Colonel James Skelly

James Skelly

Colonel, Field Artillery

United States Army

 

I met Jim Skelly soon after I enlisted in the 165^th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, of the 50^th Armored Division, NJNG in No. I was at an open house in the 104^th Engineer Battalion, NJNG, armory during November 1947.  I saw a First Lieutenant, Field Artillery there and asked if he knew of a Field Artillery battalion in which I could enlist. He certainly did know of one and took me to meet Major Peter G.D. Kershaw, commander of the 165^th, who, after interviewing me for a short time, consulted his notebook and discovered that there was a vacancy for operations sergeant which he offered to me. WOW! I had been discharged two years before as a reconnaissance sergeant and had served as a radio operator and reconnaissance non-commissioned office in the 321^st Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 101^st Airborne Division. When our forward observer teams would leave the battery area on the way to the front we stopped at our battalion headquarters to be briefed. The operations section was usually in the basement of a school or house and in the cold weather the members had jury-rigged a stove to keep warm. They wore only sweaters as an outer garment while we were bundled up from living outdoors in slit trenches. There were stacks of magazines all over the place. The difference between our lives and theirs was stark. The operations sergeant presided over all this. I was always impressed by him and must have seen him as a demi-god. There was no way that I felt qualified for that slot and told Major Kershaw my feelings but he sold me and so I enlisted as the operations sergeant.

In 1939 Jim Skelly was discharged from the United States Army as a sergeant after three years of service in Field Artillery at the United States Military Academy and enlisted in the 165^th Field Artillery Regiment, NJNG. The regiment had recently been converted from Cavalry - not infrequent changes of branch, a little trick that the Army played on units of the National Guard - and was to go on maneuvers the following summer. Inasmuch as no members of the battery knew Field Artillery, Jim was a hot commodity and so the battery commander wanted him as one of his officers. Soon after Jim’s enlistment his battery commander told the sergeants in the battery that they would vote for Jim to become a second lieutenant in the battery at the next drill. On the next drill a representative of the Adjutant General, NJNG, was present while Jim was elected as an officer. The election was certified by the representative.        

During the summer of 1940 the regiment was in the field and Jim, as Battery Reconnaissance Officer, carried the battery through the exercise. Soon after, the regiment was mobilized for federal service in World War II. The battalions of the regiment became separate battalions under a Field Artillery Group and the regiment was no more. Jim served with the 165^th throughout the war and was discharged as a captain. A few months after his discharge he decided that civilian life was not for him and asked to be recalled to active duty as a captain. He couldn’t get this and so enlisted as a master sergeant and was assigned to the position of Sergeant-Advisor to the 165^th. The Army is great for changing its mind and 18 months later he was recalled to active duty as a captain in the position of Army Advisor to the 165^th. After three years in that position, he left the battalion. Several years later I heard that Jim was a colonel in command of a Field Artillery Group in the Far East.                                

Jim was the Sergeant-Advisor to our battalion and knew what he was about. Our positions caused us to work together much of the time. One time stands out in my mind. We were on Annual Active Duty for Training at Camp Drum, NY, conducting service practice. As the operations sergeant I was supposedly running the Fire Direction Center. I had never even seen a FDC in operation, let alone run one. Jim had conducted a few hours of training for us before we went to Drum but this was not enough and he knew it – as we all did. We were not the only unskilled members of the battalion. Major Kershaw had been the executive officer of an Anti-Aircraft Automatic Weapons Battalion and knew nothing about Field Artillery and so Jim was running the battalion during service practice. The FDC was set up at the observation post so that Jim could supervise the officers firing each mission as well as those of us in the FDC. Once again, much was riding on his knowledge and skill. As the horizontal control operator I was nervous about my skills but Jim was a careful supervisor and no rounds landed outside of the impact area.

Jim impressed me not only for his skills and ability as a leader but as one of the last men elected as an officer in the 165^th. I became so interested in this procedure that I read the old NJNG regulation concerning it. I looked at him as a big brother who could show me the way, just as I did toward Lieutenant Fran Canham who had been my leader for five months during World War II before he was Killed in Action. Sadly, the officers who followed each of those men did not meet the standards that they had set.

Jay Stone

Circa 2010
Madison, Alabama