James Burton Saucier: Twice a Marine

    There’s a saying, “Once a Marine, always a Marine.”

    That would go double for James Burton Saucier, who entered the Corps as an 18-year-old boy just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, served during the war, was honorably discharged, and then was recalled to duty to take part in the nation’s war effort in Korea.

 

    “I have no glory stories,” Saucier said. “I never fired my rifle in anger or in fear against the Japanese -- but I prepared our planes to do the fighting.”

    Saucier, 92, jokes that he ended up being a mechanic in the Marines because “I wasn’t good at anything else.”

    He impressed a lieutenant colonel with a quick and innovative repair of the officer’s jeep while his lieutenant was asking him, “Just what are you good at?”

    The lieutenant colonel ordered that Saucier be immediately promoted to corporal for “knowing what he was doing and not wasting any time in doing it,” Saucier said with a smile.

    A few months later, the officer sensed that Saucier was not happy in the motor pool.

    “He asked me what I wanted to do,” Saucier said. “I told him I wanted to work on the airplanes. He transferred me to work on the airplanes.”

    It was in that job that he was most happy and in which he served his nation best.

    Like most wartime veterans, Saucier’s role was to support the front line troops. He saw the aftermath of combat, but escaped being surrounded by it.

    His duties included working on airplanes launched from aircraft carriers and from island bases that the Marines had taken from the enemy.

    “I never lost a plane in training,” he said. “I was a good mechanic. I kept my planes flying.”

    He continued that effort in the pressure-filled atmosphere of war, where he was responsible for patching up the carrier-based aircraft and the land-based F4U Corsairs. 

    He said America was losing the air war to the Japanese in the early months of the conflict, but the tide turned once the Corsairs joined the fight.

    “We controlled the air after the F4Us arrived,” he said.

    Life was rough for the Marines even when there were no bullets and bayonets to contend with.

 

    “We were stationed on an island during the Marines' island-hopping campaign,” Saucier recalled. “We were there for several months. We lived off cold rations that whole time.

    “I thank God for the Seabees,” he added, referring to the members of the Navy’s Construction Battalion forces.

   “The Seabees were deployed to fix our airstrip,” he continued. “The first thing they did was build us a place where we could eat and served us the first hot meal we had had in months.”

   Also like many veterans, he followed his father’s footsteps into military service.

   His uncle, Henry Irby Moreau of Bordelonville, was a WWI veteran, serving as an interpreter for the Army in France. He is proud of a photo taken of the man who raised him from a child, with four other Avoyelles Parish “doughboys.”

    Since the French dialect spoken in Avoyelles is closer to Parisian French, the Avoyelles soldiers were highly valued as interpreters.

    “Papa liked to drink a little,” Saucier said with a twinkle in his eye. “He told a story of going into a bar with some Canadian soldiers. They had a discussion over how to say ‘glass of wine’ in French. 

    “Papa ordered his wine and proceeded to get drunk,” he continued. “I believe they took that picture after they left the bar.”

    He said his adoptive father never talked about the war with him.

    It is said that more Union soldiers were killed by Southern mosquitoes than by Southern muskets. Saucier also fell victim to that tiny foe.

    “I was sent home with malaria and dysentery,” Saucier said. “To this day, I cannot donate blood because I had malaria.”

    It, however, did not keep him from being recalled to active duty when the Korean War ignited.

   He served on the USS Coral Sea aircraft carrier. The Harrier aircraft were much better at taking off and landing on the carriers than the WWII planes, but take off and landing were still just as dangerous as combat for the pilots -- especially at night, he said.

   His travels with the Marines allowed him to meet the Pope in Rome, who blessed him and his small group of Marine comrades. It

also allowed him to see many foreign countries.

   The best thing the Marines did for him was to make it possible for him to meet his wife, Elaine, a New York native who was also serving in the Marine Corps during WWII.

   “We met at Cherry Point, N.C.,” he said, “and were married for 68 years.” 

She was Elaine Faulkner then, a private in the Marine Women’s Reserve. She was a mail clerk most of the time, but her favorite duty was as a jeep driver.

   “There was a place we could all go swimming at Cherry Point,” he recalled. “I was on the other side of the area when I heard a woman yelling, ‘It’s got me.’ I ran over to her to see if I could help.

   “A jellyfish had attached itself to her leg,” he continued. “I took out a brand new pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes and put them around the jellyfish until it let go.”

   The future Mrs. Saucier was taken to the hospital for treatment of her wound “but we kept in touch. That’s how I met her -- because of a jellyfish.”

   She died in July 2013.

   The Sauciers adopted two children. Their son, Jude, died several years ago. Their daughter, Michelle Dalgo, lives in Bordelonville. His two granddaughters, Alayna Bordelon and Aislynn Bordelon, both live in Bordelonville.

   Also like many veterans, he would rather talk about his life and achievements after the war than during it.

   Time and time again during this interview, Saucier would come back to his years as a teacher.

   He was in his classroom when his wife came to give him his orders to report to New Orleans for reinduction into the Marines.

   After leaving the Marines again, he returned to teaching and coaching, this time  at Moreauville High School -- the current home of Avoyelles High.

   “Our basketball team did well,” he said. “Our baseball team did very well and our track team won the first state championship for any Avoyelles Parish high school.”

    He also served as a teacher, coach and counselor at Simmesport High before retiring in 1974.

 

    Still too young to retire to the farm that he loved, Saucier found another life after teaching in public schools.

   His experience as a teacher led to him teaching new employees at Angola State Penitentiary for several years, but he got tired of the commute and having to cross the Mississippi by ferry.

   His experience in corrections led him to being tapped by Sheriff Bill Belt to be the assistant warden for Avoyelles Parish detention centers.

   His experience in law enforcement led to him becoming night security supervisor at Paragon Casino Resort, where he worked until he retired rather than be moved to the day shift.

   “I liked working the night shift,” he said, adding that he was concerned that he might end up having to wear a suit and tie if he moved to the day shift.

   He said he enjoyed working around his farm, still doing much of his own mechanic work until age caught up to him.

   Now almost deaf and virtually blind, Saucier still greets visitors to his room at Valley View Health Care Facility with a firm handshake and a strong hello, and the look of a man happy with a life well-lived that was committed to serving his nation and his community in various ways.