Honoring My Father - A Fallen Soldier 1920-1944 (republish)

SACRIFICE

On Memorial Day

when others put out flags

and march and speak

I listen silently

through tears

and think of hands

whose touch I can't recall

from age of four.

A father's smile

just out of memory.

Younger than my oldest son

at twenty-four

he was a boy~yet

father, son, husband.

He answered to the call

and laid down life

before it could be lived.

In memory of Alvin R. Gillett

killed in action on Leyte, Philippines.

December 14, 1944

© Sandra Gillett Fackler May, 1984

The history of my Father's last service to his country, in which he gave his life.  He was 24 and had been in the Army since he enlisted shortly after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.  He trained amphibian drivers in Florida for a year and some months, but kept applying for overseas duty. He was promoted several times but always got busted for something or other. He died as a Private First Class.  He had a temper, my mother said, but he was always kind and gentle with both of us.  I don't remember much about him; he enlisted when I was 18 months old and died when I was four.  I remember that I loved him.

This next part of the history was taken from Ours to Hold It High the official history of the 77th Infantry Division of the United States Army.  The part in green details the battle in which my father was shot in the head, by a Japanese sniper in a tree.  Letters said he died instantly, but the Army lists him as DOW died of wounds, rather than KIA killed in action so I don't know the truth.  I also have a letter that says his body was moved to internment in Hawaii and that Chaplain says he saw the grave himself; yet the Army still lists his grave as the US Military Cemetary in Manila, Philippines. The US military doesn't honor its soldiers enough to even give their families the truth about a simple thing like the gravesite.

77th Infantry Division Nickname: Statue of LibertyDivision. Shoulder patch: Statue of Liberty in gold on a blue truncated triangle. Association: 77th Infantry Division Association, 28 East Thirtyninth St., New York, N. Y. (Lt. Col. Max Meyers, secretary). Publication: Ours to Hold it High; by Lt. Col. Max Meyers, unit historian; The Infantry Journal, Washington6, D. C., 1947.

The 77th Infantry Division landed in Hawaii, 31 March 1944, and continued training in amphibious and jungle warfare. Elements began to leave Hawaii, 1 July 1944, for the amphibious assault on Guam. Attached to III Amphibious Force, the 77th made an assault landing on Guam, 21 July 1944. After taking over defense of the beachhead, the Division drove north to seize MountTenjoand effected junction with the 3d Marine Division, linking the northern and southern bridgeheads, 23-29 July. It continued to drive north, and dislodged the enemy from positions at Barrigada town and mountain, 4 August, resistance ending on the 8th. With Guamrecaptured, the 77th sailed for New Caledonia, but plans were changed en route and it was directed to proceed to Leyte. The Division landed on the east coast of Leyte, 23 November 1944, and was attached to XXIV Corps, Sixth Army. After a short period of training and combat patrolling in the Corps' rear, 23 November-6 December, it landed at Ipil and fought up the east coast of Ormoc Bay to seize Ormoc, 10 December. Attacking north, astride Highway No. 2, the Division secured Valenciaand the Libungao-Palompon road junction. Mopping up operations continued through January 1945 to 5 February 1945.   (we were not informed of his death until late January, 1945)