Remember...
James Gilbert Bosley
1946-1967
"True greatness, true leadership, is achieved not by reducing men to one's service, but in giving oneself in selfless service to them."
J. Oswald Sanders
|
Remember...James Gilbert Bosley
|
James G. Bosley was born in New Creek, Mineral County, West Virginia, on March 15, 1946, to his parents Oscar Summers Bosley (1908-1954) and Josephine Ellen Feather Bosley (1922-1995). He had four siblings, the three older being Ralph, Betty, and Yvonne ("Bonnie") and the younger being Jo Ann. Growing up, Jim had a pretty normal childhood as he was raised by his Uncle Lewis and Aunt Agnes Valentine after his father passed away. He helped to organize a Boy Scout Troop when he was in junior high school and attended church on a regular basis at the Reese Chapel. As a child, he was very active and had his mind set on what he wanted to do.
Those who knew Jim described him as being helpful, handy, mechanically inclined, full of friendliness and interest in other people, goal-minded, and alert and a respected, reliable worker whose services the neighbors sought out. He loved to go hiking, camping, and hunting, but he was just as happy helping people with their farming and other chores. He often walked miles to those places where he knew there was work that needed to be done.
| Jim attended Keyser High School and was student council president, was voted most popular boy, and was a member of the football and baseball teams. Along with being a very outspoken and involved individual, he was nominated for the J. Edward Kelly Award for his prowess as an outstanding student-athlete. James graduated from high school in 1965, and in 1966 he attended Potomac State College for one semester. Jim loved his country, so as the Vietnam War escalated, he volunteered to serve in the army. |  |
 |
Jim enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves and became a warrant officer. His military occupation skill (MOS) was 062B: helicopter pilot, utility and light cargo single rotor. Jim attended the Army Warrant Officer Rotary Wing Aviator Course (WORWAC) at Ft. Wolters, Texas, as a member of Class #66-21. After graduating from his flight training, Jim was sent to Vietnam to begin his tour of duty on February 10, 1967. Jim was assigned to the 119th Aviation Headquarters Company (AHC), 52nd Aviation Battalion, 17th Aviation Group, 1st Aviation Brigade, U.S. Army Republic of Vietnam. |
In 1967, the 119th AHC had a variety of missions they were tasked with performing. These missions ranged from direct support of II Corps, support of the 25th Infantry Division, 4th Infantry Division, and various Republic of Vietnam units to classified missions in support of the 5th Special Forces Group. ("History of the 119th Aviation Company, 1 January 1967-31 December 1967," Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association website, accessed 11 April 2023, https://www.vhpa.org/unit/119AHC1967.pdf.)
The beginning of 1967 found the 119th AHC in support of the 25th Infantry Division as the 119th AHC was bivouacked Ft. Wolters, Texas, at Lane Army Airfield and was flying daily as a whole company. The commitment was 13 troop carrier aircraft (slicks) and five armed helicopters (guns). The remainder of the company stayed at Camp Holloway in support of II Corps.
Posting in the "Remembrances" section of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund website, Tom Valentine provides some little know details of Jim's service: WO Jim Bosley flew numerous combat missions from transporting dignitaries and commanders to insertion and extraction of combat troops. Jim was assigned to fly for the Secretary of State Robert McNamara and Ambassador Cabot Lodge. He flew numerous rescue missions and even helped save an American general. Jim was decorated seven times in the seven months of duty during which his actions saved numerous American lives or spared them from the misery of prison camps. ("Jim's History," 26 October 2018, accessed 11 April 2023, https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/4868/JAMES-G-BOSLEY/.)
On September 1, 1967, WO1 James G. Bosley and WO1 James L. Daniel had been flying missions and ended their day at Jackson Hole Fire Support Base to remain overnight. The weather was terrible with rain and fog and limited visibility. Shortly after midnight on September 2, the four crew members of the UH-1H tail number 66-16373 and one passenger took off from Jackson Hole Landing Zone and crashed approximately five kilometers northeast of Duc Co Airfield shortly after take-off in Pleiku Province, South Vietnam.
The crash cost the lives of crewmen WO1 James G. Bosley and WO1 James L. Daniel and passenger LTC Gail F. Wilson. The helicopter crew chief and gunner plus a passenger survived the crash. There are two accounts regarding this incident.
John A. Carrigan, who was with the AHC from June 1967 through June 1968, writes:
I was with Jim Bosley and James Daniel the night before their accident. I took photos as I came in to land at Jacksons Hole and have a picture of their aircraft with people around it, possibly them. This was one of my early missions. It was extremely wet and foggy weather. There were a group of company or battlion [sic] officers who had come in from the field for a meeting. While they were there, their units began to be hit and they desperately wanted to get back. Bosley and Daniel were talked into trying to return them at night in heavy fog. They only got a mile or two from the base before they flew into the ground. Both pilots and a colonel were trapped in the burning aircraft. The crew members both survived. I was co-pilot of the aircraft which returned their bodies back to Pleiku the following evening. ("Helicopter UH-1D-16373," Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association website, 12 September 2022, accessed 7 April 2023, https://www.vhpa.org/KIA/incident/670902041ACD.HTM.)
On the same Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association website, Ron Corbin, who was with the 119th AHC from 1966 through 1967, writes:
I was the A/C with a personal call sign of "California Dreamer" (officially Gator 373), and this was my aircraft with nose art painted "California Dreamer." (Name due to the popular songs by the Mamas and Papas of that time . . . California Dreaming, and my home of record in California).I had been flying with Jim Daniel all day on 09/01/67 in various sorties. We were scheduled to RON at FB Jackson Hole that night, along with two gunships from the 119th AHC, to provide C&C if needed.
Late afternoon, we received a call from Opns that I was going to be pulled-off for a "special mission" back at Camp Holloway. I was to rendezvous with another 119th aircraft at Plei Djereng (SF Camp), where I would be replaced by another A/C (James Bosley). I was to fly back to base while WO1s Bosley and Daniel would RON as scheduled.
The Wx had been crappy all day with fog and low ceilings, so as a senior A/C my last words of advice to Bosley and Daniel was not to go up that night, no matter what the LtC or anyone else said. I was sent on a special flight with Dragon 6 for the next week, and only learned of the crash of the "California Dreamer" when I returned. Apparently they had been "talked into" going up shortly after midnight on 09/02/67.
As a side note, I received an email a few years ago from the door gunner, John Allen. He stated that although he and CE Klemich (sp?) were med-evac'd with burns and broken bones, he also had a bullet wound in his arm. His opinion is that Bosley and Daniel received small arms fire shortly after clearing the FB perimeter. The aircraft attempted to evade by turning away from the fire. Then, either the pilots got vertigo and flew into the mountain, or they had been hit with the enemy fire and were incapacitated . . . thus causing the crash.
On September 7, 1967, WO1 James G. Bosley's remains were recovered along with his co-pilot and Lieutenant Colonel Wilson. Warrant Officer 1 James G. Bosley was only 21 years old. His remains were returned to the U.S., where a memorial was held at Rogers Funeral Home. He was later laid to rest at Queens Meadow Point Cemetery in Keyser, Mineral County, West Virginia. All of his siblings and his mother attended his funeral.
According to The Virtual Wall website, James was awarded the following: the Air Medal, the National Defense Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. ("James Gilbert Bosley," The Virtual Wall website, last updated 15 August 2019, accessed 11 April 2023, https://www.virtualwall.org/db/BosleyJG01a.htm.)
In 1976, the Mineral County West Virginia Bicentennial Committee chose Jim as one of the 76 people who had most influenced Mineral County's history. In 2000, he was inducted posthumously into the Keyser High School Legion of Honor, which recognizes the school's most distinguished graduates. He is remembered and memorialized on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Panel 25E, Line 81. He is also memorialized at the West Virginia Veterans Memorial located in Charleston, West Virginia.
Sadly, Jim never married, nor had kids, or even graduated from college, but he made a lasting impact on those who knew him as his memory lives on. CBS correspondent Chip Reid visited a warehouse where National Park Service Ranger Janet Folkerts showed him a few of the more than 400,000 items people have left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.
Among them were a photo of Jim Bosley in his uniform, his Keyser High School class ring, a charm bracelet, and a handwritten letter from his fiancée, who wrote: "Dear Jim, . . . at 70 you are still the 21-year-old chopper pilot, curly-haired, blue-eyed, and oh so handsome! ... The ring and bracelet symbolize our youth and what might have been." ("Mementos on the Wall: Remembering Vietnam Veterans," CBS Mornings website, 29 May 2017, accessed 11 April 2023, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/memorial-day-mementos-on-the-wall-remembering-vietnam-veterans/; see also Jim Goldsworthy, "Watch It When You Know How It Ends?" Cumberland Times-News, 1 October 2017, accessed 14 April 2023, https://www.times-news.com/opinion/why-watch-it-when-you-know-how-it-ends/article_483a3428-a54c-11e7-bc56-3781f9730e1a.html?fbclid=IwAR0iHYGXWf0B1Lp69T4s07d3VRtiGdohLvGUQmg0fgBUBEGAWp7UEMTzYXY.)
On February 10, 2022, the West Virginia Legislature introduced House Concurrent Resolution No. 59, wherein they requested the West Virginia Division of Highways rename the Claysville Bridge that carries WV 93 over New Creek in Mineral County as the "U.S. Warrant Officer James Gilbert Bosley Memorial Bridge."
Today Jim still lives in the memory of his family, who have started a charity to help those injured in war.
Article prepared by Hallie Tye and MAJ (Ret) T. Brad McGee, George Washington High School JROTC
April 2023
West Virginia Archives and History welcomes any additional information that can be provided about these veterans, including photographs, family names, letters and other relevant personal history.