Ray Gene Gresham was born in July 1927 in Lawrence County, Illinois, the last of the six children of a farmer. After his father lost his farm in 1929, he found work with the Ohio Oil Company, drilling shallow wells. During the Great Depression, Gresham did odd farm jobs for the neighbors for money. Growing up in the country, all of his youthful activities were tied to church and school. In his senior year, Gresham lettered in track. Before his senior year, however, Gresham tried to enlist in the Navy, but was denied because he wasn't fully recovered from burns on his face and upper body from a tractor explosion. He went back to finish high school and enlisted in the Army the following summer. Gresham learned about the bombing of Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] while listening to the radio. He remembers sitting with his parents, and the surprise silencing them all. His mother had experienced losses in World War 1, and knew what war meant. When Gresham said he wanted to enlist, she cried, and was glad when he was sent back to finish school. Gresham said it all worked out for the best, because he spent two years in the Army, and got four years of college on the G.I. Bill, so it "really paid off." On his second attempt at enlisting, he "breezed right through," and went into the Army. His infantry basic training took place at Camp Crowder in Missouri, then he was sent to Fitzsimons General Hospital in Denver, Colorado where he spent at least eight weeks in surgical technician training. He then moved to a general hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas for post-operative training for a month, and spent another month at Fort Sam Houston [Annotator's Note: in San Antonio, Texas] before being assigned to the Philippines.

When Ray Gene Gresham deployed to the Pacific, he left out of San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] on the troop ship General Brewster [Annotator's Note: USS General A. W. Brewster (AP-155)]. The war had ended, and the ship "wandered," unescorted, around the Pacific, stopping in Hawaii, Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] and Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines], for about 30 days, with most of the 10,000 soldiers aboard seasick. Gresham considered himself lucky, in that he boarded the ship exhausted and he climbed into an upper berth and went to sleep. Next morning he was called to report to the ship's hospital, to work with a doctor and nurse, and was provided personal quarters. He worked in the hospital for the duration of the cruise. The biggest problem the hospital had to contend with was seasickness. Gresham ate in the officer's mess and said he was "doing quite well." Once he got to Manila, things changed. Manila was "totally flat." He was transported, standing up, on a truck, and the native people along the route were cheering their arrival. He was assigned to the 10th General Hospital outside of Manila, where he was in charge of two of a series of Quonset huts to assist doctors and nurses in the VD [Annotator's Note: venereal disease] ward. Gresham developed some close friendships among the medical staff that occupied the barracks in which he stayed. After six months, he was recruited to set up a small hut outside the hospital for pregnant Filipino women to give birth. There, he helped the doctor and nurse deliver babies for the last six months of his service. Gresham mentioned that most of the babies were fathered by American servicemen.

Manila was "decimated" except for the Mac Arthur Hotel, where the officer's would go, and Ray Gene Gresham said he only went into town a few times, to visit the "good-sized" USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations]. Gresham feels the healthy relationship the Americans enjoy with the people of Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines] today can be contributed to the handling of their liberation. He described the people as kind, happy, hardworking and dedicated. Most of the pregnant women he treated in Manila were very young, scared and frustrated 15 to 18 years olds. Gresham said the experience made him humble. He mentions that there were a lot of Japanese soldiers left in the hills after the war ended. Called the "Huks," they banded together into troops, and the Americans had strict orders on how to react when they came around the camp. The Americans were not to engage with them in any way, and Gresham recalls they raided food and hospital supplies. He remembers a ricochet bullet killed a soldier in one of his wards, and there was no retaliation. Gresham was a pallbearer for that soldier when he was buried in the big American cemetery in Manila. He also remembers the night the Huks shot up a Quonset hut where GIs [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] were watching a movie, and everyone dropped to the floor. The Huks raided the hospital that night, and the medical personnel had to wait for a ship to bring replacement supplies. Gresham's third encounter with the Huks came when a medical supply truck carrying penicillin was captured, and its driver and escort were killed. Gresham was again asked to accompany the soldiers to their rest in the national cemetery, this time participating in the 21 gun salute that sent them off. Quite a while after the war was over and he was home, he remembers reports that there were still Huks in the Philippines mountains. Gresham went home among 10,000 troops aboard the Admiral Sims [Annotator's Note: USS Admiral W. S. Sims (AP-127)], which once again took 30 days, but this time he didn't enjoy any privileges because he wasn't working in the hospital. He doesn't remember there being a great celebration when they arrived in San Francisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California]. He was discharged in 1947 as a corporal.

Ray Gene Gresham digresses to mention that while he was at Camp Crowder, Missouri, he was serving in Company C, 2nd Platoon, and living in two-story barracks. In two of the barracks were German prisoners of war, and Gresham said they were "perfect gentlemen." They were highly disciplined soldiers and never had to be guarded while they did general duties around the area. He compared them to the large group of Japanese prisoners he encountered in the Philippines, and said they were "different." In later years he was on a trip with his wife and decided to visit Camp Crowder along the way. It was a National Guard post then, and he visited with the major in charge. Together they went through a yearbook from the time Gresham was stationed there, and the major said that only the week before he had hosted a former German prisoner who was held there the same year. The German told the major that he was treated better at Camp Crowder than he was the whole time he served in the German Army. Gresham considered that a "wonderful thing." By comparison, the Japanese soldiers in Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines] were disorganized and had to be guarded, and they had a "bitter" attitude. If they were mowing, they would and make threatening motions at the Americans with their machetes.

When Ray Gene Gresham got out of the service, he didn't think the G.I. Bill could help him enough to afford college tuition, but while he was playing pool and having a couple of beers with a former classmate, Gresham was persuaded to join him on a trip to enroll at Eastern Illinois University at Charleston. Gresham was induced to sign up too, and next thing he knew, he had a degree in biology. He met and married his wife, Mary, while he was in college, and after graduation he went to work for the Soil Conservation Service. He later accomplished a master's degree in agronomy at South Dakota State University [Annotator's Note: in Brookings, South Dakota]. Gresham was hired by Smith-Douglas Fertilizer Company and worked for them for two years before being returning to South Dakota State as an extension agronomist for the college. Two years later he became a sales manager for Supersweet Feed Company, and moved up the corporate ladder of International Multifoods Corporation for the next 30 years until he retired in 1987. Thinking he was "still young," Gresham went to work for one of the company's spin-offs, a veterinary pharmaceutical business, for another five years until it was sold. Then he "really retired," and settled in Arizona.

Recalling his most memorable experiences, Ray Gene Gresham said one thing that left a lasting impression was an incident on the firing range during basic training. On the last day, when they were going to fire for record, his sergeant said he didn't want to stay over the weekend with the two men who didn't fire at "marksman" or above, and ordered Gresham to shoot for them. Gresham said that was "a shocker," but he did it, scored marksman and above for all three of them, and was treated very well for his performance. He also felt it was quite an honor to serve at the burials of the three men from his unit that were killed on Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines]. Gresham said he also handled several cases where he had an impact on saving people's lives, and always felt good about that. Gresham said World War 2 "totally" changed his outcome in life. He acknowledges that the G.I. Bill built his life and career, and he feels it did a lot to build this country. When he looks back on his service, he believes it strengthened him through discipline. Now, it's giving him the privilege of meeting fellow veterans through the Honor Flight program.