   A role model for every human being, especially myself.  Mr. Dorris was a great friend, wonderful conversationalist, and perhaps the kindest man I have ever known. I will never forget him and know the world has been made a better place because of his time here.

On April 19th, 1945, Jim Dorris helped take Furth and the airport at Nuremberg.  On April 29, 1945, Dorris assisted in liberating Dachau. What he found there had a profound effect on his life.  The camp contained thirty-two thousand half-dead emaciated humans, skin on bones and most sick with typhus. Jim experienced something more overwhelming. The inmates were starving for love. He never forgot and spent his life channeling love and goodness into the world and passed on that ability to his children and their children, changing the world. 

On March 15th, 1945, the ides of March, Jim was hit in the helmet by sniper fire, the same sniper killed three in his skirmish line. Jim kept fighting and was wounded by shrapnel from a 75 mm cannon round from a German tank. Awarded the Purple Heart.

On January 24, 1945. Jim along with the entire 222nd Regiment held off the German offensive known as Operation Northwind. The 222nd stood their ground for a solid hour enduring German artillery, and then all night they stymied attack after attack by elements of a German Panzer division, infantry, and paratroopers. in 2001 the 222nd was awarded a Presidential Citation for valor, a harrowing 24 hours in northeastern France.

You have my deepest sympathy on your loss. He was one of my dearest friends and will be sorely missed.  Highest regards and prayers.

Mr. Dorris was the consummate gentleman with such a beaming smile. May you be comforted knowing that he is resting in our Father’s loving embrace with his beloved Charlotte at his side. 

May the peace and joy of Easter be a comfort to all of  your family at this difficult time.

Your father was a genuine American hero.  He was a role model, not only for his children and grandchildren, but for his community, and for his nation.  I found your dad to be an inspiration.  He was humble, compassionate, courageous, encouraging, a visionary always looking forward.  He fought for our country's freedom in World War II, and did so armed both with his rifle and, more importantly, with his Christian faith.  He had no patience for cruelty, and always had the courage to stand up for what was right wherever he was.  His bravery in the Battle of the Bulge, and in liberating Dachau concentration camp, will never be forgotten.  I am so glad that I got to know your dad, and that we became good friends.  My daughter Ashley and I had such a wonderful visit with him last year.  When we first began corresponding together back in the 1990s, I thanked him for his WW 2 service and invited him, if he wanted to, to share some of his WW 2 memories with me, and I promised I'd pass them on to my students and to others any way I could.   For years, I shared his stories in the classes I taught at school.  Your dad was so supportive of me while I was writing, Always Remember - W.W. II Through Veterans' Eyes, and his stories are an important part of that book.   I’m glad I got it done in time for him to read it.  Next week I will be presenting Liberators of the Holocaust to our 8th graders and at the Command Post Restaurant and Camp Grant Museum in Rockford, Illinois.  Your dad's heroism deserves to always be remembered, but even more so his humanity and love for others.  As difficult as it is to say goodbye, it seems fitting that he left us just before Easter and just before Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, May 2nd.  I know he missed your mom, Charlotte, so very much.  Your dad will still be watching over the children and grandchildren he loved so much from heaven.  He will celebrate your successes each and every day.  He was a most remarkable man.

OBITUARY

James Frank Dorris Jr.

November 8, 1924 – April 18, 2019

Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory & Florist - East Chapel

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