Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
BENNA SAYYED: CMI staff photoPhillip Gillespie, right, plays cards with his wife Jean in their room at Wheatfields Senior Living Community. The Gillespies have been married for 65 years.
Phillip Gillespie is a World War II veteran who once flew Navy aircraft on torpedo bombing missions. Gillespie served in the Navy from 1943 to 1947. He said he was involved in the testing of the atomic bomb in 1945.
Gillespie helped build a portion of Cannon Air Force Base, and schools and churches in and around Clovis.
Gillespie's construction career took him to places such as Albuquerque, Corpus Christi, Texas and Oakridge, Tenn.
He has also taught swimming, was a Boy Scout master and enjoys fishing and hunting deer.
BENNA SAYYED: CMI staff photo
Phillip Gillespie, right, plays cards with his wife Jean in their room at Wheatfields Senior Living Community. The Gillespies have been married for 65 years.
Gillespie said he and his wife prefer small towns to big cities and likes Clovis most because of the opportunities it offers.
Tell me a little about your construction career: I was a foreman and a superintendent with a company. When I got on my own I worked here in Clovis. I built homes here, sometimes by the hour, sometimes by contract, anyway I could get them (jobs). I helped build on Sandia Base in Albuquerque and I worked up in Los Alamos. It's hard to say what the best part was. I liked it all, but I especially liked to build cabinets.
Tell me a little about your work building Cannon Air Force Base: When I was building out there it didn't have the restaurants and shops it has now. I built a motor repair shop and rebuilt a hanger and they just decided to open the base again. They had shut it down and were coming back to it (the base) with different planes. I haven't been out there much since then. That was years ago.
Tell me a little about your military career: I flew torpedo bombers in the Navy. When the war was over they put me in patrol bombers. When we tested the A bomb I was tasked with keeping ships and planes out of that area.
Some of the classes I took in the Navy required a lot. You had to know your stuff and you'd get court marshaled if you were caught with a pencil or paper. That was when radar first came out and they (the Navy) were real strict. That was in 1943. I graduated from high school in the first part of 1943. By the end of 1943 I was in the Navy.
What do you like most about Clovis? Clovis is a town that's not overly built but yet it's got anything you want to do. The people are good, and we've got a lot of good friends here. There's a small town country atmosphere here. People like to get together and have a good time.
We grew up in country towns so we like it. There are people from all over here.
Albuquerque is a good town but it's gotten a little large for me. Clovis is on its way. The weather is good. There are sandstorms but one thing we don't have to worry about is hurricanes.
We watch the weather channel a lot so no rain storms or tornados can sneak up on us.
Clovis is better than most towns we've lived in. We moved away from Clovis three times and we moved right back as soon as we got a chance. When I was younger, I didn't like it as much because I couldn't go fishing.
What do you and your wife do for fun nowadays? Most of our stuff is in storage so we don't have that many games here. We're outdoors people. We used to go to Ute Lake and Conchas Lake a lot. We have a lot of family get-togethers with our relatives and our children and grandchildren. We have family from east Texas and eastern New Mexico. We have one daughter living in Dallas, one living in Louisiana and one living in El Paso. We enjoy doing things at our church also. We've attended Kingswood United Methodist Church for 50 years
I like to watch sports — football and basketball. I played football and basketball in high school.
How did you spend your 50th anniversary with you wife? We're just a couple of kids. We went on a (Caribbean) cruise.
We got on the ship in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. We went around to the backside of Cuba and over to Mexico and came back up. There was a dinner and a party for us on the ship. I guess (his marriage) getting to 50 was the best part of our anniversary (laughing). We've never had any problems.
