337th Infantry Regiment unit photograph, Camp Shelby, 1942

Description: 

Photograph, panoramic. Five rows of United States Army soldiers standing behind a row of officers. Official caption on front: "Company 'A' - 337th Infantry. Camp Shelby, Miss. - Sept. 1942." Camp Shelby, Mississippi. September 1942

Image Information

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Items from the service of First Lieutenant Peter Gabriel Wilbert, who briefly served with the 179th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division in the Meditteranean Theater of Operations before being transferred to units in the United States after he was injuried in 1943. Wilbert was born 26 February 1921 in Louisiana and raised in Plaquemine. He attended Louisiana State University and graduated with a degree in Commerce in 1939. He was working for the Louisiana State University Maintenance Department as a clerk before entering active service on 9 January 1943. Around July 1943, Wilbert was injured during the Allied invasion of Sicily and sent to the 70th General Hospital in Oran, Algeria (APO 362), and then Finney General Hospital in Thomasville, Georgia. After his recovery, he married Gloria Herlihy Gaunt before returning to active service as an officer at various bases in the Eastern United States. During his time as an officer in the United States Army, Wilbert was an Infantry Unit Commander, Unit Officer at a Training Center, and a Battalion Adjutant. Wilbert was honorably discharged on 3 December 1945 but remained in the Reserves until the 1950s. Gloria Herlihy Gaunt was born on 13 March 1922 in Plaquemine, Louisiana. She moved with her family to New Orleans, LA, where she graduated from high school and then attended Tulane University’s Newcomb College and graduated with honors in 1943. During World War II, Gaunt work for the Department of Censorship. She married Lieutenant Peter Wilbert in March 1944 and lived at the various bases he was assigned to until his discharge in 1945. The couple returned to the New Orleans area where they remained until their deaths in 2008 and 2013. The bulk of the collection consists of personal correspondence sent to Lt. Wilbert, and also includes photographs, military correspondence, and documents from Gaunt's life.
Geography: 
Hattiesburg
Latitude: 
31.317
Longitude: 
-89.283
Thesaurus for Graphic Materials: 
Soldiers--American--Mississippi
Officers--American--Mississippi