Ships
- USS Capps (DD-550) Captain, 24 October 1944 – 6 November 1945
James Marshall Wood was born in Virginia on 21 October 1907 and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1931. He became a lieutenant on 1 July 1938, a temporary lieutenant commander on 15 June 1942, and a temporary commander on 1 November 1942. In the later part of the Pacific war he commanded the Fletcher-class destroyer Capps (DD-550).
Wood assumed command of Capps on 24 October 1944, relieving Bruce Edward Scofield Trippensee, who had captained the ship since her commissioning in June 1943. The destroyer was already serving with the Pacific Fleet. Through the rest of 1944 she remained with the Third Fleet, and on 25 November she screened a carrier group during air strikes on Manila. She then spent about a month on radar picket station, in air-sea rescue, and on convoy escort among Saipan, Guam, Eniwetok, and Ulithi.
On 1 February 1945 Capps reported at Ulithi to train with underwater demolition teams for the landing on Iwo Jima. She sailed on 14 February and arrived off the island on 16 February. Wood's ship put the teams onto the beaches and stayed on the firing line for three weeks, sending more than 2,600 five-inch shells into the caves and hillsides. On 17 February she took survivors aboard from LCI(G)-474 after that craft capsized off the island.
Capps then joined the Okinawa operation. For 82 days, broken only by six hours at anchor in Kerama Retto, she worked the mined waters south of the Nansei Shoto. She guarded escort carriers, picked up downed aviators, and met Japanese suicide attacks. On 3 April 1945 a kamikaze exploded just off her side. The blast left her able to stay with the group and keep her watch.
Sent home for overhaul, Capps reached San Pedro, California, on 9 July 1945. Wood remained her captain through the surrender and the early autumn. On 6 November 1945 he turned the ship over to J. W. Robertson. Wood died in Portsmouth, Virginia, on 25 April 1984, at the age of 76.