Interview conducted as part of the Nash County Cultural Center’s Oral History Project. Gilbert Truxton Coggin and his father were chartered members of the American Legion, Post 110 Nashville. He joined it because it, like the VFW, was connected to the army, but to join the VFW you had to be an oversees veteran. Coggin describes it as a social group rather than a politically-motivated one. In WW2 he fought in six major battles in the Philippines. He describes bare mountains having been cleared of vegetation by Japanese forces. He suffered various injuries in battle. His opinion on war is that it's caused by someone wanting to take everything for themselves. The Vietnam War he thinks was just political and uncalled for, but Desert Storm was justified since Saddam Hussein had the same goal as Hitler (owning everything). Coggin was a Christian since he was 12. His grandfather, Alexander John Coggin, preached at Corinth Baptist Church and Johnson Tabernacle, now Sunset Baptist in Rocky Mount. His brother's child, Michael Wright Coggin, is now a pastor at the same church. He describes the fellowship of Corinth Baptist church where they all ate supper. The Church was located in a tobacco county around Nash County, and thus didn't prohibit drinking and smoking.