Bill’s War

He survived the war, but the man they loved was slipping away.

When Bill returned home after flying night intruder missions in WWII, his fiancée and his family thought the danger had passed. He hadn’t received a scratch in combat. But a different kind of battle was just beginning at home.

Lieutenant William C. Gump was a carefree young pilot whose promising future was suddenly upended by a diagnosis of “battle-induced schizophrenia.” As Bill slipped into psychosis, his family and his young fiancée struggled to navigate a devastating reality that 1940s medicine could barely understand. Yet, decades of care from his family and the kindness of a small Kansas town brought a gentle redemption to a tragic story.

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