Hinesville resident Joe Gillam recently published his first book, “Fool Me Once Never Twice.” It is the story of a young military policeman who teams with an old Army criminal investigator to investigate a theft of military property that becomes a murder. The case goes cold, but they keep plugging away as their assignments move them around the world and then into a second career in civilian police work.  
Gillam was stationed in Asmara in the mid 1960s after assignments in Japan and Vietnam. He continued his Army career with follow-up assignments at Fort Dix, New Jersey; Korea; Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania; Germany; and Italy.
Gillam, then a master sergeant, retired from the Army in 1984 after his last assignment at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. His entire Army service was in the Military Police Corps. Gillam’s assignments included patrol, investigations, physical security, combat-service support and 18 months of attachment to the U.S. Marshals Service as a sky marshal in the early 1970s.
After Army retirement, Gillam moved to Hinesville and accepted a position with the Hinesville Police Department. He held various assignments including patrol, traffic-crash investigator, traffic sergeant, hostage negotiator and shift-watch sergeant. Gillam retired from HPD as a sergeant in 2006.
Gillam and his wife, Chong, live in Hinesville and make travel their No. 1 hobby.