James Vincent Martone

James Vincent Martone, a veteran and longtime resident of Arlington, passed away on December 1st, 2025 surrounded by family. Jim, as he preferred to be called, was born January 7, 1953 to John and Marjorie Martone in Endwell, New York. He graduated from Maine-Endwell High School in 1971, and earned an advanced degree from the State University of New York, Geneseo in 1975, before he was commissioned in the U.S. Navy. Soon after Officer Candidate School (OCS) he proposed to his childhood sweet-heart, and a year later Diane and Jim were married.

21 years of service with the Navy took him on tours across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans along with many parts of Europe and the Mediterranean. After his first son was born, the international tours temporarily took a pause, but the regular moves did not. Stateside, he and his family would move every 2 or 3 years, Pensecola, Newport, Washington DC and multiple deployments to both Norfolk and Dallas/Fort Worth. He flew with the VF-143, VF-101, and his final squadron VF-201, Hunters, out of Naval Air Station Dallas. A squadron, he would later help transition to their new accommodations at Carswell Air Force Base, as it became the Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth. (NAS-JRB-Ft. Worth). In his final Rank as Commander, he was tasked to promote the new joint base as an economically valued member of the Fort Worth community. In 1996, he directed an Air Show, highlighted by The Navy’s Blue Angels to the amazement of an estimated 100,000 in attendance. Fueled by his love for avionics, after leaving the Navy, he began instructing the next generation of pilots at American Airlines’ Flight Training Academy.

With a love for learning and teaching even beyond flight, Jim spent his life taking apart and reassembling machinery to find value in what others might throw away. In high school Jim worked repairing televisions; during his spare time in the Navy he could regularly be found rebuilding or repairing classic vehicles, most commonly Ford Mustangs. A collector of antique tools, even in retirement, Jim was known to buy broken machinery just to see if he could fix it.

His life of service extended into his personal life, as he was an active member of the Knights of Columbus, and even after retirement he continued to hold a position of responsibility with the Transportation Workers’ Union (TWU), a union group advocating for the needs of the ground school instructors who train pilots.

Jim is survived by his wife, Diane, sister, Kathy and his three sons (Matt, John, and James), in addition to his two grandchildren. (Asher and Leo)