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MEMORIAL ARTICLE
Published Assembly Oct '89
Gilbert Everett Perry, Jr. No 16018
Class of 1946 Died 11 September 1946 near Belmont, Kansas.
Aged 22 years. Interment: Harper Cemetery, Harpers
Ferry, West Virginia. |
Gilbert Everett Perry, Jr., always
known as Gil, was born 30 January 1924 at Charles Town, West
Virginia. Even as a small child, Gil had a deep love of airplanes
and knew that someday he would become a pilot. In addition to
flying, his other great interest was history, particularly, his
own Harpers Ferry. Today it is a national historic park, largely
due to the efforts of Gil's father, who was mayor of Harpers
Ferry for many years. His mother was also elected to the Harpers
Ferry city council for 6 years. Gil attended and graduated from
Harpers Ferry High School, a member of a class of 28 students.
The small size of his high school precluded his having the advantage
of a good athletic program, although he was a natural athlete.
In 1938, Gil's parents took him to visit his mother's relatives
in Connecticut. Enroute, they stopped to visit West Point. His
mother vividly recalls Gil walking up and down the center aisle
of the Cadet Chapel and looking at all the flags. Gil was
most impressed and this visit inspired him to seek an appointment
to the Academy. After high school, Gil attended Shepherd College
for a year and then transferred to West Virginia University for
one year. On 1 July 1943 Gil achieved one of his dreams and joined
the Class of 1946 at West Point.
Gil's easy-going nature and good sense of humor helped
him fit into the plebe system with little trouble. He had a Beast
Barracks roommate who had received a qualified alternate appointment,
resulting in his arrival on the Hudson 13 days after the start
of Beast Barracks. This drew upperclassmen like honey draws flies,
and he recalls that the only thing that saved him was Gil Perry.
Gil made every effort to help his new roommate adjust. Gil was
not only patient and kind, but if his roommate fell behind in
some preparation, he would finish his own work and help him.
In the words of his roommate, " I will never forget his
big smile and easy-going nature. Without his help, I am not sure
I would have still been there on September 1st."
With the start of academics, Gil displayed little concern,
but he did manage to get turned out in Spanish. Once past this
hurdle, he was always capable of getting by with little apparent
effort. He played plebe football, and, in another era and perhaps
with a better background, he probably could have made the varsity
squad. Plebe year was relatively uneventful for Gil. A roommate
recalls one incident when Gil stood in the hallway and yelled
"West Virginia was never like this!" then went into
his room and slammed the door. To this day, the roommate cannot
understand why this did not bring a swarm of upperclassmen. The
upperclassmen probably couldn't believe that the easygoing Gil
Perry would do such a thing. This same roommate has a sister
who taught dancing at Arthur Murray's in Washington after she
finished college. She dated Gil several times while he was a
cadet and says that he was absolutely the best natural dancer
she ever met. Gil's mother recalls that he loved to dance and
was an excellent dancer.
Gil's love for flying was always uppermost in
his mind and he jumped at the chance to take flight training
when it was offered. In April 1945, he and a close friend were
on a troop train to take Primary Flight Training at Uvalde, Texas.
The train had a couple of empty coaches at the front, so Gil
and his classmate decided to go into one of them and proceeded
to have a lengthy discussion about the Civil War and historic
Harpers Ferry. During this two plus hour discussion, the train
stopped for an exercise break which the history buffs ignored.
Once the train was underway again, the inevitable roll call was
taken and Perry and Gavin were reported missing and believed
to have been left behind at the last stop. The two Civil War
devotees were never charged with being AWOL, but did manage to
cause considerable consternation in the "command" at
the rear of the train. Gil graduated and received his wings June
Week of 1946.
After graduation leave, Gil reported with his
classmates who had chosen bombers to Enid Army Air Force Base
in Oklahoma. Their training was in B-25 aircraft, It was a happy
and carefree time for these new 2nd lieutenants: flying during
the day and pursuing the attractive Enid girls in the evening.
As one of them recalls, they all thought they were in heaven
with easy flights during the day and their slouch hats and Army
uniforms. However, the whole experience changed for them with
the untimely and sad loss of two classmates, Gil Perry and Myron
Benefield.
It was getting towards the end of their training
and the class was scheduled for a low level cross country training
mission on Monday, 11 September 1946. On the weekend before this
scheduled flight, Gil and his very good friend, Myron Benefield,
drove from Enid to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to visit their classmates
attending the Artillery Basic Course. After a weekend filled
with reminiscences and excitement about what future assignments
held in store for these friends, Gil and Myron returned to Enid
on Sunday. The next day was a beautiful fall day, clear blue
skies and warm sun. The '46ers were all excited to have the opportunity
to fly a legalized buzzing mission north to Kansas and back,
about a two-hour mission. In some of the aircraft there were
two student pilots--Gil and Myron were in the same plane, in
others, a student pilot and an instructor. The first leg of the
mission was to fly 50 feet above the terrain to practice low
level navigation into a target area. About a half hour after
takeoff, some of the student pilots saw a ball of black smoke
rising in the distance and several miles to the side of the track
they were flying. At the time, they did not know what it was,
but they learned to their sorrow that what they had seen was
the crash of Gil and Myron's plane. It appeared that their plane
hit a telephone pole and sheared off the right wing. At that
altitude, there was no chance for anyone to survive.
Gil had completed all his training requirements
with excellent marks and was on his way to a superb career. He
was extremely popular with his classmates and also with the officer
instructors. His classmates left Enid shortly after the accident,
but they never left behind the bright and unfading memory of
an outstanding man.
There is little that can be said that makes sense
about the death of such a young, talented, capable man just starting
to make his mark in the world. A world that he had dreamed about
all his life. One can ponder the imponderable, ask the unanswerable
question that has been asked over the ages, "Why Gil at
that time and that place?" As always, there is no answer
that makes sense, yet his family, friends and classmates can
take some consolation in the remembrance of a very fine young
man. His potential was not yet touched, but one could sense that
Gil had great things in store for him. Gil Perry joined the Long
Gray Line early, almost 44 years ago, but his memory has been
with us all these years and will remain with us forever. Rest
in peace, Gil.
'46 Memorial Article Project and his mother
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