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DOWNEY James Snead

Male 1915 - 2011  (96 years)


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  • Name DOWNEY James Snead  [1
    Birth 13 Mar 1915  Philippines Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Gender Male 
    Physical Description met Francis 
    Milit-Beg 15 Jun 1934  Philippines Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    United States Army 
    Military 1934-1963  Numerous Places Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Master Sgt., US Army 
    • He enlisted in the U.S. Army , Philippine Scouts on June 16, 1934. He placed third in the 1936 Olympic Trials representing the U.S. Army. On Dec. 8, 1941, he survived the bombing of Clark Air Field by the Japanese from 12:30 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. On April 9, 1942, after the defense of Bataan he was captured with his brother, Robert R. Downey. They both survived the Bataan Death March with no food and little water until they reach San Fernando where they were given some rice and a sweet potato. James and Robert were placed on cattle cars and taken to Camp O'Donnell, where internment occurred as Prisoners of War and where later Robert died. James Downey Jr., received the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Heart s as well as three awards from the Republic of the Philippines. He was also previously awarded the P.O.W. Medal and many other medals. His unit of the 26th Calvary was the first unit of World War II to be awarded a Presidential Unit Citation and the only unit to be awarded a total of three. Throughout his military career he was stationed in Korea, Yokohama, Japan, Fort Eustis, Virginia, as Chief Engineer on the 1956 Tugboat and Fort Port Everglades, Fla., during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He retired from the U.S. Army in 1963
    Occupation Newport News, VA, (Rice's & Nachman) Find all individuals with events at this location 
    production manager 
    Reference Number 1417 
    Death 20 Jun 2011 
    Notes 
    • The following is with Master Sergeant James Downey, Jr., the husband of Francis BOOTH Downey. And, Tim, would you tell us how many medals he's got? TIM: Dad has a silver start, two bronze, two purple hearts, POW medal, presidential unit citation, and, let's see, Dad, how many? One, two, five campaign medals and several other. What is this one here, Dad? That's the unit- -- presidential unit citation here, too? MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh. Gene Harris: That's the ribbon for the purple heart. MR. DOWNEY: It was given to us two times. TIM: No. Not this one. MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. TIM: That's the oak leaf cluster for the presidential citation. Twice. Yeah. Gene Harris: Okay. Now what we're going to do is the -- what was the highest one? TIM: Silver star. Gene Harris: Right. The silver star is one of the highest awards in the Army. How did you get the silver star, sir? TIM: Silver star would be the third highest award in these days' Army. MR. DOWNEY: I was going to this place here where they have these 50 calibre aircool machine guns, run away, they call it, when you press a button it just keeps going and going, see? I told them to take me to re-ammo, every five to 10 rounds, and on the way there the Japanese, you know, it was a bomb corridor, and they still had some bombs left, they dropped in hospitals. MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. So that was in time when I went and rescued a lot of these sick people and put them in a safe place. Gene Harris: You were actually being bombed and -- MR. DOWNEY: Bombed and -- yeah. Gene Harris: Was this field hospital canvas -- MR. DOWNEY: Field hospital, yeah. Gene Harris: -- or was it a brick building or was it a canvas -- MR. DOWNEY: Oh, no. It was all canvas. Gene Harris: All canvas? Okay? MR. DOWNEY: Stand the whole thing on the (laughter) -- Gene Harris: Okay. Was there something with a fuel truck? TIM: What about the fuel truck, Dad? Outside a fuel truck was burning -- MR. DOWNEY: Oh, yeah. TIM: -- the guy was inside and -- MR. DOWNEY: That was inside. You know, they got wounded, you know, and I said, Gosh, if this thing blows up, the hospital will get involved. So I put it in gear and drove up under a ravine. Gene Harris: While it was burning? MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. And it exploded. Yeah. The guy was already dead, see. Gene Harris: Right. But it was full of fire, it was all on fire -- MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. Gene Harris: You took it and drove it away from the hospital -- MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. Gene Harris: -- over a ravine so it wouldn't -- MR. DOWNEY: Yes. Uh-huh. Gene Harris: Now, where was the lieutenant when all this was happening? MR. DOWNEY: Oh, he was in the foxhole. Gene Harris: He was in the foxhole? MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. I told him to keep the truck going, you know, just in case, you know, if he got involved, he can drive it up out of the way, see. That was Lieutenant Plesko. Gene Harris: The Lieutenant name was "Plesko?" MR. DOWNEY: Plesko, yeah. Gene Harris: P-L-E-S-C-O, I guess? MR. DOWNEY: K-O. Gene Harris: P-L-E-S-K-O. MR. DOWNEY: He was my chief of section. Gene Harris: The? MR. DOWNEY: Chief of section. Gene Harris: Oh, chief of section. MR. DOWNEY: My section. Yeah. Gene Harris: Chief of your section? He went to West Point? MR. DOWNEY: Probably, I don't know. Gene Harris: Okay. MR. DOWNEY: Every time we'd have a repair job, he was always behind me. Gene Harris: Oh, well, that figures. This is now back to the BOOTH family. Go ahead. FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Lloyd Mills and Maynard BOOTH were two people from West Point that trained the Philippine Scouts. So at one convention I met Maynard BOOTH, and I said, You may be kin to me. And, and he was from Texas and was wearing this big Texas hat and said, Ah, do you have any money? Well, that didn't set to good with me, but I still think that, that he may be -- Gene Harris:

      Gene Harris: Okay. Jimmy, when were you born? MR. DOWNEY: I was born March 13, 1915. Gene Harris: And where were you born? MR. DOWNEY: I was born in the Philippines. Gene Harris: You were born in the Philippines? MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh. Gene Harris: Were your parents in the service? MR. DOWNEY: Yes. Gene Harris: Okay. What was your father's name. MR. DOWNEY: James Snead Dominic. Gene Harris: Okay. And your middle name is Snead? TIM: No. He's James M. Junior. MR. DOWNEY: No. I never carried it. Gene Harris: Okay. And what was your mother's name. MR. DOWNEY: My mother's name was Collette Downey. Gene Harris: Can you spell the first name? MR. DOWNEY: C-O-L-L-E-T-T-E. Gene Harris: Okay. Downey, D-O-W-N-E-Y. MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. That's my grandmother's first name, I recollect.2 DATE ABT JUL 1963 2 PLAC Ft. Eustis, Va 2 NOTE And I was teaching school. And I wasn't making enough money to have a car. So I rode the, the bus that took the girls to the service club, to the dances.

      So he was on one end of the dance hall and I was on the other. And I guess that we, he came over and asked me to dance. Gene Harris: Where were you living at this time? What's, what's -- FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I was living in Hilton. TIM: Hilton, Virginia. FRANCIS A. BOOTH: I was living in Hilton boarding with a lady. Gene Harris: Hilton boarding with a lady? And that was Newport News? FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yeah.


      Gene Harris: What did you do after the Army? MR. DOWNEY: I worked at a big department store, Rice's & Nachman for 16 years. MR. DOWNEY: Nachman. Gene Harris: How do you spell that? MR. DOWNEY: N-A-C-H-M-A-N. Gene Harris: Where was that. MR. DOWNEY: Here in Newport News. MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. I was a production manager.

      Gene Harris: Okay. Now, your husband: Is that Master Sargeant James Downey, Junior? FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Junior. Gene Harris: It was the United States Army from 15 June, 1934, until 1 July, 1963. James Downey was a former POW on the Bataan Death March, and he was a survivor of that. And I'm looking at numerous ribbons, which one day we'll film and put on the web page. Where did you meet James Downey, Junior? FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Ft. Eustis at a -- MR. DOWNEY: Service club. FRANCIS A. BOOTH: -- at the service club, at a dance. Gene Harris: Tell us about it. FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Well, Jimmy, Jimmy didn't come to the States until he was, until after the war and he was 32 years old. And he just come to Ft. Eustis.

      Gene Harris: Okay. And what did you do in the military? MR. DOWNEY: First one I was over there I was a small arms expert. Gene Harris: A what now? MR. DOWNEY: A small arm expert. Gene Harris: Were you ever in the infantry? MR. DOWNEY: Part of it, you know, horse cavalry. Gene Harris: Horse cavalry. Okay. That's what I wanted to get. TIM: Dad was a member of the Philippine Scouts, which was an elite -- MR. DOWNEY: I was with the Elite -- TIM: -- Army outfit. He was trained by MR. DOWNEY: All our arms -- all West Pointers. TIM: Yeah. Trained by West Pointers. FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And I can tell you about that. MR. DOWNEY: General Wainwright was my officer there for a while. Gene Harris: General Wainwright? MR. DOWNEY: Wainwright, yes. Gene Harris: Okay. Now, was this before MacArthur's time. MR. DOWNEY: Yes. And when the Japanese bombed Clark Air Force Base, everybody went up to Bataan, see? That was the last stand -- Gene Harris: Okay. MR. DOWNEY: -- till they surrendered. FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And I went to many conventions before I found out what was so great about Philippine scouts. So I said to Jimmy, What in the world is so great about Philippine Scout? Because all of the people that he met that was in that part of the world when the war was going on, they would come, the Americans would come up and shake Jimmy's hand and pat him on the back. Then I found out that Philippine Scouts were a group of elite soldiers trained by the, two est Pointers. Gene Harris: Now you had to be, you were an Army officer at West Point -- FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And -- Gene Harris: -- and trained with the Philippine Scouts. MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. FRANCIS A. BOOTH: When the war came along, the Philippine Scouts went in first. They did the basic -- MR. DOWNEY: They were the first line of defense. Gene Harris: The Philippine Scouts would hold the line against the Japanese? MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. TIM: When the line would start to be pushed to broken, by then the Americans had fallen back and were digging new trench lines, the Filipinos would fall back into the trench lines, the Scouts, the Americans would drop back and start digging another trench line. The Filipinos on that line would get ready to break, the Americans would move back, set up new defenses, and the Filipinos would drop into the trench line and keep fighting. Gene Harris: Okay. FRANCIS A. BOOTH: And Jimmy was very active in swimming and athletics.

      Gene Harris: Now, did you retire from the Army? MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh. I stayed there 30 years. Gene Harris: 30 years? MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh. Gene Harris: What did you do after the Army?

      Daily Press 4/20/2010 article:
      Never give up. Always help your brother.
      Those two themes run through the family of James Downey Jr., two positives that grew from one of the darkest chapters of American military history.
      Downey was a young solder in the prime of life, six years removed from an Olympic team tryout, when Japanese soldiers captured him on April 9, 1942. He was put in line with thousands of other prisoners and ordered to start walking.
      The rule was simple: Stopand you die.
      It became known as the Bataan Death March, and Downey did not give up. Today he is 95 years old with a firm handshake and a memory for detail that is both inspirational and chilling.
      "I dream about it sometimes," he said, "like you're being captured."
      Help your brother? Downey carried him. Little brother Robert Downey was too sick to walk and, ultimately, he ended up too sick to survive.
      The Bataan Death March began after some 75,000 troops under American command surrendered to Japanese forces in the Philippines . The forcible march to a Japanese POW camp covered 60 miles and lasted more than five days.
      By some estimates, 11,000 died.
      Men were shot, beaten to death, beheaded or stabbed. Even today, Downey cannot shake the images.
      "A lot of my friends died along the way," he said. "And sometimes a Japanese tank would go over - Oh God - you'd see them along the road. It was terrible."
      His son, Gary Downey, said the themes of never giving up and always helping a brother were impressed upon the children at an early age.
      "This journey that happened to him on Bataan, it still continues for him," Gary said. "Dad has sort of gathered people along the way with that, made friends."
      In reunions all over the country, the children of Bataan survivors "have that same, never-give-up attitude," Gary Downey said.
      James Downey enlisted in the Army in 1934 and he tried out for the 1936 U.S. Olympic team as a swimmer in the backstroke.
      He was half-Filipino by birth. His mother was of Philippine and Spanish heritage and his father was from Augusta County, a cavalry officer who fought in the Spanish-American War.
      Downey served with the Army's 26th Calvary Philippine Scouts, a decorated unit that still rode horses into battle in the early days of World War II . In January 1942 on Luzon Island, the 26th made what is regarded as the final horse-mounted charge in the annals of the U.S. military .
      Downey was on patrol on April 9 when he was captured.
      "We came up and I met a Japanese," he recalled. "He said, 'War over!' waving his arms. We slept by a river that night and the next day they lined us up."
      Captured along with his brother, they began marching the next day. The Japanese denied water to the POWs, even though it was sometimes within reach via artesian wells.
      "If you were close by, they'd stick you with a bayonet," he said. "If you were far away, they'd shoot you."
      Eventually, he and his brother made it to a POW camp, but they were gravely ill. Faith played a huge role in the will to live.
      Today, Downey has a laminated picture of Jesus that he took from a Bible owned by a Filipino prisoner who died while holding it.
      "I had a hard time getting it out of his hands," he said.
      The horrific conditions in the camp were too much for Robert Downey, who died in June 1942 from malnutrition and disease, including dysentery.
      A few months later, leaders in the Philippine government said they wanted to cooperate with the Japanese, and it resulted in the release of Filipino prisoners of war. Downey was an American, but was half-Filipino and the Japanese let him go.
      He ended up living with his grandmother in another part of the country, but his freedom didn't last long. Someone turned him in as a Filipino guerrilla, and he was sent to a different prison camp.
      He stayed in custody until 1945.
      After the war, Downey stayed in the Army until 1963, retiring as a master sergeant.
      He served a number of years at Fort Eustis in Newport News , where he met his wife, Frances, during a USO dance in 1946.
      His wife died in 2006. She and James were married 57 years and had four children.
      In one of his brighter memories, he recalls meeting his future wife at the dance. It was a moment where women reached out and tapped their partner.
      "She tapped me," he said, laughing.
      About the Bataan Death March
      On April 9, 1942, Major Gen. Edward P. King Jr., the commander of the Luzon Force, Bataan, Philippines, defied orders from Gen. Douglas MacArthur and surrendered to the Japanese.
      Over the next five days, the 75,000 prisoners - Americans and Filipinos - were forced-marched 60 miles to prison camps. They were denied food and water, and thousands were left to die or executed if they fell. Thousands more were killed by gunshot, bayonet and beheading.
      Estimates of the number of men killed range from 6,000 to more than 20,000.
      After the war, the Japanese commander, Gen. Masaharu Homma, was convicted of war crimes and executed.
    Person ID I1003  Booth Family
    Last Modified 22 Aug 2013 

    Father DOWNEY James Snead 
    Mother DOWNEY Collette --LNU-- 
    Family ID F282  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family BOOTH Frances Adell,   b. 6 Dec 1919, Sussex County, VA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1 Nov 2006, Newport News, VA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 86 years) 
    Marriage 17 Dec 1948  Newport News, VA (Hilton Village, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church) Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    • Gene Harris: So when were you-all married? Do you remember the date? FRANCIS A. BOOTH: December 17, 1948. Gene Harris: And where were you married? FRANCIS A. BOOTH: St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Hilton Village. Gene Harris: Andrew's Episcopal Church in Hilton Village? FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Yes. Gene Harris: Which is part of the Newport News subdivision or apartment complex? MR. DOWNEY: Wasn't the priest _________ Kratsy? FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Kratsy, K-R-A- -- Gene Harris: Where did you go on your honeymoon? MR. DOWNEY: We went all over. We ended up in Washington, D.C. FRANCIS A. BOOTH: It was a cold night and we started to go to Washington. MR. DOWNEY: It was snowing, too. FRANCIS A. BOOTH: We went, yeah. It was snowing. MR. DOWNEY: Yeah. FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Did we turn around and come back? MR. DOWNEY: Uh-huh. No. We stayed in the hotel first in Newport News. And then we went up to Washington the next day. FRANCIS A. BOOTH: Is that the way it was? (Laughter.)

      Frances was also a military wife who balanced her family, career and their military moves and deployments.
    Children 
     1. DOWNEY Timothy Dale,   b. 18 Feb 1958, Ft. Eustis, VA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 66 years)
     2. DOWNEY Robert Melton,   b. 21 Jul 1949 (Age 74 years)
     3. DOWNEY Gary James,   b. 24 Sep 1950 (Age 73 years)
     4. DOWNEY Gloria Jean,   b. 10 Jun 1952 (Age 71 years)
    Family ID F361  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 6 Nov 2006 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsMilitary - Master Sgt., US Army - 1934-1963 - Numerous Places Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Sources 
    1. [S6] Frances A Booth Interview - 2005.

    2. [S67] James Downey, Jr. 8/13/2005.