Joseph L. Giesey, Jr.

I was drafted into the U.S. Army in March, 1943, 4 months after my 18th birthday and sent from Wilkinsburg (Pittsburgh) PA to Camp George G. Meade (now Fort Meade) MD. After a week spent getting our shots, uniforms and signing up for life insurance, most of us from Wilkinsburg were put on a very slow troop train that went through Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee, when we turned left and went south towards Kansa City and St. Louis. You see the Army didn't want the enemy to know where we were going. And, coincidentally, neither did any of us. After about 2 weeks of coach rail travel we stopped and debarked in El Paso, TX on our way to Fort Bliss and the 489th AAA Battalion(AW) which was a part of the Coast Artillery at that time. After basic training in Anti Aircraft Artillery I decided to try for a transfer to the Aviation Cadet program in the U.S. Army Air Corps. I received permission from our C.O. and went to Biggs Air Field, just east of El Paso for the day and took the entrance exam along with the physical. Then I waited until my transfer came through at which time I was sent to Amarillo Army Air Corps Base for Air Corps basic training. That was a little redundant, but you know the Army and the Air Corps is no different.

After basic training, our group was sent to Fort Hays State College in Kansas as a part of the 83rd Air Crew College Training Detachment for 5 months of classes and 12 hours of flying 'paper cups'. It was very interesting and informative and who wouldn't like the bucolic college life with hundreds of coeds around.

In January, 1944, we finished our college training and were shipped to Santa Ana, CA to the Santa Ana Army Air Base for Classification and Pre-Flight training in the Western Flying Training Command. Discipline was constant and intensified since we were all projected to be future commissioned officers. Our CO was 2nd Lt. L. L. Crabb, a red necked, short, stubby southerner who almost never smiled. When he did, you could see his bad teeth. He personified his last name. When we finished our Pre-Flight in late March, 1944, Flight #83 was scattered and I was sent to King City, CA to the King City Army Air Base, a small converted public airport that now was a part of the Air Corps, except that the flight instructors were civilians. We were flying twin cockpit, open bi-planes made by Stearman and called PT-17's. Many times during April and May, while in the air, I could look down and see some poor dog-foot trying to push a stubborn mule up a muddy mountainside. And I used to think to myself, Boy, Joe! are you lucky? You get to fly a plane and sleep in a comfortable bed with 3 hot meals a day and always wear clean uniforms. I was remembering the 25 mile hikes from Fort Bliss into the Alamagordo, NM desert, which was long before the Atomic Energy Lab was built there. And each time this occurred I used to pity those poor bastards down on the ground underneath my plane.

In late June, 1944, the Air Corps decided that they didn't need pilots because they had not lost as many as they expected in combat. Therefore, they would severely curtail the Aviation Cadet Program and ship the men elsewhere. Since I had come from the Ground Forces originally, I could not remain in the Air Corps. I was sent to Presidio Frisco, an Army emplacement in San Francisco for further assignment. After 2 days there I was told that I was reduced to the rank of Private from Aviation Cadet. That was a 33 1/3 % reduction in pay as well as going back to an Army uniform. Further, that I was being assigned to the 71st Infantry Division at Fort Benning, GA. However, they did give me a 24 day delay- in- route since I had not had a furlough in over a year and I went to Pittsburgh for 12 days before reporting to Fort Benning. When I arrived at the Fort Benning gate in August, the MP told me that I was going to the 71st Cavalry Reconnaisance Troop at Sand Hill. And the rest of the story is that of the division.

JOSEPH LEO GIESEY, JR. was born November 14, 1924 in Pittsburgh, PA, the son of, J. Leo Giesey and Adelaide A. Beale Giesey. He graduated from Wilkinsburg High School, class of 1942, and served in the U.S. Army during World War II from 1943 until 1946 with the 71st Infantry Division in France, Germany and Austria. Awarded the Bronze Star Medal, European African Middle Eastern Medal w/2 Battle Stars, World War II Victory Medal and the Army of Occupation Medal for Germany.

He graduated from The Pennsylvania State College in 1950 and began an industrial sales career in 1952 selling to the basic steel industry in Pittsburgh, PA. Transferred to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1958 to serve the foundry and die casting industries. He. Retired in 1992 from the Hill & Griffith Co.

He married Marjorie V. Fuller in 1959 and they have 4 children, Joseph L. Giesey III, (Florence), Mark E. Giesey, (Barbara), Douglas J. Giesey and Susan G. Guggenheim, (Peter). There are 7 grandchildren, Brenton R. Giesey, Margot V. Giesey, Kyle R. Guggenheim, Leo J. Giesey, Dylan S. Guggenheim, Grant J. Giesey and Carly B. Guggenheim. Survivors also include brother, George B. Giesey of Hadlyme Ct.

Mr. Giesey held memberships in the American Society of Mining & Metallurgical Engineers, Diecasters Society of America and B.P.O.E Lodge #5 in Cincinnati. He also has life memberships in the Penn State Alumni Association, American Foundry Society and Delta Tau Delta Fraternity.

Mass of Christian Burial will be 10 a.m., Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at Sacred Heart Church, 400 Nilles Rd., Fairfield with Father Larry Tharp, Celebrant. Burial will follow at Arlington Memorial Gardens. Visitation will be 6-8 p.m., Monday, October 26, 2009 at the Avance Funeral Home & Crematory, 4976 Winton Rd., Fairfield. Memorials may be made to Hospice of Hamilton. Condolences may be offered at www.avancefuneralhome.com

Visitation

6-8 p.m., Monday, October 26, 2009 @ Avance Funeral Home

Service

10 a.m., Tuesday, October 27, 2009 @ Sacred Heart Church