The Alexander City Outlook

Horton serves his country

James Ray Horton, like almost all Americans, has great respect for the Fourth of July holiday because of what it means to veterans and those currently serving in the military.

“Anything that has to do with honoring the military is a special occasion for anyone who has spent time in the military,” said Horton, a 1967 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. “Those in today’s environment, where it’s voluntary, they need to be thanked for what they do. They have a high sense of patriotism and I personally appreciate that.”

Horton graduated from Benjamin Russell High School in 1963 before heading to West Point to study electronics and military history after receiving a nomination as an alternate.

“Coming from Alexander City, to go to the United States Military Academy was simply a shock,” Horton said. “It was hard to imagine the vigorous routine one had to endure to be successful there. It was challenging both mentally and physically.”

Horton, whose father — the Rev. Elijah Horton — was pastor at Ray Baptist Church, said he first decided to join the military as a way to go to college.

“I was a small town boy, my father died when I was young and I had few opportunities to go to college,” Horton said. “The military was one way I could go to college without having to work my way through. West Point was work, but a different kind of work.”

After graduating from West Point and going through Ranger School with the U.S. Army, Horton served as part of the First Signal Brigade, dealing with battlefield communication in Vietnam from December 1968 to December 1969.

“I learned a lot from my experience,” Horton said. “I learned how to deal with people. Not only are you in command of them, but you have to help them make the best of themselves.”

After his one year in Vietnam, Horton was sent to Panama and worked in the Special Mission Test branch of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers testing electronic battlefield surveillance systems. Horton ended his active duty at the rank of captain, but would go into the Reserves and climb to the rank of colonel while assigned to the Pentagon and working for the telecommunications industry.

“I commuted back and forth to Washington when I had work there as a part-time reservist,” Horton said. “I worked for GTE (now Verizon) in the private sector for 25 years.”

Horton, an Alexander City and Coosa County native, now lives in Maryville, Tenn., but can still remember living in town when he comes back to visit family.

“I like and appreciate having the small town atmosphere with access to Montgomery and Birmingham,” Horton said. “I liked being close to the lake and learning how to water ski and all the other things that go along with summer fun on the lake.”