James Alvin Brayton

Early on January 4th, 2017, the chariot swung low for Jim and carried him away home.

Jim was born in Great Falls on June 4, 1925, to John M. and Ilo Brayton of Malta, Mont. The youngest of three boys, he grew up in Malta, and enlisted in the Navy at age 17, concerned like many others of his age that the war would be over before he could get into it. Jim served as a signalman on the USS Fletcher from mid-1943 until the end of the war in the Pacific, then came home, married Elaine St. John of Malta, and started a family. However, when the Korean War began, he immediately re-enlisted to do hi...