Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

WW II veteran Gilby celebrates her 102nd birthday

WWII veteran Betty Gilby celebrated her 102nd birthday May 31 at a drive-thru birthday party in the parking lot of the Fallbrook Woman's Club. In attendance were many well-wishers from the woman's club as well as members of the Fallbrook AAUW, of which Betty is a member.

Also celebrating with her was her son, Joe Gilby III, and her grandson, Joe Gilby IV, from Michigan; her daughter, Elaine Gilby, and her husband, Charlie Pavitt, from Maryland, and daughter Joanne Gilby from Colorado.

Betty was born Elizabeth Janet Stutheit on May 31, 1919, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where she lived until she left for college. After receiving a master's degree in nutrition from the University of Iowa, her first professional position was as a therapeutic dietitian at Doctor's Hospital in the District of Columbia. It was there that she first considered enlisting in the Army.

She had many opportunities for employment. She could have returned to Fayetteville, her hometown, or taken an opening at Massachusetts General Hospital. At the time, the Army was pleading for volunteers. Her family for several generations had all served in wars from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War, to World War 1. Betty said she felt it was her duty to serve, so she applied to the Army.

After her application was accepted on April 1, 1943, she gave notice to Doctor's Hospital and left for home in Fayetteville to await orders. She received orders to report to Borden General Hospital in Chickasha, Oklahoma on May 28. In August 1943, she received orders to report to Longview, Texas for basic training.

She was put through the obstacle course, crawling in the dirt under barbed wire with live ammunition being fired overhead, sent to the poison gas chamber wearing protective clothing and a gas mask and learned how to dig a foxhole. She wondered why a dietician had to go through all this.

After basic training, she shipped out to North Africa with the personnel of the 70th General Hospital on the USS Edmund B. Alexander, which "zig-zagged across the Atlantic evading torpedoes from the U-boats." While in North Africa she was temporarily assigned to the 21st Army General Hospital. She helped set up the 70th General Hospital where everyone, including the cooks, had to learn to prepare meals for the injured soldiers.

In May 1944, Betty got new orders to report to the 56th Evacuation Hospital. She flew to Naples, Italy, her first flight. They then took a hospital ship and, as they got close to Anzio, Italy, the Germans started shooting at them. Betty was in the middle of the war!

When she met the mess captains and sergeants, they thought she wasn't good for anything but morale. They didn't want her meddling in the kitchen. She eventually changed their minds when she taught them how to make mayonnaise and had them cook the hash, spaghetti, stew, and beans separately instead of cooking them all together.

The camp was constantly shelled by the Germans and on several occasions, nurses, cooks and patients were killed during the attacks. Betty spent much of her time in hospital tents behind the front lines figuring out how to feed hundreds of wounded patients with meager supplies and little equipment. Over 1,000 patients came in each day and over 1,000 patients went out each day.

Betty dug a hole in the floor of the tent she slept in, making an opening just big enough to crawl into so she could get some sleep and be somewhat protected from the nightly bombardments and shrapnel. They bathed in water heated in their helmets.

In May 1944, everything was loaded up from the evacuation hospital and they started moving through the Italian countryside eventually ending up in Rome after it was evacuated by the Germans. In January 1945, Betty was promoted to 1st Lieutenant after moving through Italy for months.

When the war in Europe was over, Betty's unit waited to see if they would be sent to the Pacific. Fortunately, the war in the Pacific ended and they waited to be shipped back to the states. On Sept. 17, 1945, Betty received orders to ship to the states and on Oct. 23, she was put on a troop ship.

They landed in Boston and there were no flags, no greetings, no bands, nothing, which was very disappointing. She boarded a train for Iowa where she was discharged. Then she boarded a train for Fayetteville to see her father. Shortly after returning home, she moved to Chicago to work on her doctorate. She wanted to teach on the college level.

In college, she met another Army veteran, Joseph Gilby Jr., who had been a POW in Germany during the war. The doctorate was put on hold when Betty and Joe Gilby decided to marry. They had four children, Beverly, Joanne, Elaine and Joe Gilby III. During the early years of their marriage, Betty continued to work as a dietician, before teaching elementary school for 15 years and Joseph worked as an accountant.

In 1990, they moved from Lake Bluff, Illinois to Fallbrook. Her husband Joe passed away in 1999. A lifetime member of Fallbrook's VFW Post 1924, Betty has been active in veterans events over the years in her community, including appearances in her uniform in Fallbrook's Veterans Day parades.

After meeting Brig, Gen. Wilma Vaught of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation during an Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C. in 2017, Betty was inspired to finish her 119-page memoir, "Remembering World War II: A Female Officer in the 5th Army in Italy."

Betty joined the Fallbrook Woman's Club in December 1990 and is also a member of the Fallbrook Historical Society, the Fallbrook Art Association, Encore, and the AAUW. "She has been a great inspiration. She up and joined the Army, earned the rank of 1st Lieutenant, went to college – which in those days was quite something for a woman," said her daughter Joanne.

Betty continues to enjoy painting and winning prizes, collecting antiques and restoring historical places in Fallbrook. She also enjoys opera and other productions that she was introduced to during her war years. She is truly a "Fallbrook Treasure."

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 03/26/2024 22:15