Col USMC (Ret) Jim Shank is a CC/MOA  “plank-holder” and was its  first President when the Chapter was chartered on 21 November 1974.

Highlights of Col Jim Shank’s Marine Corps career and retirement are:
• Flew 102 combat missions in Korea
• Flew as a personal pilot for the Commandant of the Marine Corps
• Served as Havelock’s first Director of Public Works
• Designed the pedestal for Havelock’s most famous landmark, the “Harrier on a Stick”
• Was the founding President of the Coastal Carolina Chapter of TROA.
Jim was born on 18 January 1921 in Keedysville, MD (near the Antietam battlefield). After graduating from high school, he was enrolled in his senior year at the University of Maryland studying aeronautical engineering when, in December 1942, the government ended draft deferment protection for certain occupations, among them aeronautical engineers. So Jim was faced with being drafted or enlisting. He tried to enlist in the Army Air Corps as an aviation maintenance specialist but was told he could only be guaranteed pilot training or some other specialty as the Army needed (read infantry). He tried the same tack with the Navy and again was told he could opt for flight training or shipboard duty. So Jim enlisted in the Navy’s V-12 program and was called to active duty on 11 March 1943. He was sent to Staunton, VA where he earned his civilian pilot’s license and later to UNC-Chapel Hill for Pre-Flight and Olathe, KS for Ebase training. At NAS Corpus Christi, TX, the top 25 percent of his class was given the option of becoming Marine Corps aviators, and in May of 1944 Jim was designated a Naval Aviator and commissioned as a 2dLt.

After attending the 8-week Instrument Flight Instructor School at NAS Atlanta, Jim returned home to Maryland in July of 1944 to marry Helen, his wife of 64 years. Jim had overseas orders and was reroute to the Pacific but only got as far as MCAS Miramar, CA. He was diverted to NAF El Centro, CA where he was an instrument instructor and flew tests hops with napalm in the SB2C and F4U Corsair. When the war ended, Jim was at MCAS El Toro, CA. In December, 1945, he was released from active duty and ordered home to Maryland. Jim tried to hire on as a pilot with three different airlines, but was told that his Marine flying skills were not what the airlines needed. In early 1946, he petitioned the Commandant of the Marine Corps to return to active duty, and in February, 1946 his request was approved and he was promoted to 1stLt. August, 1946, found him at MCAS Ewa, HI with VMR-953. Here, until 1948, he flew logistics and mail missions to Guam, Tsingtao, China, the Philippines and elsewhere in the Pacific. In 1948, he was ordered to NAS Whiting Field, FL to the Cadet Training Battalion and in the fall of 1950 to MCAS Cherry Point with VMR-153. In January, 1952 Jim was sent to Korea where he flew 102 combat missions in the AD-2 Skyraider with VMA-121.

When the Korean War ended in 1953, Jim was ordered to Quantico, VA where he served on the Air Station staff and attended the Junior School.  From 1956-61 he was at Cherry Point again with 2d MAW. In the fall of 1960 he was temporarily assigned to NAS Patuxent River, MD where he flew andwrote the GV-1(KC-130) aerial refueling manual, much of which is still in use today. After an overseas tour to MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, Jim returned to Cherry Point where he was the Assistant Station S-3 Officer and later the Commanding Officer of Station Operations and Engineering Squadron (SOES) In 1963, MajGen Paul Fontana nominated Jim to head the Commandant’s Flight Support Unit, and for the next three years he served as one of seven personal pilots for Marine Commandant Gen Wallace Greene. Returning to Cherry Point in 1967, Jim was promoted to Colonel and Commanding Officer of Marine Wing Support Group 27 (MWSG-27). In 1968, Jim was ordered to Vietnam where he served as the Inspector General for I Corps. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1969 in Vietnam after completing over 26 years of service.

Jim returned to Havelock after retiring from the Marine Corps and worked as a general contractor from 1969-71. In 1971, he went to work for the City of Havelock as a building inspector and wrote the procedures for the establishment of the city’s Public Works Department, and went on to become Havelock’s first Public Works Director. In this capacity, he designed the pedestal that Havelock’s most famous landmark, the “Harrier on a Stick” rests atop near the city’s municipal buildings. Jim retired from the city in 1988. In 1974, a group of TROA members from Raleigh decided that the Havelock/New Bern/Morehead City area had a sufficient number of retired officers to warrant a local Chapter being established. These retired officers met over dinners and drinks over the next several months at the Cherry Point Officers Club and began forming the procedures and writing the bylaws for what would eventually become the Coastal Carolina Chapter of TROA. Some of the wives “volunteered” their husbands to serve on the steering committee. Jim was supposed to have become the new Chapter’s first Vice President, but the President-designee developed a mild heart condition and had to step down. The Chapter was finally chartered on 21 November 1974 with Jim as its first President -- a job he held for 1 1/2 years.

At 87 years old, Jim is still in excellent health and owns and still flies his own airplane, a Piper PA-180 that is kept at Coastal Carolina Regional Airport. He is also still active in the Civil Air Patrol and serves as the local squadron’s Operations Officer. A few years ago, Jim’s wife, Helen, suffered a debilitating stroke and she requires constant care. He has made special arrangements for someone to care for her in their Havelock home during the day, while he assumes the full responsibility during the evening hours. As such, this precludes him from attending our Chapter dinner meetings.