James Marvin Masters Sr. (June 11, 1911 – August 5, 1988) was a United States Marine Corps lieutenant general who during the course of his career served as a China Marine, fought in numerous battles in the Pacific during World War II and commanded units from platoon to division size. He received the Navy Cross for his actions during the Battle of Okinawa and was also a recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal during a military career that spanned the 35 years between 1933 and 1968."James Masters, Marine General, Dies at age 77", The Washington Post, 6 August 1988Navy Cross citation: Navy Cross Awards to members of the U.S. Marines in World War II . HomeOfHeroes.com. Retrieved 2010-01-07. He died at his home in Washington, D.C., on 5 August 1988.

Early life and education

James Marvin Masters (who was designated 'Sr.' after his namesake father died in 1936) was born 16 June 1911, in Atlanta, Georgia. When he was 12 years old, his grandfather (a one-time Confederate soldier in the 15th South Carolina Infantry Regiment) died, and his father moved his wife (Cecilia Hale Masters) and three sons back to the family farm in Anderson, South Carolina. There, James would frequently hunt his family's dinner.Oral History Collection: "I love the outdoors. As a youngster I spent every moment I could hunting. I used to come home from school at 2:30 in the wintertime and I was out of the house, hunting until sunset."

Masters completed high school at Anderson in 1927 at age 16, delivering the valedictory speech when he was still only 16, saying, "If we fail to prepare for our role in society, we play falsely with our God, our country, and with the inner man, our conscience."Original copy of the valedictory speech, in Masters Family library, 1927 Though he had appointments to both the United States Military Academy and the United States Naval Academy upon high school graduation,Oral History Collection: "I felt driven, somewhere deep inside me, I wanted to be a soldier, or a sailor, or a Marine. I just had the desire to serve my country in that capacity." his father thought Masters too young to enter immediately, and insisted that his son attend The Citadel for a year. A cousin, a Naval Academy graduate, encouraged him to attend Annapolis instead of West Point, which he did in 1929.Oral History Collection: "As it turned out, I had a cousin, a Naval Academy graduate, who was a Lieutenant (junior grade) in the Navy. He was home on leave, and he talked me into going to Annapolis rather than West Point." His appointment before the Wall Street Crash of 1929 spared him from the business loss his father incurred.Oral History Collection: "Those were hard times. If I hadn’t gotten my appointment to the Naval Academy, my father would have strained his guts some way or another to give me an education; but it would have been miserably tough on him. He had been a successful businessman in the 1920s, first with Met Life as Southeastern Manager in Atlanta where I was born, then as the exclusive Southeastern Distributor for old Dearborn Trucks. But he lost damn near everything in the Crash."

During his battleship cruise to the Azores, Halifax, and Bermuda in 1932, Masters opted for the Marine Corps, observing "...that really made up my mind, because I’d read so much about Marine camaraderie. And I’d also observed it within Marine detachments on board ship, the close relationship between officers and men." He found a role model in Commandant of the Marine Corps John A. Lejeune, who had retired that year.Oral History Collection: "He was gone by the time I came in, but I always admired General Lejeune. Thought he was a gentleman and a scholar, a true leader, and a superb tactician. I never met him, but he was my dream Marine." Due to the Great Depression, the academy could only fund commissions for half of the graduating class in 1933, Masters included.Oral History Collection: "When we graduated, we were the poor man’s class. There was only enough money in the military budget to commission the first 50% of us. In 1934, a fixed number of the remaining graduates were asked back to receive their commissions. And in 1935, the balance of the class was asked to return for commissioning. So, there were three sections to my graduating class; 33A commissioned 1933, 33B commissioned in 1934, and 33C commissioned in 1935."

Marine Corps Career

Early career

Masters was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 1 June 1933, then reported to The Basic School at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. The financial difficulties of the time reached him even there.Oral History Collection: "I had only one thing in mind... to be a first class Marine officer. I didn’t worry about The Wall Street Journal; I didn’t worry about real estate. Hell, I didn’t have any money, any way. I came into the Marine Corps with a pay cut of 15%. My base pay as a second lieutenant was a month. So I had to communicate with Mr. Ewing Wall for help every now and then." Wall was founder of the First National Bank of Quantico. One of Masters's instructors, Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Sr. (nicknamed "Bayonet Tony") took the young Marine under his wing to teach him in close combat.Oral History Collection: "Tony was a grand, generous man – I really liked him. He was getting on in years when we went to the Basic School... nearly 60, about 5'10", getting a little chunky. And two of his teeth in front were broken off. But he refused to have them fixed because Gene Tunney had broken them off in a sparring match with him. And Tony was proud of it." He graduated in May 1934 in the smallest-ever class: 20 academy graduates and one mustang.

Masters was then assigned to the Marine Detachment aboard the . Captained by John W. Reeves Jr. at the time, the ship was the flagship of the Pacific Fleet, and Masters was soon qualified as a watch officer In July 1935, he joined the 1st Marine Brigade at Marine Corps Base Quantico. Thanks to the expiration of the then-mandatory marriage waiting-period (for two years after graduation), Masters was free to marry his sweetheart Dorice "Dottie" Mary Kengla, who was the sister of his Naval Academy classmate and also newly commissioned 2nd Lt. William A. Kengla,William A. Kengla, 'The Short End Technique' from 'Cold Steel' by John Styers, text prepared by Karl Schuon, photographs by Louis Lowery on 14 September 1935.

James and Dottie maintained a friendship with Tony Biddle and his wife, Cordelia.Oral History Collection: "Cordelia Rundell Bradley Biddle was a delightful woman, who was from wealth and the proper main line society in Philadelphia. And, she took a fondness to Dottie, my wife. And as I told you, old Tony and I were on close terms and whenever he came down to Quantico he would bring Cordelia down with him in this big long black Cadillac. Once they were in Quantico for about six weeks – and there wasn't a day that that car didn't pull up to our quarters at 218-C with some sort of gift for us. For instance, Cordelia dropped by one morning about 10 o'clock and Dottie was still house cleaning – this was in September, starting to get a little chilly – and when Dottie came to the door in a light housecoat, Cordelia said, 'My dear, you must be freezing.' Dottie said, 'No Mrs. Biddle, I'm fine.' Next day Cordelia came down and brought Dottie a beautiful quilted housecoat. The Biddles would drive up together at cocktail hour, couple of bottles of Johnnie Walker Black Label or something like that. Well, good God, I wasn't able to drink anything better than beer at that time of life. Pay was a month. They were lovely people. Very generous." "One day Tony said to me, 'Young fellow, I want you and Mrs. Masters to come to dinner with Mrs. Biddle and me, I'll send the car down to Quantico for you at 6 o'clock, and you can join us for dinner at seven.' So Dottie and I spruced up with our best civilian bib and tucker and the Cadillac drove up. Christ, it was about two city blocks long and we jumped in it, were driven to the Ritz-Carlton in Washington D.C., went in, and were escorted to Tony and Cordelia and guess who? The Commandant of the Marine Corps and Mrs. Russell! Goddamn, I near choked on my Adam's apple. But, after we had a drink, one drink before dinner, we went in, had a beautiful dinner, soup to nuts, wine to liquors. During the course of the meal someone brought up a subject and the Commandant remarked that it concerned him... and Cordelia reached over and patted him on the knee; and she said, 'Sonny, don't you worry about little things like that.' I damn near fell off my chair." In 1937, Biddle wrote a combat manual entitled Do or Die, noting in the dedication: "During the period of his service as instructor, the writer enjoyed the able assistance of Lieutenant James M. Masters, USMC, and Lieutenant William A. Kengla USMC. The two latter named gentlemen were formerly pupils of the writer in Individual Combat at the United States Marine Corps Basic School for Officers: they are both fine swordsmen. Being of inventive genius, Lieutenants Masters and Kengla devised several excellent new forms of attack and defense, as shown in this treatise." Biddle's bayonet techniques can still be seen in skills taught in recruit training today.

After the Fleet Landing Exercises, which saw the landing 1st Battalion 5th Marines at Culebra, Puerto Rico, during January to May 1936, Masters became Personnel, Intelligence, and Communications Officer for the 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Brigade. He was promoted to first lieutenant in July 1936. In August of that year, Masters assumed duties in the Headquarters Company, and began to express his desire to grow in leadership.Oral History Collection: "My real desire was to become an honest to God leader. I got my start as a young adult at the Academy where I was a platoon leader. I liked the relationship with human beings – trying to figure them out, getting the best response from them in a tactical situation. And now, looking back, I think my career is marked by the leadership theme." In December, he became an aide-de-camp to Brigadier General James J. Meade, the brigade commander. Oral History Collection: "He was a delightful old gentleman, who'd joined the Marine Corps at the turn of the 20th century. He was not socially inclined, so my social duties only required that I go to lunch with him occasionally. And, when we'd go to lunch where there was drinking, he'd always pass the drink to me and say, 'Take care of this, young man.' By that he meant that I should drink it. Well, I poured many of them down the palmetto." The brigade was soon transferred to the West Coast of the United States, where Masters was detached from the unit for reassignment to the Fourth Marine Regiment in China.

China