Otis Gatewood was born in Olmstead, Arkansas in June 1923, but grew up in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The town was small and safe then, and he enjoyed his childhood. His father bought, raised and sold cattle, and was a part-time carpenter. His mother kept house and cared for four sets of twins in addition to Gatewood, her only single childbirth. Gatewood worked with his father-in-law as a mechanic at a car dealership when he returned from the war. He moved on to manage the company's leasing department, and spent 38 years at that job until he retired.

The ongoing hostilities in Europe and Japan were not discussed in Otis Gatewood's circles until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. He and his wife were crossing a bridge when the announcement came over the car radio, and Gatewood had trouble understanding why Japan would do such a thing. He was very angry, he said, and wanted to get even. Once America was committed, Gatewood knew he would be drafted, and was anxious to get situated. He was sent to Europe to fight. He was trained to drive a Caterpillar [Annotator's Note: a tractor] which pulled an artillery piece, and that was initially his occupation, but when the forward observer for his unit [Annotator's Note: Battery C, 3rd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 9th Armored Division] was killed, Gatewood was transferred. His assignment then became making three-day forays into enemy territory to find targets for the mortars and artillery, come back with a report, and rest for three days. The reporting included placement and strength of troops, and recommendations for action. On his first trip out, Gatewood came upon a German vehicle with someone sitting behind the wheel. When Gatewood reached for his rifle, his buddy told him the driver was dead. Gatewood wondered what he had gotten into. He got used to seeing dead bodies and body parts. He also saw many German soldiers marched back as prisoners of war, and got to a point where he didn't pay any attention, although other G.I.s would curse the prisoners and some would shake the stretchers carrying the enemy wounded. His outfit was first to cross the Remagen Bridge, doing so under artillery fire and aerial bombardment.

Late in the war, Otis Gatewood said, there was a lot of propaganda circulating on the front lines. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] was ordering the Americans back across the Rhine within 48 hours, and Gatewood thought he was "getting pretty serious," but nothing happened. His unit [Annotator's Note: Battery C, 3rd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 9th Armored Division] started moving fast, capturing prisoners and overtaking others. Gatewood said the veteran soldiers helped the replacements acclimate to combat, and said once the young recruits were initiated, it became something like a football game to them, and they made good soldiers. At one point, an enemy bullet pierced the radiator of the jeep Gatewood was driving, and while he was trying to take it back to the rear for a replacement, he was fired upon and wounded in both legs. The Germans drug him out of the jeep by the scruff of his neck and brought him to a cellar where local German women applied tourniquets and saved his life. When the town was retaken by another American unit, the same German women alerted the troops that Gatewood was in the cellar. There was no pain medicine available, so Gatewood drank a bottle of cognac while they took him back to camp. He was hospitalized in Ireland with infection in both legs, underwent surgery, and was eventually transferred to Hot Springs, Arkansas. Gatewood said there was a lot of drinking going on in that hospital. He would sometimes get a pass to go home and see his wife.

When asked his opinion of the Germans, Otis Gatewood said it seemed to him that the kids of the war generation were taught that Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] was their god and master. Every house was decorated with pictures of Hitler. He noted that whatever food they had was hidden from the invading armies. Gatewood lived on C-rations and K-rations for six months, and didn't have fresh clothes for just as long. The Army was moving fast through bombed out villages where the running water and utilities were non-existent. The soldiers smelled bad, and had to be regularly treated for flees and lice. The temperature was often below freezing, and they couldn't light fires, because the smoke would give their position away. Gatewood said they would dig a big hole, cover it with logs and blankets, and huddle together inside to get some warmth. Gatewood had been told that he would be able to take away all kinds of souvenirs, and he did. He found a fur coat for his wife, and put it on his jeep, then found something he thought was a better gift, so he threw the fur coat away. From a camera factory, Gatewood took a fancy camera he had no idea how to operate, and he sold it to another soldier back at camp. He drank from barrels of cognac the farmers had stashed in their barns. Gatewood maintains that most of the German population didn't have any idea of what was going on, because their news reports were controlled, and the propaganda held that the Allies were trying to take over their country.

Otis Gatewood's unit [Annotator's Note: Battery C, 3rd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 9th Armored Division] came across a number of prison camps, but none of them held Jewish prisoners, and those prisoners he encountered didn't look as though they had been badly treated. In one case they freed a prisoner who refused to go home. Instead, he joined Gatewood's unit to fight against the German army. Unfortunately he was killed shortly afterward by a mortar blast. Gatewood said the soldiers lost so many of their buddies that they came to a point where they would not befriend anyone for fear of losing them. He was able to stay in touch with his wife through the mail system. To communicate with their allies, and to keep from running into friendly fire, the soldiers were issued "cricket" noisemakers. Gatewood remembers only one bad mistake: when they crossed the Rhine Bridge, somebody called in a fire mission, and they "let loose" on other American soldiers. Gatewood felt badly about it, but was reassured by his superiors that it wasn't his fault. He was always impressed with the support from the fighter planes. Gatewood feels the Germans "asked for it, and they got it."

It was difficult for Otis Gatewood to adjust to civilian life after his return to the United States. He had to relearn how to live outside of Army routines and to form his own opinions. Gatewood suffered from bad dreams, repeatedly reliving combat and the sights of dead and dismembered bodies. He is currently medicated and under the care of a psychiatrist, but has never been cured of his post traumatic condition. He has considered suicide, but feels it would be cruel to put his family through such a thing. He also thinks that, having lived through the war, he is entitled to something better. He sometimes meets with other veterans who are encountering the same problems. Most of them are of the same opinion as Gatewood; they did what had to be done.

His most memorable experience of the war was when Otis Gatewood was shot and captured. There was a time when he wasn't sure that he would live through the experience. Gatewood says he served in World War 2 because he didn't want to see America in the hands of Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler]. The war taught him respect for authority and freedom. He came to appreciate all the buddies who fought alongside him, and the way they took care of each other. He believes his service kept everybody free, and the price he paid was worth it. He asserts that if he had to, he would do it all over again. He is proud of the response of the American people who provided what was needed during the war to insure victory. Gatewood is worried about the political climate that exists today, and feels it important to try to teach the lessons that came out of the war he fought.