Gene Gilbreath (October 13, 1925 – October 18, 2019), Was during WWWII he served in HQ Co, 2nd Batallion, 506th Parachute Infantry regiment, 101st Airborne Division. He was a replacement after the invasion in Normandy and joined the 101st Airborne in July 1944 as Pfc, Private First Class.
On the 17th September 1944 he landed near Son in The Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden with the objective to capture the bridge at the Wilhelminacanal. During combat Gene was part of an anti-
He was in Holland until November 1944 when the 101st Airborne was pulled from the front line to recuperate in Mourmelon, France.
There was little time for rest as the Germans attacked the Allied lines on December 16th, 1944, starting the battle of the Ardennes or the Battle of the Bulge. The 101st Airborne Division was directed to the small town of Bastogne to defend this strategic position and keep it in Allied hands.
In January 1945, Gene was shot in the chest by a German sniper in Noville.
He managed to stumble to his own lines and to the Medic Post, almost a mile away. He recuperated in Paris and the US. At the time of the end of the war in Europe, on May 8, 1945, gene was recuperating in a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, later moved to Florida. Only on the 17th of September was he fully recuperated and Gene was honorably discharged from the US Army.
