Strain, James Thomas, 2006 December 05

This is a Living History interview with James Strain, class of 1942, conducted by Marilyn Somers on December 5, 2006 at his home in Atlanta, Georgia. The subject is the interviewee’s life, and experiences at Georgia Tech.

Mr. Strain was born in Johnson City, Tennessee in 1921. When he was young, the family moved to Atlanta, where Mr. Strain grew up. He attended Druid Hills Elementary School, which taught up through the eighth grade. Mr. Strain skipped half a year of schooling and graduated from Druid Hills High School in only three years. He decided to work after high school so he could make money to pay for tuition. He played football in high school and was invited to try out for the Tech football team. Tech gave the local high school students football tickets to the games, which Mr. Strain frequented often. The games were on Saturdays and Bobby Dodd was the head coach. Mr. Strain’s first job was parking cars in a lot near Loew’s Grand Theatre. He then started working for West Lumber Company. Mr. Strain attended Tech for a little over a year until his money ran out and he had to enroll in the Evening School. He majored in Aeronautical Engineering. Some of the same professors that taught the day school, taught in the Evening School. Mr. Strain only took two classes a semester and worked at West Lumber full time. His father was an alcoholic, so Mr. Strain had to help take care of his mother. Mr. Strain became more interested in Electrical Engineering when he began working for Westinghouse Electrical Corporation. Mr. Strain was drafted soon after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. He was drafted into the Army, but volunteered to join the Marine Corps. By this time, Mr. Strain married his first wife. After basic training at Parris Island, Mr. Strain was sent to Iwo Jima to take the island. It was a critical island because it was the only one big enough to accommodate an aircraft close to Japan. Mr. Strain was on Iwo Jima for almost three weeks. Out of one hundred men in his company, only three survived. He saw both of the flag raisings at Iwo Jima. Mr. Strain feels that one flag should be placed in the Smithsonian Museum of American History. He remembers all the corpses laying on the beach being prepared to be sent back to the U.S. After Iwo Jima, Mr. Strain was stationed in Okinawa, Japan when he heard about the atomic bombs being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After Okinawa, Mr. Strain’s company traveled to Northern China to relieve the Chinese of that area from the Japanese rule. After four years, Mr. Strain was discharged as a corporal and went back to Atlanta to his wife and mother. He went back to work for Westinghouse and worked there for a total of twelve years. After Westinghouse, Mr. Strain worked for Robert and Company, where many other Tech graduates worked also. He was assigned to projects in the Panama Canal and Washington D.C. He took a sabbatical from Robert and Co. to start his own business, but only did this for a year. Mr. Strain also worked for Heery and Heery, which was a firm interested in improving the quality of living for officers on military bases. Mr. Strain then worked for Bernard Johnson Companies, a large engineering firm. He became the Vice President of the company, which was based in Texas. Mr. Strain’s first wife passed away after they had been married for thirty years. He met his second wife, Eleanor, through a mutual friend. He found out later that it was Eleanor’s father who approved his loan for tuition money for Georgia Tech. They have been married for thirty-one years and have four children and eight grandchildren between the two of them. Mr. Strain feels that the new generations needs to know the history of each generation.