Oral History Interview with Louis Vilmer, October 23, 2007

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an interview with Louis Vilmer. Vilmer joined the Navy in April of 1943. He completed aerial gunnery school and trained as an aviation radioman. He traveled to Pearl Harbor around May of 1944 and transferred to the Naval Air Station at Barbers Point in Hawaii. From there he traveled to Majuro and Eniwetok awaiting assignment in a replacement pool. He served aboard the USS Braine (DD-630) before being assigned to the USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73). They traveled to the Palau Islands and to Leyte Gulf, supporting troop landings. He provides some details of life aboard the Gambier Bay and his work as a dive bomber. In the summer of 1945 he completed photography and radar bombing school. He traveled to Guam and finally Alaska when the war ended. Back in the United States he was assigned to a military office processing travel reimbursements. He was discharged in March of 1946