James âJimmyâ Roosevelt (December 23, 1907 â August 13, 1991) was an American businessman, Marine, activist, and Democratic Party politician. The eldest son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, he served as an official Secretary to the President for his father and was later elected to the United States House of Representatives representing California. He received the Navy Cross while serving as a Marine Corps officer during World War II.
World War II broke out in Europe in September 1939; the following month Roosevelt resigned the Marine commission as a lieutenant colonel that he had received in 1936 when serving as his father’s military aide and accepted a commission as a captain in the Marine Corps Reserve so that he could enter active duty, which he did in November 1940.
After Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt was seated next to his father when the President delivered his Infamy Speech. He requested assignment to combat duty and was transferred to the Marine Raiders in January 1942, a new Marine Corps commando force, and became second-in-command of the 2nd Raider Battalion under Evans Carlson (Carlson’s Raiders) whom Roosevelt knew when Carlson commanded the Marine detachment at the Warm Springs, Georgia, residence of his father. Roosevelt’s influence helped win presidential backing for the Raidersâinfluenced by the British Commandosâwhich were opposed by Marine Corps traditionalists.
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