Asbury Veteran: James ("Jim") H. Hartshorne
Navy veteran...
Born and raised in South Jersey, Jim graduated from Moorestown High School. After one semester of 
college and ROTC at Drexel Institute of Technology, he decided that real service duty would be a better choice. He enlisted in the US Navy in 1952 following his lifelong interest in ships, boats and travel. During the ensuing four years, Jim found himself attending five different schools for various studies including electronics, navigation, flight instruction and safety. Note that none of these had anything to do with ships, boats, etc. One school, however, did strike a resounding note—it was teacher training---training to teach pilots to fly by instruments. This school marked the beginning of Jim’s teaching career, which would last forty-three years in civilian life.
As for travel, Jim managed to see Texas, Tennessee, Florida and Maryland as duty stations. His only contact with ships was a week at Philadelphia Navy Yard for Firefighting School.
Jim’s Texas assignment turned out to be one of God’s little jests. Jim expected orders to Attu, an island off the coast of Alaska, and informed his parents of this. When the orders came, however, they were for ATTU (Acceptance Training and Transfer Unit), in Corpus Christi, Texas. As it turned out, mainly because of the folks in his church, Corpus Christi was a wonderful duty station and Jim planned to return there after discharge.
However, after another transfer, this time to Annapolis, Maryland, and a trip home, he met a little blond girl who convinced him that returning home to Moorestown and attending college in New Jersey would make a much more satisfying life. He was discharged from the Navy in 1956 from Annapolis, Maryland, and enrolled in Montclair State Teachers College in New Jersey.
Jim still feels that joining the Navy was one of the best decisions of his life, helping him to know what he wanted in life and how to find it. His decision made everything start to fall into place.
