James E. Opie Jr.
Rank: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps
Unit: Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division
Entered service from: New Jersey
Born:
Died:
Biography
Private First Class James E. Opie Jr. of Audubon, New Jersey.
Private First Class James E. Opie Jr. was born on August 9, 1927. He lived at 209 Princeton Road in Audubon, New Jersey. He served with the U.S. Marine Corps in the 2nd Marine Division, attached to the U.S.S. Hermitage at Norfolk, Virginia.
In the early morning hours of February 1, 1951, Corporal James E. Opie Jr. was among six Marines traveling north on the Crown Point Road causeway near Paulsboro, New Jersey, returning from a weekend pass from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Their automobile, driven by Sergeant Thomas A. Glogofsky, 23, of Lansing, Michigan, collided head-on with a trailer truck at approximately 4:40 a.m. Trooper Joseph Pierce of the Mantua state police station reported that the driver apparently dozed at the wheel and the car swerved into the path of the truck. Pfc. Opie and Sergeant Glogofsky were killed instantly from fractured skulls. Two other Marines—Pfc. Ronald Fernandez of Fall River, Massachusetts, and Pfc. James Delaney of Keyport, New Jersey—were critically injured; two others suffered lesser injuries.
PFC Opie is remembered by his sisters Carol Opie Fultz, Doris Opie Molineaux, Barbara Opie Colangelo, and Nanci Opie Paravati. This page was created with the assistance of Carol Opie Fultz.
List 10 Killed In New Jersey Accidents
Trenton Evening Times —
Ten persons died in accidents in New Jersey over the weekend—costliest of 1931.
Six perished in traffic mishaps, the rest in a tragic sled accident at Berkeley Heights in Penna Mines.
A Public Service bus ran into 62-year-old Mrs. Antoinette Sanguinetti of Princeton, crushing her as she crossed a street.
A retired Bordentown man, Samuel D. Bolton, died in the wreckage of his auto which plunged onto Downtown-Cresswick road in Hamilton Town.
Four young men, on a sledding trip, were killed in Newton yesterday when ice gave way suddenly. Also dead: Russell Short, 17; Robert Cheeks, 16; Ralph Wittle, 17; Robert Grover, 17; all of Penna Grove.
The Marines, on a weekend pass from Camp Lejeune, were involved in a head-on crash of their car on Route 25 north of Paulsboro that injured four others. Private first class James E. Opie, 23, a Marine attached to the U.S.S. Hermitage at Norfolk, Va., and Thomas Glogofsky, 22, of Ewing, Mich., were killed in the crash.
Two Marines Killed, Four Others Hurt, In Crash Early Today
Camden Courier-Post —
Two Marines were killed instantly and four others injured, two of them critically, early today when their automobile collided head on with a trailer truck on the Crown Point Road causeway leading into Paulsboro.
The dead were: Sgt. Thomas A. Glogofsky, 23, of 1834 West Mt. Hope, Lansing, Mich., who was driving the car, and Pfc. James R. Opie, 23, of 209 Princeton Road, Audubon.
Those in a critical condition are: Pfc. Ronald Fernandez, 18, of 126 Carl St., Fall River, Mass., possible fractured skull, fractured left leg and possible internal injuries. Pfc. James Delaney, 21, of 59 2nd St., Keyport, N.J., owner of the car, possible fractured skull and lacerations of the head and face.
The other injured are: Pfc. William Carey, 21, address unknown, fractures of both the upper and lower jaws, and Pfc. Jack Mendola, 21, of 475 Hicks St., Brooklyn, N.Y., sprained left ankle and cuts of face.
Those injured were taken to the Underwood Hospital, Woodbury, in the Paulsboro ambulance, and later were transferred to the Philadelphia Naval Hospital.
According to Trooper Joseph Pierce of the Mantua state police station, the Marines, stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., were traveling north on the Crown Point Road at 4:40 A.M. The driver, Glogofsky, apparently fell asleep or lost control and crashed head on into the trailer truck being driven by Arthur Holmes, 42, of 35 Atlantic Ave. Holmes suffered a scalp laceration. Witnesses to the accident, in a car following that occupied by the Marines, reported that the car swerved suddenly to the left at the curve in Route 91 just north of Paulsboro. The six men in the second car also are Marines from Camp Lejeune.
Mendola, who sat in the center on the rear seat and was the least injured, Pierce reported that the Marines in the car had been dozing as they were traveling and that was probably what caused the driver to lose control of the car. The left side of the car was completely destroyed. Dr. David R. Brewer Jr., of Woodbury, a county coroner, said they died instantly from fractured skulls. Their bodies were taken to the funeral establishment of Irving C. Pettit, in Paulsboro.
Police and ambulance crews from Paulsboro and Gibbstown required considerable time to extricate the victims from the passenger car, which was almost demolished against the left front of the truck. Traffic was tied up for nearly two hours.
Two in Critical Condition
Marines Ronald Fernandez, 18, of Fall River, Mass., and James Delaney, 22, of Keyport, N.J., were reported in critical condition at Underwood hospital, Woodbury. Both suffered possible fractures of the head and internal injuries and were unconscious when admitted.
William Carey, 21, suffered a fractured jaw and John Mendola, 21, escaped injury. Both are from Brooklyn.
Glogofsky, Fernandez and Delaney were in the front seat and the others were in the rear. Dr. David R. Brewer Jr., Gloucester county coroner, said Opie and Glogofsky were killed instantly.
Pierce reported the Marines were sleeping in the car and expressed the opinion the driver dozed at the wheel. Holmes was released on $1000 bail on a technical charge of death by auto.