Local veteran marks 70th anniversary of battle

• Navy veteran James Waters, 87, who served aboard the U.S.S. Cleveland in the Pacific during World War II, is pictured in his home holding an April 1956 photo of himself in Mount Fuji, Japan. He would go on to serve in the Army after the war.

• In the April 1956 photo, Waters, left, greases ball bearings for a 105mm Howitzer gun while in Mount Fuji, Japan.

For Texarkana, Texas, resident James Waters, 87, this year marks the 70th anniversary of a momentous sea battle he found himself in not long after leaving high school and his home.

As a 17-year-old Navy seaman first class, Waters found the seas raised high by exploding bombs dropped b...

Published: 01/07/2013