Veteran MP Receives Soldier's Medal 42 Years After Heroic Act

Former staff sergeant receives Soldier’s Medal 
Fort Carson Mountanieer
By Staff Sgt. Diandra J. Harrell
4th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office

DENVER — Family, friends, police officers and Service members gathered Sept. 22, 2015, in the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1 to watch former Staff Sgt. Joseph Gilmore Jr. formally receive the Soldier’s Medal, the highest honor a Soldier can receive for an act of valor in a noncombat event.

Congresswoman Diana DeGette, 1st Congressional District of Colorado, presents former Staff Sgt. Joseph Gilmore Jr. the Soldier’s Medal at the Denver Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1 Sept. 22, 2015.
(Photo by Staff Sgt. Diandra J. Harrell)

Congresswoman Diana DeGette, 1st Congressional District of Colorado, and Retired Col. Aaron Tucker presented the former 4th Infantry Division military policeman with the medal for his actions during a fire on Fort Carson 42 years ago.

Gilmore, an Aurora native, now retired attorney, repeatedly entered a burning building Feb. 20, 1973, to save its contents.

“I knew what was in the building, which were artillery weapons,” Gilmore explained. “I did not know if they were loaded with ammunition, but I did know that they were loaded with fuel. If that fire would have torched off one of those weapons systems, it would have been catastrophic.”
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