James Domenico Reap, Jr., was born on February 25, 1923. He graduated from Berwick High School (Berwick, PA), where he was co-captain of the football and basketball teams, in 1942. Reap received an athletic scholarship to Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, PA and enlisted in the Army there in November 1942. He was honorably discharged from the Army in February 1943 and entered the V-12 Navy College Training Program at Villanova University. He wanted to serve as a pilot, but was diagnosed with astigmatism, which prevented him from becoming a pilot.

Reap enlisted in the Navy in November 1943 and underwent training at Bainbridge, MD and Fort Lauderdale, FL. He was then ordered to San Diego to join the Japanese invasion force. The USS White Marsh took Reap to Pearl Harbor, HI, where he was assigned to the USS Proteus, a submarine tender, as a radar and communications technician. The USS Proteus arrived at Yokosuka Naval Base in August of 1945 and was then ordered to Tokyo Bay, where the Proteus was anchored near the USS Missouri for the formal signing of Japanese surrender.

After the war, Reap was honorably discharged from Naval service on April 6, 1946. He returned to Berwick, PA and married Carmella Cerullo on June 26, 1946. Reap was the owner of an electrical appliance store, an electrician, a teacher, an inventor, and a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church, the Maria Assunta Society, and the Berwick community.

Reap was stationed at or visited at various times the following locations: Bainbridge, Maryland; Florida; California; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Guam; Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands; Japan; and Panama.