Chief—Missile Science Branch; Chief Engineering Service Section; and Chief—Titan Engineering Section. Jim at this point was assigned as Strategic Air Command Liaison Officer to the Space Systems Division, Air Force Systems Command, Inglewood, California, until August 1965.</div>
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The following year was spent in study at the United States Naval War College, where he was promoted to colonel in January.</div>
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Following graduation in July 1966, Jim moved out of the missile trajectory business into the equally highly classified area of the Defense Intelligence Agency as Chief, Missile System and then as Chief, Electronics and Command and Control Division.</div>
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In February 1970 he was transferred to the Air Staff as Chief, Imagery and Data Management Division under the Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence. In September 1971 Jim was reassigned to Military Assistance Command in Saigon as Director of Intelligence Collections. It was here a few weeks later that he suffered the massive heart attack that took his life.</div>
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To those of us who are proud to feel that we can say that we knew him well there were three aspects of Jim Wayne's life that stood out above all else. These were love and devotion to three things: his country, his family, and flying. His love of country should be self-evident from the chronology above. His love of family and flying is more difficult to set down on paper, but perhaps can be gleaned from the following.</div>
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Jim and Lois met in school. By high school graduation they had committed their futures to each other. While Jim was at West Point Lois moved to New York and worked as a draftsman so that they could share what little free time he had. They were married in the Old Cadet Chapel on the day he graduated. For the following twenty-six years Lois accompanied Jim wherever he was stationed. Theirs was one of the first families to go to Germany after World War II and there Martha was born at the Station Hospital in Regensberg. Later Jim was born at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Nicky at Brooke General in San Antonio, and Tommy at Hunter Air Force Base. Over the years, and particularly during the early ones, housing conditions available were not always the best, but being together was always what counted the most.</div>
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Jim’s love of flying was closely involved with his family. Lois learned to fly and both Martha and Jimmy had pilot licenses before they had driver permits. Back in his senior year in high school Jim reported in two hours early each morning in order to take a special course in aeronautics. The first years after being commissioned, when flying was his primary duty, were deeply satisfying. But as he advanced in rank and assumed other duties, it became more difficult to keep flying. Yet, through all the years in the Trajectory Center at Strategic Air Command Headquarters in the Defense Intelligence Agency and on the Air Staff, he always managed to stay on flying status, even when the only way he could do it was by flying special passenger missions at night and on weekends. Those of us who are familiar with the problems of staying on flying status as a colonel, over forty-two, and with a full time desk job will readily appreciate his accomplishment. When he was at the Naval War College and “excused” from flying he got a couple of hundred hours flying for a charter air service. His attitude was perhaps best summarized when he told a civilian supervisor in the Defense Intelligence Agency who wanted him to stop flying those special missions that he joined the Air Force to fly and when he could not he would retire. One of the brightest aspects of his last assignment to Saigon was that it included authorization to fly the various aircraft attached to his group.</div>
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On 4 November 1971 James C. Wayne was buried at Arlington, in the presence of the family he loved so much and the classmates and friends who loved and respected him. He had completed his duty, to his country, with honor. I hope that the rest of us can do as well.</div>
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<em>—A Classmate</em></div>