James Hughes Tinsley – Colonel, United States Marine Corps

From a contemporary press report:

james Hughes Tinsley, 90, retired Marine Corps Colonel and business executive, died December 26, 2002 in Sun City, Arisona.

Born in Ashland, Kentucky, in 1912, he graduated from The Citadel in 1933. After working for the Tennessee Valley Authority as a Civil Engineer, he began active duty in the Marine Corps in 1940.

Colonel Tinsley served in the 3rd Marine Division during the World War II campaigns in the South Pacific for the capture of Bougainville and Guam. In October 1945, when commanding officer, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, he conducted a reconnaissance of the Japanese naval base at Chichi Jima, Bonin Islands in advance of its formal surrender and occupation by US forces. Colonel Tinsley assumed command of the 9th Marine Regiment in the Pacific until it was disbanded at Camp Pendleton, CA in December 1945.

During the Korean War, Colonel Tinsley was the 1st Marine Division Intelligence Officer. Other assignments included Commanding Officer, Infantry Training Regiment at Camp Pendleton; Fleet Marine Officer, 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea; and as Chief of Staff, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island. He was a graduate of the NATO Defense College in Paris.

His decorations included two Legion of Merits with Combat ‘V', Bronze Star Medal with Combat ‘V', and Navy Commendation Medal with Combat ‘V'.

Upon retirement from the Marine Corps in 1964 he joined The Warner & Swasey Company in Cleveland, Ohio, as its first Director of Public Affairs, before moving to Sun City in 1975.

His wife, Mary Blanford Tinsley, whom he married in 1936, died in 1982.

Survivors include his wife of 17 years, Kathryn M. Tinsley of Sun City, Arisona; two children, Colonel James Hager (Tim) Tinsley, US Marine Corps (Ret.) of Vienna, Virginia, and Mary T. Booth of Asheville, North Carolina; eight grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren.

A son, John Michael Tinsley, died in 1993.

Interment will be at Arlington National Cemetery on January 17, 2003 at 9 a.m.

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