Westminster's William F. Gilliland perished stateside during WWII
WESTMINSTER – When it comes to the statistics of World War II, the numbers illustrate the atrocity of the deadliest military conflict in U.S. history.
An estimated 70-85 million people perished worldwide, or about 3% of the 2.3 billion people on the Earth (according to the 1940 Census). The United States suffered the loss of an estimated 407,300 military personnel with 10,033 of the casualties hailing from Massachusetts.
However, another astonishing statistic was that some 15,000 young men died, not on the battlefields of Europe but rather in aircrew training accidents right here in the U.S.
Aviation was still in its relative infancy during the 1940s. Only a tiny fraction of Americans had ever even been on a plane. Civil aviation was far from safe, and military aviation even less so.
Tragically, one soldier from Westminster, Sgt. William F. Gilliland, fell victim to a training accident brought about through the pilot error of the officer commandeering his plane.
This is the continuation of the series Remembering Local World War II Heroes.
Sgt. William F. Gilliland (1920-1944)
William Frederick Gilliland was born in Greenfield on Sept. 13, 1920, the son of Ralph Dewolf and Ora May (Thayer) Gilliland. His family moved to Gardner in 1933 where William attended Gardner High School and he was a Boy Scout patrol leader with Troop 1.
He lived in Gardner for eight years and worked for the Greenwood-Carlton Corporation before moving to Bolton Road in Westminster in 1941. He was later employed by the Smith Box Company in Westminster when he entered the U.S. Army on Oct. 2, 1942.
Mark Landry, the veteran’s graves officer as well as a member of the town’s veteran’s committee for the Westminster Historical Society, provided a good deal of information to help complete this column, as well as each on soldiers from Westminster.
Landry noted that Gilliland, after entering the Army Air Force, graduated from the Harlingen flexible gunner school in Texas, where he earned the silver wings of a gunner-sergeant as an expert aerial triggerman.
He began training as a gunner aboard B-17 bombers at Dyersburg Army Air Base in Halls, Tennessee.
On Jan. 19, 1944, his Flying Fortress bomber was flying with another B-17 practicing maneuvers at Dyersburg.
As the pilot of William's plane flew underneath the other, it came up too close to the second plane. The tail of William's plane crashed into the nose of the other plane causing his plane to plummet and crash.
Eight flyers and a civilian from the Dyersburg Base were killed and two were injured when the Flying Fortresses collided in flight. Only the Tail Gunner, Sgt. Clement J. Ost, survived.
The members of the crew who perished were Pilot, 1st Lt. George D. Penniman; Co-Pilot, 2nd Lt. Joseph F. Kerber; Bombardier, 2nd Lt. William L. O'Donnell; Engineer, Master Sgt. Abraham E. Barnum; Assistant Engineer, Sgt. Martin B. Johnston; Radio Operator, Sgt. Richard J. Scott; Waist Gunner, Sgt. Joseph P. Azevedo; and Waist Gunner, Sgt. Gilliland.
The civilian, Thomas S. Kessler, was a representative of an instrument manufacturing company on duty with the air forces. The other bomber returned to the base safely.
The funeral of the 23-year-old Sgt. Gilliland was held from the Smith Funeral Home in Gardner, while he was buried in the Green Bower Cemetery in Gardner.
Aside from his parents, he was survived at the time by three sisters, Mrs. Jessie Edmonds of Woodsville, N.H., Mrs. Ora Parker of Templeton and Mrs. Bertha DeWolf of Montague, and three brothers, John of Ashburnham, James of Barre, and Pvt. Eugene Gilliland, who was stationed overseas with the U. S. Army.
Comments and suggestions for Remembering Local World War II Heroes can be sent to Mike Richard at mikerichard0725@gmail.com or in writing Mike Richard, 92 Boardley Road, Sandwich, MA 02563.
This article originally appeared on Gardner News: William Gilliland Westminster died stateside airplane training crash
