A number of veterans will be honored at the Airshow at the Gilmer Airport today.

They include Tom Kouba, Gerald Payne, Earl Fielden, Bill Dean, Everett Dean, Ruth Vick and Clyde Shelton.

Kouba was originally from Ennis. He entered the Army during WW II and was in Infantry training at Wichita Falls when he was selected for Air Corps duty and transferred.

After several sessions of pilot training at San Antonio; Oklahoma City; Enid and Altus, Okla.; and Clovis, N.M., he was assigned to a Mitchell B-24 unit. When B-29s came on the scene, he took more training and flew five combat missions in that aircraft. He was based on Saipan at Isley AAFB during that phase of the war. After the war ended he flew a B-29 in a massive formation over the Battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay during the signing ceremony that ended the war. This armada of B-29s consisted of about 350 aircraft.

After WW II ended, he entered college and was recalled to duty during the Berlin Airlift. He was released again, and reentered college, but was recalled again during the Korean War. This time he stayed in the Air Force until retirement after 22 years service.

Payne is from Upshur County and graduated from Gilmer High School in 1944. He enlisted in the Navy and entered the service in January 1945. After basic training in San Diego, he attended a 6-month communication school and became a radio operator. He served on Guam Island after the war ended and was released from active duty in 1946, and served in the Naval Reserve for six years after that.

Fielden enlisted in the Coast Guard in October, 1944. His initial training was in Baltimore, Md., and then he attended a fireman school before going to the west coast. After bouncing around between stations on the coast, he did patrol duty on a cutter between San Francisco and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Several Coast Guard vessels were deactivated when the war ended, and his ship traveled through the Panama Canal to Charleston, S.C. for decommissioning. His service totaled 18 months and 14 days.

Bill Dean enlisted in the Navy in the fall of 1942. His basic training was in Rhode Island. He joined a unit that went to Bermuda to build docks the next October.

The unit was nicknamed “The Honeymoon Battalion.” After a short stay there, they returned to Rhode Island. In the spring of 1944, the unit moved to California, and deployed to Hawaii in October, 1944.

They linked up with the 5th Marine Division that was soon to conduct an amphibious landing on Iwo Jima in early 1945. After the war ended, they went to Japan for a short stay. He returned to the States, and was released from the Navy in Oklahoma City in 1945.

Everett Dean enlisted in the Navy about the same time that his younger brother Bill did (October, 1942).

He had basic training at Norfolk, Va. The Seabees were being formed about that time, so he became one. After changing to the Seabees he traveled by train to Los Angeles (five days) to board a ship for Neuma, New Caledonia, in the Pacific Theater.

It took 25 days for the trip and they saw no land enroute. New Caledonia had docks and his unit was assigned to unloading the supply ships that were backed up in the harbor. From there, his unit moved to Guadalcanal for about a year. There were no docks there, so unloading was more difficult.

While there, he ran into another serviceman from Simpsonville (Ruel Moses). Moses survived the war, but Everett never saw him again. When the war ended Everett was discharged in San Francisco and given a train ticket to Gladewater. He didn’t have a leave while in the service.

Ruth Vick worked in defense-related jobs in California during most of WW II. She was a native of Los Angeles and was hoping for some other career, but decided that the defense jobs sounded more attractive. To qualify for “Rosie the Riveter”-type jobs she attended a technical school to learn about electrical work, soldering, drill presses, and how to use tools. In the fall of 1942 she went to work in the North American plant in Inglewood, and worked on Mitchell B-25s and P-51 Mustang fighters. The ladies did just about anything that came up, but sometimes had to call on men for heavy stuff, like installing cupolas. Toward the end of the war, she changed jobs and worked in a shipyard in San Pedro.

After the war, she met and married Vernon Vick and moved to Gilmer in 1946, and has been here ever since. Vernon passed away last year.

Clyde Shelton was one of four brothers who served during WW II. He hitchhiked to Tyler in January of 1942 to enlist in the Marine Corps. Three brothers also served during WW II. James Shelton was killed in a motorcycle training accident and Elwin was killed while serving with 2nd Marine Division on Saipan. Milburn also served and he and Clyde both returned to Upshur County after the war ended.

I asked Clyde how he ever got in to a gunners position in an aircraft and he said that he was a lot smaller then. He flew in Marine Corps SBDs and TBM Fighter/Bombers and accumulated about 37 missions, mostly from carriers. He returned to the states once (to El Toro) for additional training on TBFs and then returned to the Solomon Islands area with the “Red Devil Squadron” on an escort carrier to cover Bouganville and other actions until the war ended.

gilmermirror@gmail.com