Lieutenant Commander James served as Executive Officer aboard the USS Rochester (CA-2) during World War I as the ship escorted convoys to and from Europe.

Later, during the 70th U.S. Congress, special dispensation allowed James to accept the French Legion of Honour for his World War I service.

United States Army General Billy Mitchell, an outspoken advocate for air power, led a series of tests off the Virginia coast in which the ex-German battleship SMS Ostfriesland and other ships were sunk by bomber aircraft.

[2] After a tour aboard the USS Columbia in 1922, James served as assistant naval attache to the American embassies in France, Spain, and Portugal from 1923 to 1926.

At times between 1926 and 1934 James was navigator on the USS Florida (BB-30); commanded the USS Edsall (DD-219), with which he participated in the Yangtze River patrol; served as naval aide for the Governor-General of the Philippines; attended the Naval War College; and commanded the Destroyer Division 6, Battle Force, U.S. Fleet.

[4] In 1945 James received his final assignment, commander of United States Naval Forces, Mediterranean (now redesignated the U.S. Sixth Fleet) where he served until retiring from active duty in 1946.