Kenneth Gillette

Era: World War II

Military Branch: Army

The following was taken from an interview with Sally Wattrus, a student at Ordean Middle School.

Kenneth was in the Army during WWII and achieved the rank of technical sergeant. He was in charge of supplies for his company.

He went to boot camp in Marchfield, California and also spent time in Brisbane, Australia; New Guinea; Borneo; the Philippines and Japan.

Kenneth relates “One night we were travelling from Borneo to Mindanao [in a convoy] on a troop transport carrying supplies. We were under attack the whole way to Mindanao. A ship carrying airplane fuel, three ships behind us, was hit and blew up. There was nothing left. When we beached, we came under fire and had to dig foxholes on the beach right away. Another ship beached down the shore from ours was hit. We could feel the shells that hit it fly over our heads.”