Radio Flyer

Written by: Kelly Durham

James Addington Angel of Asheville, North Carolina attended Clemson during the 1941-42 academic year.  He was a general science major and a member of the Class of 1945.

Angel did not return to Clemson after his freshman year, enrolling instead in Cecil’s Business College in his hometown.  Cecil’s promoted the idea that after the war, well-prepared business professionals would enjoy better job opportunities than “untrained help.”  Regardless of civilian job prospects, in November 1942, Angel traded in his business books and enlisted in the Army Air Force.

Angel was sent to Fort Bragg for basic training.  An additional training assignment followed at Keesler Field in Biloxi, Mississippi before he was ordered to a four-month radio school in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in late December.

Angel apparently demonstrated considerable aptitude in the electronics field, an area of growing importance as technology came to play an increasingly critical role in the skies above the world’s battlefields.  He was directed to report to Truax Field at Madison, Wisconsin to attend the Army Air Force’s Eastern Technical Training Center.  This school offered advanced training for radio operators and engineers, radar operators, air traffic controllers, and other Army Air Force communications specialists.  The training at Truax included work on the sophisticated communications and radar gear to be utilized on the B-29 Superfortress bomber then in development.

On May 3, 1943, Angel, age 19, was suddenly stricken and was rushed to a local hospital.  He died a few hours later from what doctors diagnosed as a brain tumor.  Such tumors are uncommon in young adults and sudden death is even more unusual.  The absence of any symptoms before Angel’s incapacitation may have resulted from the location of the tumor within the brain.

Angel’s body was returned to Asheville and buried in Lewis Memorial Park.  He was survived by his parents and two sisters.

For more information on Private First Class James Addington Angel see:

https://soh.alumni.clemson.edu/scroll/james-addington-angel/

For additional information about Clemson University’s Scroll of Honor visit:

https://soh.alumni.clemson.edu/