JAMES EUGENE HILBURN

August 9, 2000




Interview with

World War II Veteran

James Eugene "Gene" Hilburn

1306 Bellevue Avenue

Dublin, GA 31021



By: Kimsey M. "Mac" Fowler



I am James Eugene "Gene" Hilburn. I was twenty-one years old and a Senior at Clemson College (now known as Clemson University, South Carolina. On Sunday, December 7, 1941, I returned to my barracks from a trip to Atlanta to see my girlfriend, Margaret, which is now my bride of 57 plus years. Upon entering the barracks, I was told about the attack on Pearl Harbor from other students who had heard it on the radio.



I was only a few months away from graduation, plus I was in the ROTC at Clemson. The Military thought it was more important that I finish my education and Commissions before being drafted. That was done by all my classmates. We didn't even have to apply for a job believe it or not! We had a ready-made job waiting for us.



I went out to Camp Wolters on Highway 80, 40 miles West of Dallas, TX. This is the same Highway 80 that runs in front of my current home. Camp Wolters is 1,000 miles West of Dublin, GA on Highway 80 West. I stayed out there two months. From there, I was shipped to Camp Adair, Oregon (75 miles South of Portland) for training. After that I was assigned to Fort Benning, GA for what they call an Officers Basic Course (no more than a refresher course). I had also been promoted to 1st LT. by this time.



I completed my work at Ft. Benning and went to Anderson, SC and married Margaret Cathcart on June 29, 1943. We went back to my duty station in Oregon. We were out there about two months training as replacement officers. I was called to go to a Replacement Depot near San Francisco, CA to be shipped overseas. I was shipped overseas in November 1943.



Transportation was critical and it took a long time to move people from one place to another. This transportation shortage went on even after the War.



I was assigned to the Americal Division, 182nd Infantry, Company L. Our Division was unique in that it was given a name instead of a number. Our Division was made up of Regimental Combat Teams that were spun off from the old Square Division. There were several Regimental Combat Teams that were put together on New Caledonia. The name Americal came from Americans On Caledonia. Believe it or not I did not win World War II. We were on Fiji Island when I joined the Americal. The Americal had been on Guadalcanal. Most people that have studied any World War II History know that we lost a lot of people on Guadalcanal. Some were lost due to sickness plus enemy action, both were pretty rough. I was among those who were sent to replace some of those that were lost.



We left Fiji and went on up to Bougainville, a large Island above Guadalcanal in the South Pacific. We relieved the Marine Third Division and did a lot of patrol work on Bougainville. We secured an Air Base for our troops so that they could bomb Islands North of us. We had a lot of B-24's as well as P-38's (both very well known as combat planes during that time). Our mission was to hold ground so that the Air Force, (actually it was the Army Air Corp because the Air Force Branch of the Service was not started until after World War II) could have a safe place to carry out their missions. We did a lot of patrol work and it was quite dangerous just like combat. I am fortunate that I don't even own a Purple Heart. I feel very happy about that now.



While fighting on Bougainville, we were under the command of Admiral Halsey, and then we were assigned to McArthur's command in the Philippines. We were not in the invasion, but we got there about two months after the invasion. We fought on Leyte Island (which was the original Island that we invaded).



Later we were on Cebu Island, which is in the central Philippines. We saw a lot of action on Cebu and got cut off which created a bad situation and couldn't get any water out there and very little food. I drank some Rice Patty water. I knew it wasn't good, but bad water is better than no water at all. You have to be in those situations to appreciate that. You can only do without water for so long, you either got to have it or suffer the consequences. I suffered the consequences of drinking it. Because I became sick with dysentery, hepatitis and Typhoid Fever, all at once. I lost about thirty pounds, I guess. Of course, I was in the hospital in the Philippines by this time. They took me from Cebu to Leyte by plane. It only took a few minutes to fly over there. They put me in a General Hospital, the Dr. examined me and ask how I was feeling, I told him not good at all. He looked at my eyes after I told him I was having some problems. He told me my eyes were yellow. Of course, I didn't know that because I hadn't seen myself in a mirror for awhile. He put me in isolation and kept me there for two to three weeks. They finally discovered after some testing that I had Typhoid Fever along with my other problems. Of course, the yellow in my eyes was the hepatitis. The Dr. told me he was going to evacuate me and that made me very happy after serving twenty-two months out there in the bush fighting the Japs. They flew me back to San Francisco and that was the end of my combat experience.



I was in San Francisco about three to four weeks waiting to be shipped to the East Coast. I was downtown in San Francisco. My friend, John Couric, Katie Couric's (presently a NBC News Reporter) dad was out there and we found one another. (John moved to Dublin in 1927. His father was a cotton buyer and they lived across the street from my current residence. We were the only two boys in the neighborhood in the same age bracket so we became good friends. We still remain friends to this date.) John invited me to come into town and be with him and his wife, Elinor We went downtown the day that the Japanese surrendered to see the celebration. We went down to the corner of Market and Powell (which is the same as Time Square in New York) and it was a mad house down there. All the bars and liquor stores were closed but somebody had broken the plate glass window of a liquor store. There were thousands and thousands of sailors down there. One had jumped in the liquor store and started passing out whiskey to everybody. John, Elinor, and I were right in the middle of that mess. As you can imagine, it got pretty rough. I finally told John, "I went all the way through World War II, I didn't get killed and I don't want to get killed here in San Francisco." So we went back to his apartment, which was up on a hill that could have been Nob Hill, I'm not sure. We had supper and got out of that mess down there, which I was very thankful.



I was talking with a Colonel friend of mine out at Presido of San Francisco, CA where I was stationed. The censorship was still in effect and we didn't get much news, but he told me and he was in position to know that there were twenty-two people killed in that peace celebration. What a waste of human lives! Absolutely, utterly ridiculous!



I have given thought about the United States using the Atomic Bomb on Japan. I think it was a great thing. If it hadn't been for that, I would probably not be sitting here today. I saw the invasion plans later in Life Magazine. My Division was slated to be among the first to invade the Main Island, which I believe is called Honshu. We were going in right in front of Tokyo and no doubt the casualty rate would have been terrifically high on that undertaking. We don't know how many men we would have lost in this endeavor. I'm grateful that the Atomic Bomb was dropped and that the Japanese decided to surrender. It's no doubt that it saved a lot of Japanese lives plus their country from being destroyed.



I was shipped to a hospital in Swannanoa, North Carolina, near Asheville. I came there on a hospital train and everyone on that train was hospitalized. Transportation, as I mentioned before, was a problem. It took several weeks to organize this train trip.



My discharge paper reads Terminal Leave - March 22, 1946. Actually I got home in early January but was paid for sixty days on military payroll but not serving.



I am grateful that I survived the war and like a lot of others, who served, I have several ribbons and other medals for serving in those campaigns. I do have the Combat Infantry Badge, which as far as I know every Infantryman received.



My parents were Clyde Inman Hilburn and Louise Flanders Hilburn. I'm related to the Flanders, Jackson, and Keen families of Laurens County. That's the same Keen's associated with the Farmers and Merchants Bank but I don't think any of their money ever got into my account!



My wife is Margaret Elizabeth Cathcart from Anderson, South Carolina. Her parents are Lucy and Robert McCully Cathcart of Anderson. I met her while I was going to school at Clemson. She was going to Agnes Scott in Atlanta while I was at Clemson.





I have one son, William Robert Hilburn of Houston, Texas

and one daughter, Florence Eugenia Hilburn Sapp of Marietta, GA;

one grandson, James Harris Groover of Marietta.



I was in the wholesale grocery business with my father, C. I. Hilburn Company, Inc. At his death, we did not change the name of the business which is not uncommon.