Gerald Hansen – Navy, World War 2
Excerpt from Gerald Hansen’s History
Gerald Hansen served as a sailor on the Pacific Front of World War 2.
While serving, he trained in the Philippines with grenades and guarded Japanese soldiers in the prisoner-of-war camp. He once told of another American soldier in training who thought that if he just held the grenade and lost his arm, he'd be able to go home. He witnessed that man losing more than just his arm and all of the soldiers training that day were reminded of the seriousness of throwing the grenade once the clip was pulled.
There was one incident while he was on guard duty that he started getting shot at from the trees surrounding the camp. He couldn't see who was shooting at him so he fired back until they stopped.
Often times when the troops would go out sailing, Brother Gerald would go up on the deck and find a private spot to pray. He did this often and was spotted one time by another soldier on duty. Believing he may have been a spy, they followed him to see who he was and what he was doing. When they noticed him praying, they confronted him afterwards and said, “I know we’re going to be okay because we’ve got someone like you on board praying for help.”
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