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Contact Info
Home Town Berwick
Last Address Presidio of San Francisco, CA
Date of Passing Sep 11, 1947
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Colonel Melvin E. Gillette, the "architect of Military Pictorial Service" organized and direct Fort Monmouth's first training Film Field Unit in 1937 and the first Training Film Production Laboratory in 1940.
When the laboratory was moved to Long Island City, New York, in 1942 and was incorporated into the new Signal Corps Photographic Center, Long Island City, New York, Colonel Gillette became the Center's first commanding officer.
Colonel Gillette was born in Berwick, Illinois, on Nov. 15, 1892. After receiving his bachelor of arts degree from Des Moines (Iowa) College, he served with the Iowa National Guard, first on the Mexican Border and, with the outbreak of World War I, with the Guard's Quartermaster Corps.
In 1920 he received a Regular Army commission in the Infantry and served for the ensuing nine years as an Infantry officer. Three of those nine years were spent in the Canal Zone.
His Signal career started in 1929 when he transferred to the Signal Corps. He became immersed in the Corp's Pictorial Branch and studied motion picture production methods in Hollywood, headed the Signal Corps Photographic Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and was actively engaged in the production of military educational film before organizing the field film unit at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.
Gillette served as the Army pictorial representative on General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Allied Headquarters staff in North Africa and as photographic officer with the Fifth Army in Italy under General Mark Clark. He was decorated with the Legion of Merit for his service with the Fifth Army for "planning and establishing an effective photographic system to cover the Allied operations in Italy." His citation states further:
"His filming of special motion picture sequences and rapid distribution of photographic news events to the United States was a tribute to (his) brilliance in the field of photography and organization ."
In 1945 he served as pictorial officer for MIDPAC and later as deputy signal officer and chief signal officer, AFMIDPAC.
He returned to San Francisco in January 1947, suffered a heart attack that July and died on September 11, 1947.
Colonel Gillette also held the Bronze Star for his service with MIDPAC, the World War I and II Victory Medals, the World War I Mexican Border Service Medal and several campaign ribbons.
In 1948, the Pictorial Center of the Presidio, San Francisco was dedicated in his memory and named the Gillette Pictorial Center. Colonel Gillette is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
Other Comments:
The Legion of Merit
Melvin E. Gillette
Signal Section Headquarters
Fifth Army
for exceptional meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service in Italy from 8 October 1943 to 5 June 1944. In connection with the planning for and the establishment of an effective photographic system to cover the Allied operations in Italy, Colonel Gillette, organized a Photographic Division within the Signal Section, Headquarters, Fifth Army and was responsible for the administrative organization of the supporting units and for the supervision and coordination of all the photographic services in Fifth Army. Through his experience with the Army Pictorial Service and his foresight, tact and industry, photographic service was established on a firm foundation whereby regular missions of providing news pictures for release to the public and official pictorial war records were provided. His filming of special motion picture sequences and rapid distribution of photographic news events to the United States was a tribute to Colonel Gillette’s brilliance in the field of photography and organization.
WWII - European-African-Middle Eastern Theater
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
September / 1945
Description The European-Mediterranean-Middle East Theater was a major theater of operations during the Second World War (between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946). The vast size of Europe, Mediterranean and Middle East theatre saw interconnected naval, land, and air campaigns fought for control of the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The fighting in this theatre lasted from 10 June 1940, when Italy entered the war on the side of Germany, until 2 May 1945 when all Axis forces in Italy surrendered. However, fighting would continue in Greece – where British troops had been dispatched to aid the Greek government – during the early stages of the Greek Civil War.
The British referred to this theatre as the Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre (so called due to the location of the fighting and the name of the headquarters that controlled the initial fighting: Middle East Command) while the Americans called the theatre of operations the Mediterranean Theatre of War. The German official history of the fighting is dubbed 'The Mediterranean, South-East Europe, and North Africa 1939–1942'. Regardless of the size of the theatre, the various campaigns were not seen as neatly separated areas of operations but part of one vast theatre of war.
Fascist Italy aimed to carve out a new Roman Empire, while British forces aimed initially to retain the status quo. Italy launched various attacks around the Mediterranean, which were largely unsuccessful. With the introduction of German forces, Yugoslavia and Greece were overrun. Allied and Axis forces engaged in back and forth fighting across North Africa, with Axis interference in the Middle East causing fighting to spread there. With confidence high from early gains, German forces planned elaborate attacks to be launched to capture the Middle East and then to possibly attack the southern border of the Soviet Union. However, following three years of fighting, Axis forces were defeated in North Africa and their interference in the Middle East was halted. Allied forces then commenced an invasion of Southern Europe, resulting in the Italians switching sides and deposing Mussolini. A prolonged battle for Italy took place, and as the strategic situation changed in southeast Europe, British troops returned to Greece.
The theatre of war, the longest during the Second World War, resulted in the destruction of the Italian Empire and altered the strategic position of Germany resulting in numerous German divisions being deployed to Africa and Italy and total losses (including those captured upon final surrender) being over half a million. Italian losses, in the theatre, amount to around to 177,000 men with a further several hundred thousand captured during the process of the various campaigns. British losses amount to over 300,000 men killed, wounded, or captured, and total American losses in the region amounted to 130,000.
