William E. Gilson

William E. Gilson graduated college in 1941, and the following year enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he would serve until November 1945. He would see combat in the Pacific Theater, at both Tarawa and Saipan.

Gilson’s civilian job was as a manufacturer of rubber rafts and survival kits for pilots in the Navy. A neighbor then convinced him to enlist with two of their other friends. Gilson was the only one able to enter the Marine Corps, as one friend had a heart murmur and the other a ruptured ear drum.

Gilson initially began training at Parris Island in South Carolina. He learned at the New River rifle range at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where he qualified as “marksman”, even with no prior experience with rifles. Gilson recalled having a lot of respect for the training officers. He got on a train to San Diego in California. From there they got on a converted cruise liner across the Pacific, all while zigzagging to avoid any Japanese submarines.

Gilson spent his days in Paekākāriki in New Zealand. It was there that he practiced amphibious landings for their invasion of what would be Tarawa. Once they were on their way was when the maps were shown and the destination given. At the time, the American invasion force was the largest yet assembled for a battle in the Pacific.

Around Tarawa was a coral reef that made it extremely difficult to get onto the island. On top of that, the tides caused even more trouble reaching the island. Gilson recalled bodies floating in the lagoon at the time of his arrival. On arrival at the island, he recalled scrambling among the chaos, with flamethrowers being used on the enemy bunkers. It was so hot there that the paint ran off their gun barrel like syrup.

The structures on Tarawa were extremely hard to knock down since they were made of coconut logs and steel. Gilson teamed up with another Marine and was the second one manning the 37mm anti-tank gun M-3. The other guy would fire and he would load. At one point the gun would not work because it was jammed. Eventually, the Japanese made many mistakes and exposed their tanks, allowing the soldiers to shoot out a tank’s engine.

The battle lasted three days. The island was dug out to be a landing base, and airfield built on coral, and a long pier for cargo ships for the Allies. The amphibious tractors were manned by Marines, and the Higgins boats were Navy. After a few days, Gilson and the rest of his unit left Tarawa to recover in New Zealand, which lasted about 9 months. It was then that he would be sent out to Saipan, a very mountainous region in the Pacific with thick vegetation.

It was there that the Japanese would hide in caves and fire artillery down on them. During the day, Japanese soldiers would hide in the caves and at nights there would be Banzai attacks. Navajo ‘Codetalker’ troops pinpointed the Japanese positions on Saipan. Gilson met a pregnant civilian who they were able to take in a wheelbarrow to the beach to get her medical attention.

Gilson was in Saipan for a couple weeks before he was injured by artillery fire. Infantrymen were behind them, but an 8-inch gun was on the road. There was a ditch on the side of the road, but he did not go there because he went to get his cigarette, and that was when the gunfire attack began. The 8-inch gun had shot at Gilson; he was with troops bunched up together who were targeted by the enemy. Shrapnel hit his chest and went through the back of his shoulder. Everyone hung low for a while. He knew he was hit and stayed down. A guy crawled to him.. Gilson recalled the horrific sight of the man’s legs shredded off. Another man had an arm missing. Others were with their faces taken off or bodies burnt.

They all carried morphine syringes. Gilson was able to inject himself with morphine while laying low. He endured extreme blood loss and so blacked out multiple times. Gilson woke up in a ship where he was being worked on by doctors who used a pillow-like device to absorb the blood that streamed out of his exit wound. He regained consciousness slowly and saw that he was still surrounded by the dead and dying.

Pearl Harbor Naval Hospital was where he would spend the next 3 months. Gilson regained his ability to walk. He was weaned off morphine to avoid addiction. One of the hardest parts of Gilson’s ordeal was worrying about his poor mother, who he knew was worrying about him. Every day his wound had to be cleaned, which was necessary whether he liked it or not. The hospital staff wondered aloud how the shrapnel went through his body without taking his shoulder off! Gilson stated he had his guardian angel with him, was how he came through it in one piece. The shoulder is deteriorating in his later life: pins and needles as well as dropping things.

Gilson served until 1945 with his highest rank as Private First Class. Postwar, there were multiple reunions. He made all but the last one, in Washington D.C. Among his service awards were 2 Presidential Unit Citations, the Purple Heart and a Bronze star.

William Edward Gilson died at the age of 94 in the hospital on April 28, 2017.