Fred Gordon was born in Emerson, Nebraska on July 14, 1918, Fred Gordon entered military service as a 2nd Lieutenant in Des Moines, Iowa, in January 1942. Reporting to the 2nd Cavalry Division at Fort Riley, Kansas, he was assigned directly to the 3rd Field Artillery Battalion, still using horses at the time. Departing for Europe from New York aboard the Queen Mary on August 26, 1944, he landed at Utah Beach on September 26,1944. Serving with the 9th Armored Division through the Bulge to their capture of the Remagen Bridge, he was in Czechoslovakia at war's end.
Awarded a Presidential Unit Citation and Bronze Star, he headed back to the states in late 1945. Called back into service during the Korean conflict, he served with the Iowa & Minnesota National Guard, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. Working in the dairy industry, he retired in 1979 after 25 years with the United State Department of Agriculture. He is currently a resident of Delano, Minnesota, with Cheryl, his wife of 34 years.
"When the Battle of the Bulge started, I was with the 9th Armored Division, and we had our gun position at Haller, Luxembourg. We had six 105s mounted and M-7 tanks. When the German preparation started, I was located in a nice bunker, safe and sound. The only problem was that I got a call from my boss who told me to go out to get a shell-wrap, and we were going to put a stop to the foolishness of this German preparation. It's very difficult--you have to go out where the shells are falling and get a read on it and send it in. With the help of the other two batteries, we were able to get a good read on it. We stopped the German preparation in our sector. Later, they started up again, and we had to move on down. It just got too heavy, and we were losing too many tanks and men."
