James Grindley

Retired US Army Captain James Patrick Grindley II was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1994, the son of Carl and Donna Pauline Frechette Grindley, and fraternal twin to Justine-Juliette Grindley. After his parents divorced, James and his siblings were raised by their mother in Victoria, British Columbia, where he spent the majority of his childhood. In the summer of 2008, James moved to East Haven, Connecticut to live with his father and attended high school in New Haven, Connecticut at Hill Regional Career Magnet School, from which he graduated in 2012.

Following the end of his first semester at the University of Connecticut, Storrs Campus, James enlisted into the Connecticut Army National Guard on December 21st, 2012, where he began as a Private in the Engineers, joining the 250th Multi-Role Bridge Company stationed out of New London, Connecticut. In June 2013, James was awarded a contract with the university’s Army Reserve Officer Training Corps program and for its duration remained in the Engineers as a Cadet.

In May 2016, after conferring a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Physiology and Neurobiology, James commissioned as a Medical Services Officer in the Army Medical Department (AMEDD), subsequently transferring to the 142nd Area Support Medical Company stationed out of Danbury, Connecticut where he served as a platoon leader with the rank of Second Lieutenant.

Over the next three-years, James remained enrolled at UCONN, where he fulfilled the requirements of a Bachelor’s of Art degree in English. While doing so, he was employed part-time at the William Benton Museum of Art, promoted to First Lieutenant, transferred to the 118th Multi-Functional Medical Battalion, and was awarded a grant to write his first book The Cut of a Steer.

Due to a period of homelessness beginning in November 2019, James dropped out of school, preventing him from completing the final required courses for a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Linguistics. He roamed for several months, living out of his car until the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic, which resulted in his activation to assist in the State’s emergency response. James remained on emergency orders for seven months, earning accolades for his service as a medical logistics officer for the CT Joint Force Headquarters.

James was promoted to Captain in November 2020. The following month, he was selected to deploy to the Horn of Africa with the 102nd Mountain Infantry Regiment as their medical operations officer in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The unit mobilized as part of Task Force Iron Gray, forming the headquarters element among other crucial mission sets. In doing so, they were accompanied by other companies of the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team as well as additional attachments with whom they shared the honor to serve in theater between March 2021 and February 2022. For James, the service members he met and the work they performed together defined this period as the greatest he would ever live in his life.

Upon demobilization, James was hired into the CT Active Guard Reserve force, beginning his first assignment with the 14th Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team, where he served as a medical operations officer and analytical laboratory operator. His experiences there formed the frame narrative for his memoir WMD, which he wrote in reflection of the successes and failures in his life so far, focusing on his deployment overseas, his support for the pandemic, his period of homelessness, and the circumstances for why he left Canada.

While training for a conditional appointment with another agency, James suffered a severe injury to his spine, which required emergency corrective surgery and resulted in permanent disability and subsequent medical discharge from the Army. Over the course of a painful recovery period lasting over a year, James would find respite by escaping into his literary projects, completing the first entry of an urban fantasy series, and contributing vastly towards other works.