Gailey, James Wilson

Born July 20, 1895, in New Park, Pennsylvania. .Son of Joseph A. and Vilura Wilson Gailey,. Educated Fawn Township High School, Perkiomen Seminary, Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, and Princeton University, Class of 1917. Joined American Field Service, May 26, 1917; attached Section Sixty-six. Killed by shell , July 29, 1917, Chemin des Dames. Croix de Guerre. Buried Beaurieux, Aisne

JUST a whole-hearted, care-free boy-that was the "Jim" Gailey, a direct descendant of Myles Standish and of twelve Revolutionary figures, who sailed for France with the American Field Service in May, 1917. Barely two months of active war service and he had grown to man's estate with "the spirit of a boy and the soul of a man." Gailey gave his life for France and America those brief two months later.

In June he wrote to his family, "I am now really and truly in the war. All the realities of a terrible warfare have been opened before my eyes. For three years I have read about it in a careless, rather unsympathetic manner, but my heart never beat faster for it then. Now I am interested, heart and soul." Before young Gailey had been in France two months he was cited for bravery. A few days later he was awarded the Croix de Guerre with the gold star, in recognition of his supreme sacrifice.

The story of "Jim" Gailey's war service is necessarily brief. Enlisting in Section Sixty-six in May, 1917, he was sent at once to the Chemin des Dames region, then a theater of some of the most intense fighting on the western front. For three weeks previous to his death, Gailey and his companions had been working day and night, carrying wounded over shell-pocked roads lighted only by occasional flashes from rockets far above the streams of moving artillery, troops, and other traffic of war.

On the night of July 25th, Gailey, hearing of another ambulance stalled by shell holes and ruins, ran to a neighboring poste through the extremely heavy barrage and transferred the wounded from the damaged car to the hospital. For this he received his Croix de Guerre.

On the following Sunday morning, the twenty-ninth, just after dawn, Gailey and his companion, Hamilton, were loading their ambulance with wounded when a shell struck the car, killing both the American boys and two of the wounded Frenchmen.

They were buried the next day with all the honors of war. General Niessel, commander of the corps, found time despite the battle to deliver the address of tribute and farewell. Of the ceremony, Colonel Andrew wrote, "Certainly no one who was there could think of a more fitting or moving termination of any human life than such a ceremony on the soil of France in the midst of so many French soldiers and American boys who are daily risking all that they have and can hope for in the great cause."

Among the many tributes to Gailey, the following seemed most characteristic of the boy. His closest friend wrote: "It was a privilege for me to have known Jim and to have driven with him. No braver nor more generous chap ever lived. I am sure Mr. Rice has written you of Jim's willingness to go anywhere at all times and of course his citation and Croix de Guerre testify that. But even this does not wholly tell of the esteem in which he was held by the whole section because of his bravery and cheerfulness."

Another companion added, "Several times I had an opportunity to see him display his energy and indifference to personal danger. His only concern was the work to be done, and his spirit was a real help to the men in touch with him."

The Dean of Princeton University wrote Gailey's mother, "May God in his wisdom enable you, with the passage of time, to find sweet comfort in the knowledge that your boy was one of Princeton's honored sons, a splendid friend, a fine scholar, a lovable gentleman, an honest, simple man. His name shall always be honored as one who gave his all for humanity and civilization --- a splendid, a beloved Princetonian."

• Tribute from Memorial Volume of the American Field Service, 1921