James Osgood Burgess graduated from U.S. Army flight training at Yuma Army Air Field, Yuma, Arizona on August 30, 1943, as an aviation pilot with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. He was stationed with the Fifth Air Force, V-Bomber command ,345th bomb group ,500th bomb detachment. James was killed in action on September 2, 1944 while in combat in the Pacific Theater –he received the Purple Heart.