James Edward Service (January 20, 1931 – February 10, 2017) was a vice admiral of the United States Navy active during much of the Cold War.

[1] In July 1952, Service reported for duty with Fighter Squadron 53 (VF-53) at Naval Air Station Miramar, California.

The squadron deployed to Korea from January to June 1953, where Service flew F9F-5 Panther fighters on 54 combat missions during the Korean War.

[1] From November 1954 to July 1955, Service was a flight instructor at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas.

[1] Service attended the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from July 1972 to July 1973 before returning to sea as commanding officer of the fast combat support ship USS Sacramento (AOE-1) from September 1973 to April 1975 and as commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Independence (CV-62) from June 1975 to April 1977.

During this tour, he planned and executed a missile exercise in the Gulf of Sidra off Libya which resulted in two F-14A Tomcat fighters from Fighter Squadron 41 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) shooting down two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22 (NATO reporting name "Fitter") attack aircraft during the Gulf of Sidra incident of 19 August 1981.

[1] In retirement, Service was a director of the Wood River Medical Center in Ketchum, Idaho, from 1991 to 1995 and served as a financial adviser for the PGR Advisors consulting group in San Jose, California.