Gillesse, William (Interview transcript and video), 2017

View Item Record

Notes:

Bill Gillesse was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1926. He remembered hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor over the car radio during a family road trip to the state capital. Gillesse was drafted in December of 1944 and sent to Fort Sheridan, Illinois, and then Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Arkansas, for Basic Training. After training for war in Europe, he was redirected to Camp Howze, Texas, for mental conditioning and adjustment training necessary to fight the Japanese in the Pacific. Gillesse was then assigned to A Company of the 158th Regimental Combat Team. When the Japanese surrendered and the war was over, Gillesse remained in the Philippines before joining the occupational forces in Japan in April of 1946 with the 1279th Engineer Battalion back in Yokohama. In November of 1946, Gillesse was shipped back to the United States and was discharged at Fort Lewis, Washington, before traveling back to Grand Rapids where he went to work for Consumers Energy Company.

Date Created:

2017-03-21T00:00:00Z

Data Provider:

Grand Valley State University. University Libraries

Collection:

Veterans History Project (U.S.)

Place:

World War II

Subject Topic:

World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American, United States. Army, Oral history, Veterans History Project (U.S.), United States--History, Military, Veterans, and Video recordings

Language:

eng

Rights:

<a href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>

URL:

https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/document/45495