James Anthony Woods

James Woods, known as Tony, was born in Bristol, Virginia as the second child to Sarah and J.C. Woods with an older brother called Jerry. His family moved to Richmond, Virginia before he started school. In the late 60's he was drafted into the Army. His older brother preceded him into the Army and was serving in Vietnam so Tony was assigned to the DMZ of Korea as infantryman. After Jerry was separated from service Tony served in Vietnam. There he was awarded the Silver Star for heroism in battle.

After he returned to the States he stayed in service and served as a recruiter. He married his first wife, Kathy. They had two beautiful children, Melissa and Mark Woods. Things happen and the two separated and later divorced.

Tony had military assignments in Panama at the Jungle Warfare School as an instructor and her later returned to recruiting. Where he was sent to the west coast and met his second wife, Susan (Johnson). Also and Army recruiter. They married in the early 80's and had two great children, James II (Jamie MacLoud) and Morgan. They both continued to serve in the Army with Tony having assignments at the Sergeant's Major Academy as Chief of Protocol after graduation from class 29. He went on to become the Operations SGM for the Recruiting Command until he developed MS and was medically retired with 24 years of service.

Tony sold real estate in Illinois until Susan was transferred to Washington State. He continued to hunt (with his faithful bird dog, Wilhelm) and fish as he volunteered with Army Family Programs until Susan retired. He then built the Family a lovely home and began volunteering as a veterans' advocate. He served with many different veterans' organizations to include Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Retired E9 Association, Veteran's Legislative coalition and the Ft Lewis retiree council.

Tony continued all this as the MS continued to take parts of him away. Susan served as his caregiver as his health declined. On Apr 29 Susan wrote on Facebook:

Today I lost my best friend. Tony passed away this afternoon. He spent several days at Madigan Army Medical Center and was just in too much pain and discomfort. We were blessed that James had the opportunity to be there with him as well as Morgan and I. He fought the fight with MS and the subsequent pneumonia and I have to say that he won because he went when we chose surrounded by those who loved him and a very supportive medical team who worked very hard to make sure he felt as little discomfort as possible. Thanks to them and thank you to all of you for your kind thoughts and prayers over the years.