James served in the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1940-46 in the European Theater of Operations. Although he returned home following his service with the Canadian armed forces, he ultimately returned to Palestine to serve the cause in early 1948. During his nine months of service, James was the flight operations officer at the Tel Aviv air force base Sde Dov. In this capacity James gave final approval for all missions departing from that base. These missions included bombing and supply missions, the dropping of intelligence officers behind enemy lines, and the evacuation of the wounded.
