Marilyn Oliver

Part of The Greatest Generation

(From the files of the Sequoyah County Times)

administration.

She served one year in Sinai, Egypt with the Multi-National Forces and Observers.

Marilyn joined the Army at age 17 with the split option of basic training between junior and senior years in high school. During the summer of 1984 she had basic training at Fort Mc-Clellan, Alabama; returning the summer of 1985 to Fort McClellan for AIT Military Police Training. In April 1990 she earned her Air Assault Badge.

Her first unit was with the 102nd MP battalion in Springfield, Missouri. She retired from the National Guards in 2017 with several years in personnel administration at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma.

Marilyn is currently the Vian Middle School principal after having taught in Vian Elementary and High School Technology since 1998.

Marilyn is married to Danny Oliver, also a 24 year veteran and retired Oklahoma State Trooper. They have one son, Jonathan and wife Ceara of Dallas Texas.

James M. McFarland served in the Army during the Vietnam Era from 1971-1972

James Cheater

James Cheater Master Sergeant E7 U.S. Air Force Served 24 years, with 10 of those years being active and 14 years in the Guard.

Jo u r n a l i s t Tom Brokaw called them “The Greatest Generation” in his book of the same title and Gilbert Green of Sallisaw is one of a few remaining from that generation.

Brokaw was making reference to the generation that endured the Great Depression and World War II. Brokaw said this was the generation that developed values of “personal responsibility, duty, honor and faith.”

It is because of this generation that Americans enjoy the freedoms and affluence they have today, according to Brokaw. “They have given the succeeding generations the opportunity to accumulate great economic wealth, political muscle and the freedom from foreign oppression to make whatever choices they like,” Brokaw wrote.

When duty called, Gilbert Green went. He went from a country-living boy in Akins to flying over the skies of Europe during World War II in a matter of a few months.

In those days, when you were drafted, you answered the call, and perhaps that is where Brokaw credits that generation with duty and honor.

Green, 92, was drafted into the Army in 1942. He was assigned to the Army Air Force, then on to gunnery school in Fairmont, Neb.

“In December of 1943, we went to Florida on our way to overseas,” Green said. “We went through South America to Dakar, Africa. From there we went on into Italy. I flew my first mission in February 1944. I was the tail gunner on a B-24.”

The B-24 Liberator (as it was known) carried a six-man crew and four officers. In addition to the tail gun, Green said the aircraft had a nose gun, a top gun and the ball turret (underneath, in the belly of the aircraft).

“That first one (mission) was a dry run getting us trained,” Green said.

Things got serious after that and on Feb. 5 Green said the crew flew a mission to Regensburg, Germany, home to a Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft factory, ball bearings and an oil refinery.

“We went there five times. It was one of the toughest targets we had,” Green said. “From there, we flew missions on the Ploesti oil fields in Romania. We went there five times.”

In all, Green said the B-24 on which he was a crewmember, known affectionately as the Crater Maker, flew 52 missions in Germany, Bucharest, Budapest and France. He came out unscathed.

Being in a vulnerable position in the tail gun, Green said he took the doors off in the event he had to make a quick exit. He said it was difficult for the tail gunner to exit the turret and put on a parachute to evacuate.

In those missions, Green shot down three enemy aircraft. After he left the crew and returned to the states, Green said two of the crewmembers

Warren G. Thomas

Warren G. Thomas, Army Veteran, WWII Served in Japan Wife Bernice Barbee Thomas, Children Marilyn, Danny and Larry Thomas A Native of Sequoyah County, Warren was born near the Akins community.

he served with had been

Marilyn Oliver 33 years of service May 31, 1984 – June 30, 2017 Marilyn’s military career included Military Police and later personel

assigned to different aircraft and later were killed in action.

“We didn’t get to Berlin because the Russians wouldn’t let us land. We had to land somewhere to get back home,” Green said “When we were coming back home one time, we lost an engine. We dropped our bombs and tried to get as light as we could. About halfway back, I spotted a group of planes coming in at 6 o’clock position. It turned out to be ours. We had to land at another field. When we got back they had taken our tent down. They thought we weren’t coming back.

“If a plane got hit I don’t see how the tail gunner could get out of the turret. I was very fortunate,” he said.

When Green returned to the states, he said the war was still going on, but the Army didn’t know what to do with him. “I thought they were going to put me in a B-29 and send me to Japan. They ended up making me a supply sergeant in Amarillo, Texas.”

That was when he married his childhood sweetheart, Reba. Green said she stayed in touch by writing him letters. She had been working at an Army base in California prior to returning to Amarillo to marry Green.

“Reba got $50 a month and I got $50 a month, but they took $18 out of my pay for insurance,” Green said.

Born and raised in Akins, Green graduated from Sallisaw High School Marilyn Oliver in 1941. While there, he played basketball and football. “When I first came back to Sallisaw, I got a job carrying rural mail for a couple of years. They got a full time man to replace me. Reba and I went to college at Connors, then Northeastern. I studied industrial arts and started teaching at Central High and coached basketball,” Green said.

He later went to work as an insurance agent with Farmer’s Insurance before putting in an abstract office and starting a real estate business. He later sold that business and went into the nursing home business. He hasn’t worked for 10 years, but the business, now run by his son Phil, still bears his name.

“My son wanted to know when he could take the sign down (with his name on it), and I told him when I died,” Green said with a laugh.

For his service, Green was awarded two presidential citations and Air Medal with six Oak Leaf Clusters.

Green did not have to serve on that B-29 that might have been headed for Japan, he was home when they dropped the “atomic bomb” that ended the war.

“I think every kid should spend two years in service to learn to say yes sir, no sir – both boys and girls,” Green said. “I was proud to be in the Army. It made me a man compared to what I had been.”

Matt Buckaloo

Warren G. Thomas

Matt Buckaloo

Matt Buckaloo U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class 1991-1994 Operation Desert Storm Operation Desert Shield

Green looks over some records of the missions he and his crew flew during the war.

Green picking up new equipment at a location in Boise, Idaho.