Somebody Had To Do It: A Military Life

A memoir of Rochester, NY native, the late Colonel James J. Freda (Ret), from his youth as the son of Italian immigrants; his graduation from Illinois Wesleyan University as a music major and his short career as a music teacher in Rochester public schools; his enlistment in the U.S. Army ten months before Pearl Harbor; attendance at OCS; assignment to the 10th Mountain Division, Camp Hale Colorado; transfer to and experiences as XVI Corps forward headquarters commandant in the European Theater of Operations during World War II; the Roer Campaign; crossing the Rhine; the Ruhr Valley Campaign; assignment to General Douglas MacArthur’s staff in the Inspector General’s Office, Tokyo; the Korean War; MacArthur’s firing; assignments to the Pentagon; hardship assignments to Korea and Iran; Bay of Pigs; the Cuban Missile Crisis; assignment to STRICOM liaison in London; negotiation of the Diego Garcia treaty with Great Britain; friendship with Admiral John McCain and wife Roberta in London at the time of their son’s capture in Vietnam; final assignment as training brigade commander and deputy base commander, Fort Dix, NJ during the Vietnam War; post-military life and return to academia in New Jersey. Includes commentary on effects on family of life in the U.S military with frequent moves and deployments, including hardship assignments.