Gordon Higgins was born in February 1924 in New Haven, Connecticut, one of two sons who lived with their mother and maternal grandparents. While in his senior year of high school, Higgins was listening to a New York Giants football game on the radio when he heard the announcement that Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] had been attacked by the Japanese. The news, seeming to affect only people far away, had little impact on him at the time. He finished high school in June 1942, and found work at an aircraft manufacturing company as a propeller technician. The draft age was lowered to include 18 year olds at the end of that month, and Higgins registered in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Higgins remembers blackouts and rationing, and the conditions and security enforced at the plant in which he worked. In February 1943, Higgins was drafted into the Army and sent to boot camp at Fort Jackson, near Columbia, South Carolina.

Gordon Higgins describes basic training and the evaluations performed and placements made as well as the issuance of personal clothing and equipment, and basic military training. He was put in Company D of the Medical Battalion as a surgical technician and assigned to work with medical instruments. The officers in his outfit were all doctors, and the training was rigorous. Higgins was promoted to corporal, and went through gas training during which he learned how to properly handle situations where gas warfare was employed. At the end of training the high IQ recruits were offered the opportunity to go to college. He was initially sent to a small religious college in Florida, dubbed a "star unit," for remedial courses, after which Higgins was enrolled in Oklahoma A & M University [Annotator's Notes: now Oklahoma State University or OSU in Stillwater, Oklahoma]. He undertook a regular college curriculum in engineering, and lived under strict supervision.

One Sunday, Gordon Higgins was asked to take the photograph of a pretty girl that he dated for some time, and from whom he received letters, typically emblazoned with lipstick kisses and the initials "SWAK" [Annotator's Note: sealed with a kiss], when he went back to the infantry. The United States needed able bodies to join the European war effort, and although Higgins was never issued a gun, he underwent combat training. He described the country as "pacifist," and noted that the recruits had to "get in the mood to kill people." The motto was "kill or be killed." Higgins said they were completely brainwashed, and noted that it was necessary training. He became a medic again, this time in a regimental headquarters unit, and for a time worked as a range medic in the areas where weapons practice took place. There, he learned about "dum-dum" bullets, which are created by knocking the rifle's ammunition clip on the rocks before inserting it, resulting in a bullet's entry wound twice as big as normal. The level of physical training increased, and the unit was winnowed into men fit for combat. They were newly outfitted and ready for war.

Gordon Higgins traveled by train to Camp Shanks, New York, where troops were collecting before shipping out. He was impressed with the marching techniques of the black troops. He went aboard an Italian luxury liner that had been conscripted as a troop ship with about a half of a division. Higgins wore a cactus patch on his shoulder signifying the 103rd Infantry Division [Annotator's Note: Higgins served as an assistant to the battalion surgeon in 2nd Battalion, 407th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Infantry Division]. It was September 1944, and although the German u-boats [Annotator's Note: submarines] were "pretty much under control," they traveled south in an 11 ship convoy, past the islands around Florida, and headed into the Atlantic where many of the passengers were seasick. Going through the Straits of Gibraltar and up the coast of Spain, the ship landed in Marseilles, France. The soldiers marched 18 miles uphill to a bivouac area, dug foxholes in solid rock, built latrines, and pitched tents in which they lived with vermin and reptiles. Higgins described a jeep assembly line, where soldiers started with parts and ended up with vehicles. The soldiers exercised to keep in shape while waiting for action. Eventually they were taken through Dijon to the Lorraine area of France, near the German border. Higgins' medical unit was settled between the artillery and the front lines. He said the ground shook most of the night from the artillery fire, and Higgins said he cried on that first night, because he finally had an understanding of what war was about, and he was "scared silly."

When his major recognized a surplus of medics attached to regimental headquarters, Gordon Higgins was reassigned to the 2nd Battalion. His first job was painting the identifying white circles containing red Geneva crosses on helmets, then he went to an improvised trouble-shooting platoon patrolling "no-man's land" [Annotator's Note: an area of unoccuppied ground between the static positions of oppossing forces]. On 11 November 1944, Higgins "jumped off" [Annotator's Note: embarked on a mission] for the first time with the infantry and waited in the rear for the inevitable call of "medic forward," meaning he was needed to administer aide to a wounded soldier. When the time came, Higgins had to venture out into a sniper-covered field to reach the disabled. His first patient was a man that had been hit three times and he treated several more that he sent back to the aid station. He also discovered that seven of the soldiers on the field were already dead. The unit took a number of German prisoners that day including, according to Higgins, the snipers that had caused all the damage. Another incident he recalled involved his work with "George" Company [Annotator's Note: Company G, 2nd Battalion, 407th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Infantry Division] that had dug into foxholes to avoid "tree bursts" [Annotator's Note: timed artillery explosions that burst in trees to create secondary wooden splinters as well as shrapnel]. In the middle of the night Higgins took off alone to treat the wounded, going from foxhole to foxhole to help out where he could.

Gordon Higgins describes food rations, and continues with his experiences as the war progressed. He said it took 30 days to set up their new position on a replacement line. On the first day, he tended 42 casualties on his own, and they picked up the battle, moving from town to town. The unit [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 407th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Infantry Division] was mentioned in the papers for capturing St. Die, France [Annotator's Note: Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France], the first of its three successful battles. Higgins said they went on with "routine fighting," and he accompanied, without being attached to, the rifle company as its medic. He described the mission surrounding the liberation of the big French town, Selestat. At one point, Higgins took refuge under a boxcar in a railroad station, only to find it was burned out and only its metal frame stood as his protection. Like him, many of the men suffered from dysentery and they all spent the winter with inadequate clothing for the cold weather.

For the remainder of the war, Gordon Higgins drove a jeep between the battalion aid station [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 407th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Infantry Division] and the forward lines. There was a rack on the front of the jeep that could accommodate litters, and Higgins described the technique used when driving in the dark. He mentioned the occasion when the he was going through a town on the way to pick up a soldier that had a head wound. The 14th Tank Battalion [Annotator's Note: 14th Tank Battalion, 9th Armored Division] was also coming through at the same time, and Higgins got his jeep into the tank column. The Germans were alerted by the rattle of the tanks, and surprised them with a barrage of artillery fire in their midst. Higgins jumped out of the jeep and under a tank, barely missing being hit. The infantry in front of the tanks was hit hard, and Higgins went through hailing bullets to reach the wounded and bring them back to the aid station. After it was over, he told the story to a journalist in the camp who wrote it up and got the captain to sign off on the article. The event won for Higgins a Bronze Star [Annotator's Note: the fourth-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy].

Heading east and north into Germany, Gordon Higgins' 7th Army was flanked on either side by the French Army and Patton’s [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] 3rd Army. At the German border, they encountered a big sign that said something like "You are now entering Germany with the courtesy of the 409th Infantry Regiment." As they approached the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s], the tanks were stymied by intense artillery fire, so the infantry was sent in to clear a way for them to proceed. They were met with heavy ground resistance. The Allies had to attack the many pillboxes with satchel charges [Annotator's Note: a demolition device, functionally similar to a messenger bag, containing dynamite or other explosives and a triggering mechanism]. Higgins described how the company established and operated a forward medical aid station in one of the conquered pillboxes, and how difficult it was to transport wounded over the rough terrain. Higgins was dismayed at not being rewarded for his actions when the last of the wounded were withdrawn from the battle site. According to Higgins, the battle was concluded through siege tactics, and the remaining Germans were taken prisoner.

When the troops' Christmas packages were arriving in 1944, Gordon Higgins' unit [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 407th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Infantry Division] was called in to serve as replacements for Patton's [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] 3rd Army as he marched to the rescue at the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Higgins saw combat on New Years Eve, when a few tanks arrived at their position and feinted. After the battle was over, he went back to his own outfit, and remembered going through the mining district of Sauerland. They went back to the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s], at a different spot, to overcome the remaining Germans holding out there, and get the war back on track. As they moved on, Higgins was riding on the flanks of tanks as an infantryman, combating German infantrymen they encountered along the roads they were clearing. The maneuvers were called "reconnaissance by fire" and was performed by tanks moving in columns, shooting at any suspicious shadow along the road. Along the route, a lead tank hit an abandoned German ammunition truck, which caught fire, but didn't explode until the end of the column containing the fuel supply trucks came into its vicinity and they were annihilated. The column continued through three cities, but had to stop when it got too low on fuel to continue. There they settled for a while with nowhere to go and nothing to do until additional supplies could catch up. Higgins said they administered medical care to the people of the area; the Army parachuted blood and supplies to care for them. Higgins said he could patch up bullet holes, but he was not good at sicknesses. He noted that the 7th Army has been remembered by some as "The Forgotten Army," because its replacement general kept a low profile and the Army didn't get much press. Their division crossed the Rhine at Worms, Germany.

Gordon Higgins' unit [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 407th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Infantry Division] joined the 10th Armored Division when it was assigned a road to make its way to Italy. The process took a lot of time, going from town to town, showing the Germans Allied firepower and daring resistance. Higgins said the Germans were surrendering in "wholesale quantities." He described the route through Germany and said it was beautiful country. Higgins goes on to tell other stories about his adventures in Germany and Austria. At one point, when his tank unit was about 18 miles from Innsbruck [Annotator's Note: Innsbruck, Austria], they reached a place where the Germans had blown out half the mountain. A rear tank had thrown a track, so they couldn't reverse, and were going to be stuck there for some time; so the soldiers walked into Innsbrook for a look around. The unit spent some time in a town about 10 miles outside Innsbruck for rest and recuperation. From the distribution area they moved back to a town called Landsberg [Annotator's Note: Landsberg, Germany], outside of which the division had freed a German concentration camp prior to Higgins' arrival. By this time, the Army was sending soldiers home on the points system. But Higgins had too few points to go home, and was put into the 9th Infantry Division and became part of the army of occupation.

The location Gordon Higgins was sent for occupation duty was at Dachau, near Munich, Germany. There were 10,000 German prisoners there at the time, and Higgins was in the hospital unit. A former prisoner of the concentration camp gave him a tour of the facility, including the gas chambers, the killer dog kennels, and the execution walls. Higgins described the German captors as businessmen who removed the prisoners' possessions on arrival, and pulled their gold teeth to hoard the precious metal. Higgins described the souvenirs he took from among the camp's residue: a fez, a dagger, and coins bearing the swastika emblem. Eventually he was given a choice of staying in Europe or going home on leave and retraining for war in the Pacific. Higgins decided to leave Europe, but the war in Japan ended, and he was kept where he was until he had enough points for discharge. In January 1946 Higgins traveled by train to Le Havre [Annotator's Note: Le Havre, France] where he stayed in a "cigarette camp" [Annotator's Note: one of the transit and rehabilitation camps in France named after popular cigarette brands; Lucky Strike was near Le Havre, France] to await transport to the United States. He mentioned reading the famous Army "Yank Magazine," that helped keep the morale up among soldiers, and through which the troops got news and aired grievances.

While waiting to go home, Gordon Higgins drove a jeep and an ambulance. He also ran a "pro station," where soldiers were treated for potential and manifest venereal disease. He mentioned that the soldiers sometimes had to be treated for drinking tainted alcohol. He was finally put on a Victory ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] and returned to the United States. Higgins talked about the rough seas and excessive gambling that went on during the trip. He arrived in New Jersey, and was discharged as a PFC [Annotator's Note: Private First Class] through Fort Dix, New Jersey.