Brian Joseph James – Major, United States Marine Corps, Astronaut Candidate

From a contemporary news report

“A Mass of Christian Burial for Brian Joseph James, 34, a Marine Corps Major who died July 20, 1992 in the crash of the V-22 Osprey aircraft into the Potomac River, will be held at 12:45 PM Tuesday at the Memorial Chapel, Fort Myer, Virginia. Burial with full military honors will follow at Arlington National Cemetery.

“A Baltimore, Maryland, native Major James graduated from the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute in 1975. He received as Associate of Arts Degree from the Community College in Baltimore in 1977. In 1979, he received a Bachelor Degree in political science from the Univeristy of Maryland. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps in 1980 and married Deanna Lynn Batton in 1982.

“In 1988, he was reassigned to the Naval Air Station at Whiting Field in Florida as a flight instructor. He earned a Masters Degree in mathematics from the University of West Florida in 1989. He later was assigned to the Naval Air Station at Patuxent River, where he graduated from the Naval Test Pilot School, Class 99, in June 1991 as an engineering test pilot. In 1984, he served in operations in Beirut, Lebanon. He was serving with the Rotary Wing Aircraft Test Directorate when he died making a landing at the Marine Corps Air Station at Quantico, Virginia. He had also been selected by the Marine Corps as an Astronaut Candidate.

“His miltiary decorations include the Naval Avitor Insignia, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and the Air Medal.

“In addition to his wife, he is survived by four children: Christy Marie, Erin Colleen, Kyle Joseph and Kathryn Noon James, all of Lexington Park, Maryland; and two sisters.

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