James Bazet was born in December 1923 in New Orleans, Louisiana. When he was two years old, he was taken to live in Port-au-Prince, Haiti where his father was superintendent of a sugar refinery. Growing up there was "easy." He was 18 when he heard the news on the radio that the Japanese forces had bombed Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He returned to the United States, enlisted in the Marine Corps and was sent to boot camp in San Diego, California. Bazet had some background in mechanics, and was further trained to work on the F-4F Grumman-built "Wildcat" fighter aircraft. He was assigned to Fighter Squadron VMF-223 [Annotator's Note: Marine Fighting Squadron 223 (VMF-223)] in Hawaii, then went to the South Pacific among the first Marines on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. He lived in a tent next to his foxhole at Henderson Field. The climate was hot and rainy, and the mosquitos, which they called "dive bombers," were a constant nuisance. Malaria was prevalent, and the Marines had to take tablets that turned their skin yellow. Each mechanic took care of a specific aircraft's engines, and knew the pilots who flew the plane. He recalled that they were subjected to air raids, bombings and shelling every day. His experience the night of 13 October [Annotator's Note: 13 October 1942] was the worst. Japanese floatplanes dropped flares, and soon afterward the shelling from offshore ships began. Bazet spent the entire night in his foxhole. He noted that the ground troops of the 1st Marine Division took heavy casualties, but eventually secured the island. Bazet was on Guadalcanal for two moths, then got a 30 day furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] back in the United States.

The Grumman Wildcat [Annotator's Note: Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter aircraft] was a beautiful aircraft, according to James Bazet, and the pilots liked it. It was a well-armored, one-man plane; its missions were mostly in support of ground troops, but went after ships as well. Bazet said the Japanese were "sneaky" and tried to infiltrate during the night. Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] was an experience he will never forget, but he was "extremely happy" to get off the island. After a 30 day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], his squadron [Annotator's Note: Marine Fighting Squadron 223 (VMF-223)] regrouped to open the new El Toro Marine Air Corps station at Santa Anna, California. There, he trained on the new gull-wing F4-U Corsair [Annotator's Note: Vought F4-U Corsair fighter aircraft] that the Japanese called "Whistling Death" because of the noise made by the air scoops in the wings. From there he was shipped back to Hawaii and onward to Bougainville Island [Annotator's Note: Bougainville, Papua New Guinea], then to Midway Island. Asked his opinion of the Japanese Zero fighter plane [Annotator's Note: Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, referred to as the Zeke or Zero], Bazet said it was a super aircraft, fast and maneuverable, but extremely flammable, and its pilots were formidable. After Midway, he went back to Bougainville, and found his second trip an easier stay after the Japanese had been pushed back. Living conditions on his second trip over were better, although he still slept in a tent and rarely had a cooked meal. Bazet carried a sidearm, and whereas he had a Springfield M1903 bolt-action rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber Model 1903, or M1903, Springfield bolt action rifle] on his first trip overseas, when he went back to the South Pacific he was issued an M-1 Garand rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand]. "Fortunately," he said, he never had to fire a weapon.

There were usually 24 planes in James Bazet's squadron [Annotator's Note: Marine Fighting Squadron 223 (VMF-223)], and although some were lost and some replaced, he always worked on the same planes. Bougainville Island [Annotator's Note: Bougainville, Papua New Guinea] was pretty well secured when Bazet arrived, and there was an airstrip in place, hosting a multitude of aircraft. There were naval battles raging throughout his tenure, and he remembered that on 13 October 1942, when he was in Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands], two battleships sat offshore and pumped 14 inch shells onto the island for four hours. He was on Bougainville for four or five months and had been on the Canal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal] for about ntwo months. From Bougainville returning to the United States. His next posting was in El Centro, California. Bazet was discharged from there in 1944, before the war ended. When the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, he thought it was "great," and that it "saved a lot of men." He married, returned to Louisiana and worked for his father in the oil field business for a while. He wound up in law enforcement in Louisiana for many years, then became an investigator for a parish medical examiner. When he reflects on the war, he likes to believe that his service contributed to Allied victory in the Pacific. He thinks the war changed the United States for a while, but is not sure if the effects have lasted. Although he can't say he enjoyed his experience in the Marine Corps, he thinks it matured him, and knows he will never forget it.