Gus Gikas was born in Lincoln, Nebraska in April 1921. His dad was the town hat maker. Gikas moved to north Texas when he was in the second grade. During the depression years, life was good because he made a lot of friends in the Texas town. He had hay fever and that was a situation that he had to contend with throughout his life. He had three sisters and two brothers. His father made enough money so that the family could eat. Gikas's father also ran a shoe shine parlor at which the children helped out. Gikas entered the service in May 1942. He heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor while he was on a telephone pole working when his foreman came to him and told him the US was at war. Gikas did not know what would happen next. He had been told that he might get a deferment for his job at the telephone company as an essential employee. When it became obvious that he would not get a deferment, Gikas decided to enlist since the draft board would probably get him right away.

Gus Gikas considered enlistment to be good for him. Being an amateur radio operator, Gikas could fix just about any Army electronic equipment. A recruiter asked if he would like to join up. Thinking that he might be able to live close to his Texas hometown, he enlisted. He soon, however, found out that he would be at Fort Sill, Oklahoma for his basic training. He joined the Army to be able to pick his service branch. He chose the Army Air Corps because they offered him a place to stay. Basic was a short period for Gikas since the Army was anxious to get him into communications work. Within three months of his enlistment, he was a sergeant and within four months Gikas was a staff sergeant. Gikas was sent to OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school] and within 11 months of his enlistment he was a second lieutenant. By three months after that, he was a first lieutenant, married and being sent overseas. After OCS, Gikas returned to his unit, the Third Communications Region [Annotator's Note: 3rd Army Airways Communication System, or 3rd AACS], within the Army Communications Service. This service dealt with air traffic control and was the forerunner of the FAA [Annotator's Note: Federal Aviation Administration]. Gikas left Kelley Field, Texas for Jefferson Barracks, Missouri to pick up three other officers who were going with him. From Missouri, Gikas and the other officers went to Goldsboro, North Carolina where they picked up the 234 enlisted men that were assigned to them. The group then proceeded to Hampton Roads, Virginia Port of Embarkation where they departed for Europe. The convoy voyage overseas was calm. There was a lot of zigzagging with the Liberty ships. They landed in Oran, Algeria.

Gus Gikas and his unit spent six weeks in North Africa, mainly in training exercises simulating shipboard problems that might occur. Nothing could have prepared them for the problems they would experience in the future. When Gikas left Kelley Field in Texas, his unit assignment changed to Transit Unit AI 826A for the voyage overseas. When Gikas left Oran on the HMT Rhona, the outward appearances indicated a nice ship but within the ship, there was a stink about it. It had seen duty moving refugees from the Japanese from Saigon to Australia. It apparently had performed several rotations at that duty. The toilets aboard the ship had stopped up during that turmoil so there was standing defecation above and below decks. The ship still carried the smell. The quarters for the officers were originally for two people but six were assigned instead. The troops slept in hammocks but if the weather was acceptable, the men slept outside. There was a celebration of Thanksgiving by the American troops. They requested turkey from the British crew of the Rhona. The crew responded that there was only canned chicken or bully beef [Annotator's Note: bully beef is canned corned beef]. There was not a preferred option. The baked goods were very good because the baker did a fine job. The second day out from Oran, the Rhona was hit. When the attack took place, Gikas was in a good position to see the action. The German bomber released a bomb which was a guided missile. The Rhona was struck by the missile on the port side amidships. The missile passed through the ship, exited on the starboard side, and exploded. A thousand people were lost in the attack but it could have been worse if the missile had exploded within the ship. After the missile struck, Gikas went below deck to see about his men but encountered fire and had to withdraw to another possible entry. He noted that the men had evacuated above deck. The hatches that should have been closed on deck were open and flames could be seen below. No one responded when Gikas shouted for survivors below. He told men who could not swim to dog paddle. The troops climbed down rope cargo nets and Gikas told one friend to let loose of the net when the wave rose up. The man did not hear Gikas and let loose of the net at the wrong time. The man went into a trough instead and went under the ship. Gikas had lost two friends within just a few minutes. He swam away since he could not help those two men.

Gus Gikas and two other men swam about a mile from the sinking HMT Rhona to the Pioneer [Annotator's Note: USS Pioneer (AM-105)]. The Pioneer picked up 606 men that night. Gikas had been in the water for about an hour and a half before being picked up by the Pioneer. Gikas did not personally experience any strafing by the German aircraft. As Gikas approached the Pioneer, there was an overturned lifeboat. Men would climb on it and be picked up by the sailors as the lifeboat rose. When Gikas tried, he was swept off the lifeboat and floated forward of the ship and away from rescue. He shouted at a sailor aboard the Pioneer to throw him a line [Annotator's Note: a rope]. When a line was thrown to Gikas, he had his means for rescue. After he got aboard ship, he looked behind him and there were 12 men clinging to the same rope. The sailor on the Pioneer who had tossed the line had saved 13 men when he did. In evacuating the Rhona, the lifeboats were inoperable or the list of the ship after damage prevented their use. Life rafts were largely used by the native crew. Some only had one or two men in them instead of trying to take on 12 or 14 troops. The crew left the troops to fend for themselves. The ship's officers generally stayed until all aboard who wanted to evacuate had left. Aboard the Pioneer, Gikas went into the wardroom, which was full of injured men. He left and went to the side of the ship opposite of the windy side so he would not feel the cold as much. Many of Gikas' men were saved and aboard the Pioneer. This included a baker that Gikas was fond of. There were 111 of Gikas' men who did not survive the sinking of the ship. There were six dead who were picked up and strapped to the stern of the ship. The survivors felt lucky to be alive. The Pioneer brought Gikas and the other survivors of the Rhona to Philippeville Harbor in Algeria. There was a British hospital in that port that could aid the survivors in their recovery.

Since the unit Gus Gikas led was intended to replace another unit in India that had been deployed for two years, their mission had to be continued despite the heavy loss of lives. Soon after recovery, Gikas's unit rode a train to Bizerte [Annotator's Note: a port city in northern Tunisia] and were issued new uniforms and given cots to sleep on. Gikas used his own money to replace gear for his men at the PX [Annotator's Note: Post Exchange]. The unit was in Bizerte for two months while they waited for another convoy to come by and transport them to India. The unit was issued .45 caliber automatic pistols for the officers and carbines for the enlisted men as weapons. The ship that picked them up was the sister ship of the HMT Rhona. Gikas did not want to go aboard that ship after his near fatal experience on the Rhona. With 128 men behind him, however, Gikas felt he had no choice and led his men aboard. This time, the men were quartered aft over the engines. The men liked that location because it was warm. On the Rhona, Gikas's unit was quartered forward but may have had fewer casualties as a result. The group quartered aft was thought to have lost about 50 percent of its men. In reflecting on the poor condition of the Rhona, Gikas felt that had the ship been in better condition, the German guided missile might have exploded inside the ship with a greater loss of life in his unit. Gikas landed at Karachi, India. After going ashore, his unit was immediately disbanded. Gikas lost all of his men and his officers were reassigned. Eventually, Gikas, the other officers and the troops were sent to China for other assignments. Gikas was later sent back to India where he was a supply and maintenance officer for the duration of the war.

Gus Gikas was in India when he heard that the Germans had surrendered. Later, he heard of the Japanese surrender. Gikas remained in India for two weeks after the surrender of Japan. As a supply and maintenance officer, Gikas worked in headquarters making sure that supplies reached radio stations in India and Burma. In one instance, Gikas encountered Japanese fire while he was in a control tower. The Allied tactical units nearby took care of the Japanese. Another instance that was amusing occurred when a Chinese guard threw a grenade into a body of water where Gikas and his men were bathing. Fish floated to the top of the water but Gikas' staff sergeant grabbed a .45 caliber pistol and started shooting at the Chinese and yelling obscenities. No one was hurt but several were frightened. Life in India was fairly nice for Gikas. Stationed along the mountains in India, Gikas was constantly on the road between air bases. His men effectively repaired equipment but occasionally Gikas had to step in and correct a problem with equipment. There was some interaction with the locals. The British had a swimming pool that Gikas and his men could use. After looking in the kitchen, Gikas stopped eating there. The Indian population was nice to Americans but they did not like the British. Most Indians could not speak English but some could. There were some problems with snakes in the overhead of their housing but Gikas never heard of anyone being bitten by a snake. After the Japanese surrender, Gikas hitched a ride to Karachi and then stayed at the port for two weeks until all other troops had left. At that point, he hitched a ride on an airplane.

Gus Gikas landed in the United States in New York City, New York when he returned from India. From there, he went to Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas where his wife was located. He took leave to north Texas and sought his old civilian job but it paid less than active duty pay. As a result, he opted to stay in the Army Air Forces and was stationed in San Antonio. Gikas did a short stint in Colorado Springs, Colorado and then spent three years in Germany. His family was allowed to go with him to Germany. He also spent a year in England. After England, he went to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and then to Mitchell Field in New York for two years. He was later posted to Washington, DC where he was assigned to work with Joint Task Forces 7 and 8, which did much of the atomic testing in the Pacific. Gikas spent four years on that assignment. Then he was sent to Alaska. Alaska was good duty except his wife had cabin fever. Gikas lost his son in a traffic accident in 1967. He was transferred to Spain for his last three years in service which turned out to be good duty with his wife accompanying him. Gikas retired in 1970 as a full colonel. World War 2 changed Gikas's life because without it, he probably would have retired from the telephone company and likely would not have met his wife nor had a successful marriage. Gikas feels that The National WWII Museum is important to keep people from forgetting what the circumstances and horrors were in the conflict. It is important to capture the veterans' stories while they are still alive. Every veteran has a unique perspective on what happened in his portion of the total war experience.