Final Salute

James Lavon Shreves *Known by those in California as Jim or James, in Illinois by his relatives as Von. *Born in West Frankfurt, Illinois on March 12, 1929. *Seven kids in his family, Ruby the oldest, then dad (Jim), Rose, Bob, Harold, Loma and Gary *His mom was Inez Shreves, dad, James Milford Shreves *Raised in Mt. Vernon, then in Villa Grove *Benton, Illinois is where they lived when we were kids (Mark and Barbara) *1947 Dad was a Junior in High School in Villa Grove and it was then he signed up for the Navy *He was sent to Boot Camp at NTC, San Diego. *After Boot camp, he went to Surveyor’s School in Port Hueneme *12 weeks of Primary Surveyor’s School and then was stationed in Adak, Alaska for about two years, building roads, bases, etc. *Sent to Corpus Christy, Texas in 1950 and met the love of his life, Anna Maxine *On a side note, my dad “accidentally” asked my mom out. He had mixed up the names of the lady’s he had met and meant to ask out another woman, but when he showed up for the date, my mom was ready to go! *Married Anna Maxine on July 3, 1951, they were married for 44 years until she passed away in 1995 *Stationed in the Philippines, again building roads and bases *Stationed in Coronado, California after this, where in 1955, James Mark Shreves, a son was born on November 28 *Stationed in Gauntanamo Bay, Cuba in 1957 and 1958, where Barbara Ann Shreves was born. *Stationed in Florida, Rhode Island, Louisiana, the Philippines, and then San Diego, California *Retried from the Navy while stationed at Camp Elliot in San Diego, California *While in the Navy, dad received many awards for his pistol shooting and outstanding marksmanship He received a National Defense Service Medal, Gold Fleet Pistol Badge, Expert Rifleman Medals, Good Conduct Medals, Bronze Star on National Defense Service Ribbon, *He was the 1st Navy Pistol Shooter to make “Distinguished with all gold medals. He won the All Navy Championships, was part of the top 100 shooter in the United States. He was called back 2-3 times by the Navy to represent the Navy in shooting *He was also a small arms marksmanship instructor in San Diego at Camp Elliot and while serving in the Philippines. *The medals, badges and trophies he won for shooting are many. He loved shooting and was proud of how well he did. When he started shooting, he said he wanted to be one of the best, and his fellow shooters, told him he needed to quite smoking. He went cold turkey after having been a three pack a day smoker, (talk about motivation). He never took up smoking again and the achieved the goals he strived for in his shooting career. Unfortunately, shooting in those days, did not have protection for the ears (except for cotton balls), later on ear protection came about, but by then the nerve damage was done in relation to his hearing loss. *Once Jim retired, he worked as a General Manager for the Capri By the Sea in San Diego and was a manager at a department store, Grant’s. He then joined to Border Patrol and added 10 more years to his military retirement. *He served as a Deacon at First Baptist of Pacific Beach for many years *He also served with the Santee Sheriff’s department and a Volunteer Sheriff where they would patrol and check on the elderly. *The San Diego volunteer department then visited him in his last years of life *He had MULTIPLE health issues, but he kept plugging along, walking his four laps a day around this block and riding his senior scooter up to a small restaurant to buy desserts. *Dad loved his strawberry shakes and had one almost every day for the last five year of his life. *Dad was the “go to” guy, if anyone needed anything, any help of anything repaired, he was the man. When we were kids, our family station wagon was the church taxi, picking up some of the elderly women who could no longer drive, to church. He said it like it was, he spoke his mind, directly and frankly, political correctness was not really part of his vocabulary. He loved the Lord and tried to show that with his servant’s heart. * One of dad’s goals as he started aging was to live at home and we honored that until his last two weeks of life, when he had to then be in hospice, where he went home to be with the Lord on July 23, 2020 at 12 noon. *He is survived by two siblings, Loma (77), Gary (71), a son Mark, daughter in law, Tami, daughter, Barbara, six grandchildren: Natalie, Sarah, Kayla, Duncan, Max and Izzy and two great grandchildren, Luna and Liam.