Growing up Rich: In South Georgia

Tom Gill grew up on a small farm in South Georgia near the city of Blackshear. His father was a sharecropper. Like most tenant farmers, his family moved frequently to other farms throughout the county, trying to make improvements in their daily life, and standard of living. Although poor in material possessions, he was raised by Christian parents who showed him love and taught him a strong code of ethics that served him well at home and the twenty-three years in the U. S. Army. After graduating from High School in 1956, Gill immediately joined the U.S. Army where he discovered that there was a better way of earning a living then cropping tobacco in the hot sun in the summer time. He was assigned to a communications school as an enlisted soldier and later received a direct appointment to Warrant Officer. His military assignments included tours of duty in Korea, Philippines, and Germany. When he returned to Georgia after his tour of duty with the lst Cavalry Division in Vietnam was completed, he was selected for assignment to the White House Communications Agency. He served as a Communications Officer during four presidential administrations; Lyndon Johnson, Rickard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. During his tour of duty at the White House, Tom Gill worked in numerous positions in the Agency which included traveling in advance of presidential trips establishing presidential communications for the president. His assignment at the White House included overseas trips to France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Vietnam, Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina. He served in this capacity for four presidents; Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter. Growing up Rich in South Georgia is his story of how he grew up in the mid forties and fifties, and includes his twenty-three years of service in the U.S. Army. The years covered are from his birth in September, 1937, until November 30, 1978 when he retired from the Army.