James Calvin Ward: A 17-year-old Goes to War

The year is 1965, and America has been involved in the war between South Vietnam and North Vietnam for 10 years. President Johnson just authorized an increase in U.S. military presence and by fall of 1965 over 150,000 soldiers had descended to Vietnam to fight in the war. During that year, 1,928 soldiers died in the Vietnam War. Seventeen year-old James Calvin Ward was one of them.

James Calvin Ward was born Jan. 26, 1948 to father, J.C. Ward and mother, Juliet Jelks. The Ward family was a huge military family, and Ward’s grandfather was a sharecropper. James Calvin Ward followed a family tradition by joining the Army. His grandfather served in World War II, his uncles were in the military, and his father worked for the Army for over 30 years.

Thus, perhaps it was almost inevitable that he, too, would turn to military service. What makes him especially unique, though, was that he was so young when he did so—and when he died. James Ward was one of at least 18 juvenile soldiers killed at Vietnam—five were 16, like him, 11 others were 17, and one was 15 and had forged his birth certificate to join. And his death led the military to change its rules about juveniles in combat.

James Calvin was raised in Hot Springs, Arkansas and Milwaukee. But his family retained deep roots in the South. His cousin, Gloria Thompson, remembers being over at the Wards’ house a lot. “As kids we all used to play together,” Thompson recalled.

James Ward spent at least the last two years before he entered the war in Milwaukee, Wisconsin but still spent the summers in Hot Springs, Arkansas. This is where he met Naomi Jones, the mother of his child. She describes Ward as, “a really nice handsome young man.” Jones gave birth to their son, Kevin Ward, after James Ward had entered Vietnam.

James Ward was killed during an ambush after being in Vietnam for only three or four weeks. He and his son Kevin were never able to meet one another. “I was a young teenager with a child, but I had my family there. It (his death) really affected a lot of people,” Jones said.

At the time, the military was taking anyone, she felt. “They were taking every young man from high school,” Jones said. Ward’s parents had to sign to the consent of their son joining the military since he was a minor. And they did.

The deaths of James Ward and another juvenile soldier, Terry T. White, caused controversy and led the military to prevent minors from being in combat in Vietnam. By Feb. 1, 1965 the 1,200 to 1,400 youths in Vietnam were transferred to other stations, said historic newspaper articles. Now those enlisting to the Army must be of the age 18 or at the age of 17 they must have written consent from parents but can’t be in combat until the age of 18.

Finding an image of James Ward, who enlisted from Milwaukee, was not an easy task. The search for his photo was taken on by a class of UW-Milwaukee journalism students and their instructor at the request of a father whose son had died in Afghanistan. The quest was part of a national effort to put a photo with every name on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. Someday, they will run in a major education center across the street. In February, of more than 1,100 Wisconsin service members who died in Vietnam, 64 were missing photos.

By early May, the number was whittled to fewer than 10, but James Calvin Ward remained on it.

Kevin Ward was never able to meet his father, James Ward. The only memory that he has to put an image to his father was an 8 by 10 inch picture of James Ward that sat in his grandfather’s living room. Kevin expressed how meaningful it would be to him to have a physical photo of his father.

The search for a photo of James Calvin Ward led the class and their instructor to numerous family members; his uncle in Nevada, the father’s widow, his Aunts, his cousin, the mother of his child, but still no photo. Finally there was a breakthrough. Julia Moore, the sister of J.C. Ward, who lives in Michigan, was able to retrieve his Army photo at last. James Ward looks handsome just how the mother of his son, Jones described him. He seems happy. His eyes are gentle and soft.

James Calvin Ward died on Oct. 11, 1965 at the end of a small firearm in Dinh Province, South Vietnam. He left behind family members who remember him as a likable, kind, handsome person. He also left a son who only had the memory of his photo. And he has a grandson, now. And now he will also have a photo at last.