GILROY
– Sixty-two years ago today, U.S. Marine Bill Ganson was
launching this country’s first offensive of the Second World
War.
Seven years ago, the Gilroy business owner put his memories of
the months-long battle for Guadalcanal into a five-page letter to
his mother.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Sixty-two years ago today, U.S. Marine Bill Ganson was launching this country’s first offensive of the Second World War.
Seven years ago, the Gilroy business owner put his memories of the months-long battle for Guadalcanal into a five-page letter to his mother. Florence Ganson had kept a scrapbook during her son’s four years in the Marines and he felt it was time to both thank her and finally share the story of his time serving his country.
It was the first time he had re-lived those days in the Southwest Pacific.
“… Suddenly, today, it dawned on me that (on Aug. 7, 1942) there was a rather apprehensive, if not scared, 18-year-old kid sitting in a troop ship off the shore of Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, waiting to storm the beaches the next morning in the first U.S. offensive in the Pacific in World War II. …”
Now, he says, the letter is more a message to anyone who might read it. Filled with anecdotes of Ganson’s adventures and high-jinks with his Corps buddies, the letter paints a picture of the lighter side of war.
“I wanted to give people an idea that there’s more to war than just blood and guts,” he said.
There was the time, for instance, that Technical Sergeant Ganson ordered that his clerk write the day’s Morning Report of Unit Strength on toilet paper.
“I don’t know, I was feeling silly that day,” he said.
Minutes later, his Sgt. Major called.
“He gave me 10 minutes to get a new report done and over to his office,” Ganson said. “I guess a tech sergeant should never feel silly.”
These are the stories Ganson, who has lived in the South Valley for 25 years, likes to remember.
“The good times, the fun times, the silly times,” he said. “The brain is interesting in that it does push the unpleasant memories back and lets you see and remember the good, the funny, the ridiculous.”
When asked about those unpleasant times and even the scary times, Ganson addresses them briefly before calling up some lighter memories.
“You’re always afraid, because you can get killed,” he said, before describing how he slept through one of the worst Japanese-led bombardments on his unit, while in a 6-inch-deep foxhole.
“If you concentrate on the good times, they will outweigh the bad,” he said. “You would lose your mind otherwise.”
At 80, Ganson’s optimism has kept him young at heart. For 12 years, he has owned and managed Hampton Court Antiques on Monterey Street in Gilroy with partner Bill Moores. Saying he’ll never retire, Ganson on Wednesday was preparing to move a couple blocks north to the 7680 Monterey St. building vacated by St. Vincent de Paul.
A Montana native, Ganson quit high school to enter the U.S. Marine Corps at age 17. Although his mother “sweat blood” with worry, both she and Ganson’s father supported his decision, he said. Ganson’s high school granted him a diploma anyway and on July 1, 1942, two days after his 18th birthday, he shipped out to Guadalcanal.
The food – or lack of it – on the islands is the subject of a couple of his favorite stories.
“We had no food: We got one ‘candy bar’ a day and one Spam can a day,” Ganson said.
When the U.S. Army showed up to relieve the Marines, they brought with them huge stockpiles of food, he said.
“They asked the Marines to guard the food … we were just stealing them blind,” he said, chuckling.
Ganson served in the Corps for four years, recovering from malaria in New Zealand and serving both in Hawaii and Saipan. He wrote in the letter to his mother that, at age 20, he marveled at the “young” 18-year-old replacements.
“… When we were on Saipan my buddy and myself received the great news that our two-and-a-half years in the Pacific were over. … Don’t know whose idea it was but we decided to go down to the landing docks and get a look at our replacements. It was frightening! Here were these 18 and 19-year-old ‘KIDS’ coming to replace us! ‘What the hell are they thinking of? They are sending babies out to fight the war! We’ll lose for certain!’ Right then we decided to ask for an extension of our time overseas. …”
Today, after a long teaching career and even a term in the Montana State Assembly, Ganson said he rarely talks about Guadalcanal and his Marine Corps service. He’s never even talked about the war with his brother Bob, who also was in the Corps.
“There’s nothing to talk about, really, it’s over, it’s gone,” Ganson said.
Still, he is clearly proud of his service in World War II, which he says was fought for the “right reasons,” and does want others to hear his story.
“To me, there are quite a few people who will remember Guadalcanal and the fact that it’s the anniversary of the first American offensive in the Pacific,” Ganson said. “People will remember that.”
