NHF_WC_2014_Sawyer_Vicky
2014 June 25
Vicky Sawyer, interviewed June 25, 2014 by Nancy Louck, discusses the army service of her father, Herbert Clifton Gillis, who was a sergeant stationed in the Philippines in World War II. Sawyer describes what she knows of what her father did in the war, working with trucks in the Philippines and in New Guinea. She also describes how the war changed him, as he was diagnosed with “shell shock” (now known as PTSD) upon returning home, including the nightmares that he experienced on a regular basis. She goes on to discuss her father’s character; he was a man who truly valued service to others, and their house was a center for people in need to come and receive help. She details at great length the negative impact that the war had both on her family and on others that she knows and makes known her (and her father’s) disdain for war in general. She concludes her interview by offering the advice that she feels her father would offer, to be good to others and work hard in life, as well as her own advice to think a lot before acting so as to prevent another world conflict like that of World War II.
Digital
English
1h 4m 58s
Vicky Sawyer, Interview, National Home Front Project, Washington College, Chestertown Maryland
Interview was recorded by Nancy Louck for the Starr Center of the American Experience National Homefront Project
C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience (Washington College)
Oral histories
oral histories (literary genre)
World War, 1939-1945--Social aspects--United States
Oral histories
oral histories (literary genre)
World War, 1939-1945--Social aspects--United States