Gene Blade was raised on a small west central Illinois farm during the late 1930s and throughout the 1940s. He spoke in detail about life on the farm, about the impact of World War II on farming, and about his life after graduation, splitting his time between farming and a factory job in Galesburg. He enlisted in the Illinois Army National Guard in 1954, and then joined the Regular Army in 1956. See the rest of Gene's interview in the Veterans Remember project.
See the entire Gene Blade interview on the Veterans Remember - Cold War page.
Gene Blade is the blond in the back row center for the 8th grade class picture for the Shortsville School (one room school) near Cameron, Illinois in February, 1948. His friends called Gene ‘Cotton Top’.
This image is considered to be in the public domain.
Sergeant Blade stands outside his unit’s Fire Direction Center Quonset hut at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii in 1958. Schofield Barracks was the home of the 25th Infantry Division.
Schofield Barracks, Hawaii