In a way, Jim Hillstead’s story about military service is much the same as other veterans, but in another way, it is completely different.

Hillstead, who is 103 and lives quietly with his son Kelly in Kenmare, took on a significant military role when he was drafted into the Army in World War II in 1941.

Hillstead, who didn’t go to high school, read a lot of books when he was young, learned about the Burma Road and became fascinated with it, an infrastructure project that took 200,000 Chinese workers to build. Little did he know that seven years later he would actually be driving an Army jeep on that very same road.

When the young, “North Dakota farm boy” was inducted, he told his superiors he wanted to be a truck driver. He took the training, but rather than driving truck, the Army made him a jeep driver for one of his officers.
A short time later, his platoon had a meeting about a “secret unit” that was starting up and could change the complexity of the war. As a curious young Soldier, Hillstead signed up.

Because he grew up on a North Dakota farm and later spent some time in the Civilian Conservation Corps, he quickly moved up the ladder, became a private first class and was shipped off to Burma, which is now called Myanmar.
When Hillstead got to Burma he was told his squad would be setting up radar, a cutting-edge technology in the early 1940s that did indeed change the outcome of the war for the Americans.

Upon arriving in Burma, Hillstead’s unit was told the Army Air Corps was losing a plane a day because it couldn’t get over “the hump,” a Burmese mountain that was a major obstacle in getting supplies in and wounded Soldiers out.
After setting up that initial radar station somewhere on the Burma Road, Hillstead said the United States didn’t lose another airplane because the pilots were able to navigate above or around “the hump.”

Hillstead and his men were given accolades from the Army for being a critical link in the success of the U.S. mission in Asia against Imperial Japan.

That said, Hillstead’s superiors offered him a career option of being a radar instructor at Drew Field, which is where Tampa International Airport is now located.

He said no for a couple of reasons. No. 1, he didn’t get along with one of his officers and said it would be pergatory as long as that man was in the Army. Second, his sweetheart Sylvia, who became his wife for many years, was waiting back in North Dakota and that was more important than an exotic mission in Florida.

Radar wasn’t the only thing Hillstead was involved in during the war. He and other Soldiers in his unit surveilled nearby Japanese soldiers and reported their movements back to headquarters.

He said at one point, the Japanese were so close, he could have reached out and touched them. But Hillstead and his buddy were concealed well in the bush and the Japanese passed by without seeing them.

He also talked of another time when his unit was on a move and one of the trucks broke down as the Japanese were advancing. Nobody knew what to do, but Hillstead said that’s when his North Dakota farm boy mentality kicked in. He cannibalized parts from another truck to get the broken down truck operating well enough to retreat.
Hillstead came home from the war unscathed and he and Sylvia lived long and happy lives, until recently when Sylvia passed away. The couple had three children and one of them, Terri, lives in Australia.

Hillstead hauled cattle in the late 1940s with his brother, but became successful as an antique dealer. He carried that out for many years and only recently sold his collection.

Like nearly everyone else from the Greatest Generation, Hillstead to this day remains a humble man about his involvement in one of the greatest tests the United States has ever faced.

Until about three years ago, Hillstead drove a black Ford Ranger around Kenmare every day and when he became too old to drive, he walked about three blocks each day to the Kenmare Post Office to greet people picking up their mail.
In 2022, Hillstead was named grand marshall for Kenmare’s 125th Jubilee parade. He continues to visit the Kenmare Senior Citizens Center to play cards and visit.