Seaman 1st Class James Revells was born April 12, 1926 in Toledo, Ohio. He was raised by his grandparents and had a rough childhood constantly getting into trouble with the authorities. When he was 13 he burned an abandoned house down and was sent to a boarding school for two years. In 1943, when he was 17 years old, he enlisted in the United States Navy. He was assigned to the Destroyer the USS Daly (519). He was aboard the Daly when it shelled Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Off the coast of Okinawa, the Daly was attacked by a Kamikaze which was shot down just 50 feet from making contact with the ship. Three crewmen died and 30 were injured. When the war concluded the Daly was the escort ship for a hospital ship which docked in Tokyo Bay and brought American POWs aboard. He was discharged in 1946.
