James Crockert was born in 1945 to James F. and Clair Crockert in Teaneck, New Jersey. His father served as a staff sergeant in WWI with George Patton in the 11^th Armored Division. James graduated from Dumont High School in 1963 and attended Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky. He joined the army in May of 1966 and attended basic training and AIT at Fort Dix, New Jersey. He was later commissioned and attended airborne school. He was deployed to Vietnam in 1968, was the commander of the 5^th Special Forces team and was sent to ICOR in Da Nang. At the end of his first tour he was assigned to the 6^th special Forces Group at Fort Bragg and then was deployed back to Vietnam. James served as Commander of Alpha Company 4/31^st from 1970-1971. In 1973, he attended the University of Tampa and earned a degree in criminology and became an instructor at Fort Benning, Georgia, assigned to the airborne department and company commander of the 4^th Student Battalion. In 1976, he was assigned to the 193^rd Infantry Brigade Headquarters as the assistant S3. He was promoted to Major in Panama in 1979 and was assigned to the 77^th ARCOM (Army Reserve Components) in Fort Totten, New York Then in 1982 James attended the Armed Forces Staff College and MP school at Fort McClellan, Alabama as operations officer. After a branch transfer to the MP Corps in 1984, he went to Fort Bragg and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel before serving as commander of the CID district in Stuttgart, Germany. He was commander of the 1^st Region in Desert Storm, returned to Fort Benning, Georgia as the Provost Marshal and was promoted to full colonel in 1991. In 1993, James was inducted into the OCS Hall of Fame and retired in 1994. He and his wife, Judith Sherit Crockert have three children, six grandchildren and one great grandchild.