The Landmark
Statesville, North Carolina
May 17, 1945

NEWS OF OUR MEN 
AND WOMEN IN UNIFORM

   Ernest B. Gilleland, Jr., Aviation Machinist Mate 2-C flew 50 missions as an air crewman aboard a Navy search plane during a recent tour of duty in the Pacific.
   He flew in a four engine Martin Mariner and served as a plane captain and gunner attached to Patrol Bombing Squadron 21 which operated from Navy bases on Pacific islands. He says the most exciting moment of the tour was when his plane crashed trying to make a rescue at sea. He and his crew spent 25 hours in a life raft before being picked up by an American destroyer.
   The son of Mrs. E. B. Gilleland is married to the former Helen Knight.

-- transcription by Kate Maynard, 2010