Dale County AlArchives Military Records.....Gilley, Pelah February 1945
ww2 66th Armored Regiment
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Christine Thacker CGT714@AOL.com February 21, 2005, 9:02 pm

Newspaper Soldier Killed
60 Years Ago, Feb. 15, 1945...Reprinted Souther Star Feb. 16, 2005

           DALEVILLE SOLDIER KILLED SAVING DUTCH BOY.

WITH THE SECOND ARMORED DIVISION IN GERMANY 
First Sergeant Pelah Gilley, Daleville Ala., of the 66th Armored RegIment, 
watched his outfit leave a bivouac area in Holland. The brick wall he stood 
beside was two feet thick but weakened by shellfire and the heavy tanks 
rumbling past. A heavy-track skidded,Crashed Into it.	
  Sgt. Gilley heard the wall crumpllng behind him and jumped to safety, then 
looked back. A Little Dutch boy paralysed with fear waa directly in its path
  Without hesitating, Sgt. Gilley ran to the boy a side and threw him to safety 
as the wall fell. Sgt. Gilley was buried beneath brick and mortar. He died in 
an Army hospital.
  Sgt. Gilley had eleven years service, enlisting in the Regular Army In 1935. 
He came overseas with the Second Armored Division in December 1942, serving 
with disinction in the African, Sicilian, French, Belgium Holland. and German 
campaigns.	
  For meritorious service he. was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with two Oak 
Leaf Clusters. He was First Sergeant of Headquarters Company, First Battalion 
from 11 October 1942 until the time of his death. 
  His wife, Mrs. Florine Gilley, Daleville, Ala. and two children William P. 
Gilley and Twylia GilleyY, survive. 


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