Today is a special double #VeteranOfTheDay post for Navy Veteran Kathryn Cruise and Army Air Force Veteran James Cruise, who served during World War II.
Today’s #VeteranOfTheDay post features two World War II Veterans.
James Cruise was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, in 1915 to Irish immigrants. He was one of nine siblings in a devout Catholic family, where his parents encouraged a love of family and country. Cruise had two brothers who served in the Army during World War II.
He enlisted in the Army Air Forces in 1942. He received advanced medical training and served at Bowman Field, Kentucky. There, he trained with the 807th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron.
In November 1943, Cruise deployed from Catania, Sicily, on a C-53 aircraft to Bari, Italy, alongside medics, nurses and a flight crew. Their main objective was to transport wounded soldiers from behind the front lines to military hospitals. Severe weather often hindered their efforts. In one instance their plane went off course, shot down in Albania. Cruise and the crew managed to avoid the Nazis for 63 days using their Survive, Evade, Resist and Escape training. British forces eventually rescued them. Their books Albanian Escape, Out of Albania, The Secret Rescue and The Savage Will documented their story. Cruise honorably discharged from the Army in 1946.
Kathryn Orient was born in Cleveland and raised on a farm in Painesville, Ohio, with her seven siblings. Her parents brought her up to have strong family values, faith in her Catholic religion and dedication to her country. After graduating from high school, Orient attended junior business college in Ohio. When her three brothers enlisted in the Navy, Orient enlisted in the Navy’s Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) program in December 1943. She attended basic training in the Bronx in New York City and later took advanced courses in business administration at the U.S. Naval Barracks in Washington, D.C.
After completing her training, Orient served in Cleveland, Ohio, at the U.S. Naval Field Branch, Bureau of Supplies and Accounts. She worked as an office manager and aide to a Navy captain. Orient used her business training to assist him with supply administration and business affairs. She honorably discharged from the Navy in August 1946.
Shortly after her discharge, Orient visited a friend from the WAVES in Brockton, Massachusetts. It was on this visit that she met Cruise, whom she found had a similar background to herself. They married in Brockton Oct. 11, 1947.
After their marriage, James worked as a supervisor in the Postal Service. Kathryn worked with the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, which looks to assist individuals with disabilities to be able to live and work independently. She handmade hundreds of Afghan scarves for disabled Veterans at the VA hospital in Brockton. Kathryn also sent care packages to Afghanistan and Iraq during her son’s service in the Army. The two had three children, nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
James passed away in 2010. Kathryn passed away in 2013.
We honor their service.
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Writer: Sarah Concepcion
Fact checker: Richard Aguilera
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James and Kathryn Cruise are true American patriots and should always be remembered and honored for their selfless sacrifice and dedicated service during WWII. Like many of their generation, they ran toward the fight, during a time of enmity and strife to an immoral power, and answered the clarion call of Duty, Honor, Country. “Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life” We as a nation are blessed to have had such Americans as they, to ensured the freedoms we are blessed with today. God Bless James and Kathryn Cruise.
I served with their son Tom (a chip off the old-block) in an Iraqi combat zone in 2008-09. I offer my highest respect to the Cruise family. And I too, honor their service. Captain M. P. Taylor USNR Ret
I want everyone know that there male Nurses in Vietnam also and if the hospital had to be evacuated because enemy activity, we were the ones expected to stay with the patients that could not be moved. Luckily that never happened. 10 yrs active duty and 14 years with the Maryland National Guard. Proud to served. LTC retired.
“”Lest We Never Forget…”
We honor the service of James and Kathryn Cruise.