Gaylord H. 'Doc' Gilmore

GILMORE, COLLINS, TOMASI, ELLIOTT

Posted By: David L. Skipton (email)
Date: 1/4/2010 at 16:31:39

Lt. Col. U.S. Army Ret. Gaylord H. (Doc) Gilmore, age 74, died April 1 at Letterman's Army Hospital in San Francisco, CA.

He was born in Morning Sun, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Clark Gilmore. He is survived by his wife Kathleen Collins Gilmore; a son, Richard Dirk of San Bruno; and daughter, Mary Ann (Mrs. Robert) Tomasi of San Jose; two grandsons, Robert and Michael Tomasi; and a sister, Joyce Elliott of Wapello.

A vigil service was held April 5 at Willow Glen Funeral Home. Services were held April 6 at St. Frances Cabrini Church in San Jose. Burial was in Los Gatos Memorial Park, San Jose, with Full Military Honors.

Gilmore was one of the original officers assigned to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a U.S. Army outfit that froduced the most decorated soldiers of WWII.

Members of the 442nd were known as the Go for Broke soldiers because they gave so much to the war, suffering devastating casualties. Most of them were not much more than 5 feet tall and weighed little more than 120 pounds, yet they fought with fury.

They were unusual in one other way; most were nisei, second-generation Japanese-Americans. Members included Hawaii's Sen. Daniel Inouye, who lost an arm in Europe.

Lt. Col. Gilmore fought with the 442nd from Naples to Rome, through the Po Valley and into the Rhineland, receiving the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, Italian Cross of Military Honor, Purple Heart, and the Medaille de la Liberee from France.

He graduated from the University of Iowa in 1941 and joined the Army that year. Midway through World War II, then-Lt. Gilmore was sssigned to Camp Shelby, Miss., to help organize a regiment of soldiers made up of Americans of Japanese Extraction.

He served with the Allied occupation forces in Japan after the war and returned to the United States in 1957 to serve as adviser to the 2nd Battle Group, 179th Infantry, at Tulsa, Okla.

Upon retirement from the Army in 1961, Mr. Gilmore moved to San Jose so that both he and his son could enroll at San Jose State University. He completed graduate work there the following year and took a job teaching at St. Francis High School in Mountain View. He remained at that school until retiring in 1876.