2018 Veterans Voice 1 A Special Magazine Honoring our Military Veterans Veterans Voice Brought to you by: Cameron Newspapers Meet our Local Veterans: Personal Stories, Military Photos and Family Tributes 2 Veterans Voice 2018 A Free Publication by Cameron Newspapers 403 E. Evergreen, PO Box 498 | Cameron, MO 64429 Phone: 816.632.6543 | Fax: 816.632.4508 www.mycameronnews.com table of contents Gilbert “Gib” Keith .....................................3 William “BIll” Pollard ................................16 A. C. Heldenbrand ....................................6 Curtis Charles Sifers .................................17 Paul Hanrahan ...........................................7 Robert Keith Collins .................................18 Raymond “Ray” Diven ..............................8 Keith Garside ...........................................19 Billy G. McGinnis ......................................10 David “Dave” Jacobs .............................20 Martin J. Murphy ......................................11 Colonel Stephen H. Kelley ......................21 Marvin Nickell ..........................................14 Doug Rathburn ........................................22 Joe Seuferling ..........................................15 “In memoriam pages 3-7” Cameron Ambulance Thank you to all our veterans! The residents and staff at The Baptist Home wish to thank all veterans for their service to our country. We will forever be profoundly grateful. THANK YOU TO ALL SERVICE MEMBERS PAST and PRESENT CASH 4 SCRAP BUYING ALL TYPE OF METAL… 8691 SE HWY. 69 CAMERON (660) 646-6219 Jeff Snow PH: 816-632-2440 FAX: 816-632-5999 500 Baptist Home Lane Chillicothe ( 6 miles N. of Walmart) www.thebaptisthome.org THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE 2018 Veterans Voice 3 WWII: Gilbert “Gib” Keith By Tori Foster by the Missouri Shoal Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution, their first mission Seventy-three years later, Gilbert “Gib” was to have 125 of the 500 B-29s in the air Keith can still remembers the serial number for incendiary raids. These raids targeted given to him on Jan. 14, 1943 when he chemical and industrial areas across Japan. volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corp. When he found out he was going to the Keith, a 1941 Trenton High School graduate, Pacific, Keith developed a system, a secret was just barely 18 years old. code, letting his family know where he was. “37498414,” he recites with decades-old “We knew we were going to the Pacific precision. “I can never forget that.” theater,” Keith said. “Dad and I assigned Keith recalls joining for the love of his numbers to each island from Pearl Harbor country and thought it was his duty to serve. to Guam. I said, ‘Dad, if I write you a letter After enlisting with the Air Corp he had to and it says 1000 hours, you will know where wait for his assignment, Keith volunteered I am.’ That’s the way we did it. Just as soon to be a photographer but there were no as they got my first letter they knew where I openings. He was sent to Florida and was was but you couldn’t just broadcast it.” temporarily assigned to an infantry radar us.” While on their way to Guam, his school along with 44 other trainees. After From Florida, Keith was sent to Colorado unit passed through Pearl Harbor. Keith completing the training, Keith had made the Springs, Colo. then onto Mountain Home, remembers the USS Arizona still burning, rank of staff sergeant. Idaho, where he saw his first B-29. After three years after the Japanese struck. He “Three days later, the captain came in Mountain Home, Idaho, he was sent to also said you could still see the strafe marks and said ‘I have some good news and bad Hays, Kansas then to Seattle and finally down the sidewalks and up the walls of the news,’” said Keith, with a smirk. “’The overseas. buildings. The windows were still shattered, good news is you are all going to the Air Keith was assigned to the Pacific Theater shot out by enemy forces. Corp where you belong, but you are going and was stationed on Guam with the 330th “Up until then, most of the war was taking as buck privates.’ They broke every one of Bomb Group. According to an essay written place in Europe. When Japan bombed Pearl Cameron License Office 505 Lana Drive, Cameron, MO 64429 (816) 632-4830 PROUD TO SUPPORT “Without heroes, we are all OUR VETERANS plain people, and don’t know how far we can go” -Bernard Malamud Donald Eugene Graeff, Karen Chaney, Agent Army Corporal Airforce- Karen Chaney Agency Inc Jet Engine mechanic 223 E 3rd St, Cameron Bus: (816) 632-6586 [email protected] Major George L. 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The battalion was told their When they pulled into St. Louis, Keith heavy machinery and bulldozers would be waiting remembers there being a bad snow storm. on the island for them when they arrived. He recalls a lady on the bus being worried “When they got to the docks, they unloaded 125 about the bus sliding off the road. He told snow plows,” Keith said with a boisterous laugh. her most people lie in the aisle to be safe. “The coldest it gets on Guam is 90 degrees! The According to Keith, she laid in the aisle colonel was furious, but they tore them all apart from St. Louis to Chillicothe. and made bulldozers and clearing equipment out of “Life is full of funny things if you look them.” for them,” chuckled Keith. Keith served as an Aerial Observer and was Back in Guam, Keith remembers the not assigned to any one plane. While in Guam, his day they dropped the atomic bomb. He lab processed approximately 627,000 prints. Each said he talked to some of the men on the photo was processed seven times with instructions to be sent to the mission who said they were about 40 miles from the detonation site war department and Congress. He would also send pictures home and it lit up the plane like daylight. from the war and he still has them to this day. “Some of those guys that were on that mission, they had “The day that made the biggest impression on me was the day they apprehensions about doing it,” said Keith. “It was the first that had signed the peace treaty in Tokyo Harbor aboard the USS Missouri, ever been made or dropped. But, Truman was responsible and bless I have pictures of it,” said Keith. “I bet you they had at least 1,000 his heart, I am grateful to him because that sent us all home.” people there and none of them under the rank of Colonel.” Life after Guam He was able to return home one time. Keith said while they were Keith was honorably discharged on Jan. 6, 1946. He was awarded stopped at a train station, two sailors jumped off to get a bottle of the Combat Medal with two stars, Good Conduct, Asiatic-Pacific whiskey. As they ran back, the train was pulling out of the station. Campaign Medal with two stars, WWII Victory Medal, the American 1003 W. 4th St. Cameron, MO 64429 (816) 632-6056 ESTABLISHED 1938 Member FDIC Hamilton (816) 583-2143 Breckenridge Our deepest gratitude to those (660) 644-5815 who served both Lathrop past & present. (816) 528-4200 THA S!!! NK YOU ALL VETERAN 2018 Veterans Voice 5 Campaign Medal and the state of Missouri Veteran Medal. said Keith. “I enjoy doing it and you create it and then it’s there for After the war, he got his pilots license and formed a Civil Air everyone to enjoy.” Patrol unit in Trenton. He said he always wanted to fly and at 93, he Keith also used to put on a war program for schools with friend still has his license. Ray Diven. Diven served in the European Theater during WWII. Keith had ambitions of running his own photography studio. Keith said Diven was there two days after they opened one of the Although he worked in a studio in Columbia for a long time, he death camps. After one of their presentations, the superintendent never did open his own. He later worked as the news editor for at the time came to Keith and said ‘Make it your last, they are no a radio station and then moved on to work at NW Electric Co. in longer interested.’ Cameron where he retired after 18 years. “I was so disappointed by his reaction,” said Keith. “While I Keith and his wife Dolores were married for 60 years before was at the Vet’s home one day, one of the veterans asked me ‘Do she died in 2003. He carried a photo of Dolores during the war as a you know who we are?’ I replied, ‘I know who I am, who are you?’ “blessing charm.” Keith has two daughters, four grandchildren and The man said ‘We are living history.’ That is exactly right.” many great-grandchildren. Keith currently resides in the Missouri Veterans Home of One establishment Keith was very instrumental in was the Cameron.