More detail on this person: Dave O'Quinn wrote
to Russ Layton: James Osborn, wife Diane, was
stationed in Aschaffenburg, Germany, after Vietnam
and went to England and imported a dozen and a
half lotus cars for everybody else and made enough
profit to own two or three. My wife Theresa and
I, while stationed at Nellingen, near Stuttgart,
went to see them in early 1970. Theresa was
pregnant for our son Chris who was born in June
70. I'm sorry to inform you but the Info I have
is that Jim was killed sometime thereafter. It's
been a long time but, Theresa and I just discussed
it and we both seem to recall it was a helicopter
crash. (Wire Strike?) I
can't recall how I got this information, Diane may
very well have written to us. I don't have his
name or SSN on any of my orders. If you do, you
might run the numbers against the SSN Death
records. He was a neat guy, loved making those
slot cars.
Russ Layton wrote: I feel kind-of responsible for
Jim's importing profits since he and I
collaborated on importing stereo and camera
equipment in VN. I can't remember how we got the
literature but maybe we sent away for it or we got
it from the PX. He and I use to take orders from
all of the guys that wanted to buy cheap equipment
and I think he went to Japan twice and I sent him
to China once to get a bunch of camera equipment.
We use to love it because when he got back we
would set up all of the equipment in his hooch and
try it out before we turned it over to the guys
that bought it. I remember one night we had like
$30,000.00 worth of stereo equipment (at 1969
Japan prices) set up all over the hooch and we
were comparing what stuff sounded the best. A lot
of the guys would come in to hear the music and
BS. We thought we were so cool with the incredible
quality of music we could produce and we were all
kidding around with one of the officers because he
only had this stupid little boom box stereo and he
was perfectly satisfied with its quality.
He was probably the only officer that wasn't
receiving any of our imported equipment. I
remember when it finally hit me, later that night,
and I told Jim that it was a lot of fun teasing
that officer for what we considered junky quality
music but we had just spent every last penny we
earned on music while he was sending his money
home and maybe we weren't as smart as we
thought we were. I second-guess that now because
I still have all of the stereo and camera
equipment and still use most of it but then maybe
he's a millionaire now. I even borrowed money from
one of my fellow Tomahawks when we landed in
Yokota, Japan on our way home, just so I could buy
a reverberater. I had to get money wired to me to
pay him back when we got to San Francisco and I
missed him, so I had to mail it to his home in N
or S Carolina. I ended up with Patrick Finch's
Polaroid flash attachment and Macauslin's AR
speakers because Finch was killed in the June 4,
69 crash and Mac was shot in the chest and
shipped back to the states for better medical
treatment and to recuperate. Both of them were
gone before the stuff came in and I remember
packing Finch's stuff up for the family and
wondering whether I should send it to the family
when it came in. Finch replaced Mac as my
roommate when Mac was shot. I was developing a
reputation for loosing roommates but I assure you
that I had nothing to do with it.
Crash Kills Austin Man In Germany
Army Capt. James Carroll Osborn, 28, of Austin,
was killed Saturday in Schweinfurt, Germany in a
helicopter accident. Funeral is pending at
Wilke-Clay Funeral Home here.
Osborne, whose Austin address is 3505 South
Lamar, was serving as a helicopter pilot with the
Seventh Cavalry Division in Germany at the time of
the crash.
Osborn was a member of Windsor Baptist Church
and a graduate of Johnston High School. He
attended the University of Texas before joining
the Army. Osborn was a member of the American
Aviators Association and a graduate of warrant
officer schools at Ft. Wolters and Ft. Rucker,
Ala.
Survivors include his wife, Mrs. Diane Osborn of
Austin; a son Bradley C. Osborn of Austin;
parents, Mr. and Mrs. R. L. "Bob" Osborn of
Austin; a sister, Susan Gail Osborn of Austin; Two
brothers, Robert C. Osborn and Gary K. Osborn of
Austin; grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. C. L. Schmidtke
of Bandera; several aunts and uncles.
This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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Date posted on this site: 04/13/2025
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