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James Carney (born September 6, 1939) is a former Captain in the United States Navy who was the longest serving Commanding Officer of the Iowa-class battleship USS Missouri.

Early Life and Education
James Carney was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas on September 6, 1939 but spent the majority of his childhood in Hot Springs, Arkansas, graduating from Hot Springs High School in 1957. He graduated from Hendrix College in 1961 with a degree in economics and history. Following graduation, Carney enrolled in Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. Carney married Betty Kate Brown of Hot Springs, Arkansas in July 1964.

Military Career
Following OCS, Carney was assigned to the USS Princeton as assistant personnel officer before promotion to assistant navigator. Further assignments included the USS Richard E. Kraus and USS Robert K. Huntington. In 1967, Carney attended Counter Insurgency school and was subsequently deployed to South Vietnam as an American advisor aboard a South Vietnamese river patrol boat and was present in Saigon during the Tet Offensive in 1968. Upon his return to the United States, Carney attended the Naval War College's Command and Staff course and was assigned to the USS Dewey in 1972 as a weapons officer. Following a stint aboard the USS Jesse L. Brown, Carney was named the first Commanding Officer of the USS Leftwich, a brand new Spruance-class destroyer.

In 1986, Carney was poised to assume command of the USS Thomas S. Gates, but at the last minute was offered command of the newly recommissioned USS Missouri. Carney's tenure as Commanding Officer included a circumnavigation of the globe and a six-month deployment to the Arabian Sea as part of Operation Earnest Will to protect Kuwaiti oil tankers from Iranian aggression. Carney's command of the USS Missouri from June 1986 to July 1988 was the longest in the ship's history. Following his command of the Missouri, Carney retired from the United States Navy and moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas.