I have been trying to locate a WWII serviceman, Bill Hammon, who served at the same Philippine air base as my father. I found the following in your online database :
... Divide Cemetery 1:582-3 BILL HAMMON Aug 29 1912 - Dec 2 1980. GBT US Army WWII.
In the citation, can you tell me what "GBT US Army WWII" means"
Thanks.
Dave Deatherage
Son of Paul Deatherage, ART 1c, VPB119, 1944-45
Response
David:
The line you quote includes the plot number of Bill Hammon's grave at the Divide Cemetery and the inscription as it appears on the headstone. The source document is a cemetery inventory; it does not try to understand or interpret what the stones are telling us. That will come in future publications. I can tell you for certain that Hammon was in the US Army in World War II. Based on what we've seen on other headstones, GBT refers either to his role in the Army or a geographical location where he served. In a quick Google search for "GBT WWII" I find the following entries(the first three listed are from GOOGLE BOOK SEARCH, which gives full text of books in PDF format.). Consider doing the search yourself and following additional links.
- Intelligence and the War Against Japan by Richard James Aldrich. Apparently the GBT was an intelligence gathering group working (with? under?) the OSS in Indo-China. Among other things, they collected weather information which was then forwarded to the allies.
- Imagining Vietnam and America by Mark Bradley, Mark Philip Bradley and John Lewis Gaddis; and
- OSS in China by Maochun Yu, beginning about pg. 200
- Then look at this website -- http://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~ebolt/history398/AdvisingTheVietMinh.html. Once there, look for the subheading "OSS and GBT Veterans Present"
For a week in September 1997, some of the surviving Viet Minh forces of Ho Chi Minh and veterans of the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS), who collaborated in 1945 near the end of World War II, met for a second "reunion" in New York City. Some of these same men and women had met in 1995 in Vietnam to begin an oral history project sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the Vietnam USA Society..... - Also found a reference to a WWII aircraft (the photograph was marked POLAND) which incorportated GBT as part of its designator. No indication this aircraft was ever used anywhere in Asia or the Pacific.
It think it is safe to say that GBT referred to an intelligence-gathering group active in Southeast Asia, particularly Indo-China (Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) 1943-1945. Whether this was the same GBT to which Mr. Hammon's inscription refers I cannot say. BUT -- your father's unit was a specialized unit flying long-range bombing missions into Indo-China. The GBT group collected information that was vital to the success of these bombing missions. Therefore, it is logical (but not necessarily correct!) to assume that GBT team members and VPB-xxx crew members were at least acquainted with each other, if not friends.
You might find this link especially interesting -- or you may already know about the book: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/china-ghost-world-war-ii,521451.shtml
Perhaps a chat with your local VFW unit or Veteran's Administration office can provide more specific information about GBT. Please let us know what you find.
Bonnie Stevens, volunteer
Groveland Museum HRC
