Arthur F . Gorham Arthur Fulbrook Gorham ( January 11 , 1915 , Brooklyn , New York – July 12 , 1943 , Sicily , Italy ) was a U . S . Army officer and Paratrooper . Gorham was the first commander of the 1st Battalion , 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division . He led them from their inception to Operation Husky , the 1943 allied invasion of Sicily . Early Life and Family . Gorham was born in Brooklyn , New York to James Allison Gorham , Sr . ( September 13 , 1890 - February 9 , 1972 ) and Louise Fox Gorham ( April 1885 - July 4 , 1966 ) . His older brother was James Allison Gorham , Jr . ( November 26 , 1911 – May 15 , 2005 ) . Gorham ' s parents were second generation Americans and were both of Scottish descent . The Gorhams moved from Brooklyn to Bellevue , Ohio in July 1917 . James , Sr . owned a successful dry goods business . While awaiting transportation from Governors Island in New York to his first assignment after graduating from West Point , Gorham renewed a previous acquaintance with Corrine “ Colonel ” Bennett ( later Clarke ) ( October 21 , 1917 – October 20 , 2001 ) . They had met for the first time a few years earlier at an Army football game . Bennett was then a senior at the University of Wichita where she was president of the Pi Beta Phi Sorority ( then called the Sorosis Sorority ) , captain of the rifle team and had held titles in both golf and tennis . The two were married on June 21 , 1939 in Wichita , Kansas . The couple had one child , Bruce Bennett Gorham Clarke ( born January 26 , 1943 at Ft . Benning , GA ) . Clarke followed in his father ' s footsteps graduating from West Point , serving in an airborne unit , fighting in Vietnam at Khe Sanh and commanding at every level from a platoon to a brigade . Education . Gorham was educated in Bellevue , Ohio first at the Ellis School and he later graduated from Bellevue High School in 1932 . During high school , he played in the band for four years , was secretary of the junior and senior classes , earned two varsity letters in football and two more in track and served on the high school newspaper , the Blazer , for four years . He was also a member of the National Honor Society . After his high school graduation , having not secured a sought - after appointment to West Point , he attended Miami University in Oxford , Ohio for a year where he played football winning his " numeral . " During this time he pledged the Ohio Alpha Chapter of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity . Gorham left Miami when he received the principal Congressional appointment to West Point from Rep . William L . Fiesinger . After taking the West Point substantiating examination in February 1934 he spent time at Stanton Preparatory Academy in Cornwall , New York . On July 2 , 1934 Gorham joined the Class of 1938 at West Point . While at West Point , Gorham was known for pipe smoking , surviving academics and maintaining a famously clean M1 rifle . To his classmates , he was known for his easy - going way and love of jazz . He played football for two years winning two monograms as an end on the Army " B " team and earned a marksmanship medal — one shot short of winning an " expert " badge he refused to wear the award mailing it home to his parents instead . During his four years he was an acting corporal , acting sergeant , sergeant , acting company supply officer , and , in his fourth year , wore three chevrons as the lieutenant for Company B . Gorham graduated in the middle of his class and received a commission as an Infantry officer . Gorham ' s graduation was front page news in his native Bellevue . At the time , he was just the second graduate of Central High School to graduate from a service academy . Admiral John Greenslade was previously the school ' s sole graduate . Early Career and Leadership Style . After less than two years with the 30th Infantry in San Francisco , Gorham moved to Fort Benning , Georgia . In November 1941 he graduated from the newly created Airborne School receiving a " Certificate of Proficiency " signed by then Major Robert Sink and , more importantly , a set of silver jump wings . A month later , he completed the School ' s demolition and sabotage course . It was at this point in his short career that he began to stand out . As one of the early airborne qualified officers , he gained more rank and responsibility as the United States began to form parachute regiments and later airborne divisions . In 1941 he volunteered to organize the first group of paratroopers on skis . So in February 1942 then - Captain Gorham took his B Company , 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment to Alta , Utah , where the United States was testing the concept of dropping paratroopers into the Alps behind the Germans and having them ski down to attack and harass their lines of communication . During this period Gorham is credited with having made the first parachute jump from over 10 , 000 feet . As was his leadership style , before Gorham would let anyone else jump he first made a solo jump to test whether it was safe . On that first jump , he was soon followed by LT Robert Ellis , SGT Roy Taylor and SGT W . P . Walsh . The troopers trained hard , but falling on skis was different than falling when landing in a parachute jump . There were many legs and ankles injured . Despite much favorable press , the project was eventually abandoned and the troopers were spread out to the newly forming parachute units . In a 1989 article in " Assembly " , the magazine of the U . S . Military Academy ' s Association of Graduates , his son Bruce B . G . Clarke described Gorham ' s leadership style : In researching the paraskiers I found Art Gorham described as “ soft spoken . ” Elsewhere he is described as " Hard - nose " Gorham because of his strictness and insistence on discipline within his battalion . Brigadier General Walt Winton has written : “ he exemplified the good commander , demonstrating leadership , concern , initiative , and intelligence . One example of his leadership was his joining then Colonel Gavin and a few others in experimental free fall jumps . The normal static line jump was quite exciting enough for most . Art had an abiding concern for his subordinates . When the regiment made PCS [ permanent change of station ] moves to Camp Mackall and then to Fort Bragg , Colonel and Mrs . Gorham threw open their quarters on post to shelter others . The article goes on to report this observation by General Winton : Our radio call signs in that era were assigned rather whimsically , probably by the regimental communications officer , and Art ' s call sign was Hard - nose . Some of Art ' s subordinates do not believe that the emphasis on the call sign does justice to a great leader and a fine gentlemen . In the summer of 1942 the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment was activated in the tarpaper shack Frying Pan area of Fort Benning , overlooking Lawson Army Airfield . Gorham , then a major , was assigned as commander of the 1st Battalion . There was no time lost in getting a hard training schedule started . In " Combat Jump : The Young Men Who Led the Assault into Fortress Europe , July 1943 " ( page 53 ) , Ed Ruggero writes : “ Like Gavin , Gorham also spoke quietly . In spite of his youth , he had an almost fatherly demeanor . He shared the hardships and he treated the men with respect from the privates up . . . he had a genuine concern for their welfare . This didn ’ t mean the men of the First Battalion were coddled , in fact , it often meant the opposite . Gorham and the other airborne commanders believed the best thing for the men – the thing that came as close as anything could to guaranteeing they would make it home — was hard training . ” Gorham was promoted to lieutenant colonel on December 26 , 1942 just shy of his 28th birthday . At the time of his promotion , he was one of the youngest lieutenant colonels in the U . S . Army . Operation Husky : The Invasion of Sicily . On the night of July 9 , 1943 , the Paratroopers of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment loaded aircraft and departed the coast of North Africa for the island of Sicily . The 1st Battalion , under the command of the 28 - year - old Gorham spearheaded the first regimental - sized airborne assault . Winds were high as they jumped in the early morning hours of July 10 and the Paratroopers were scattered across and well beyond their drop zones . Assembling in little groups of Paratroopers , the men began to wreak havoc among the German and Italian defenders of Sicily . In the combat that followed , Gorham positioned himself and the few dozen stragglers he found on the high ground near Comico airfield . On July 11 , when approximately ten German tanks and a battalion of infantry began to assault their position , and all of his men were lying as low as possible , Gorham was on his feet , dodging incoming fire and moving around the position , bucking up his outnumbered men . When one of the bazooka teams was killed , Gorham sprang for the weapon , loaded it himself , and went after one of the tanks . He hit the tank ’ s vulnerable side which set the tank on fire . Gorham then moved from point to point firing at the eye - slit of tanks , shouting encouragement to the men and directing their fire until the counterattack was beaten off . For his actions on July 11 , 1943 Gorham was awarded the nation ' s second highest award for bravery , the Distinguished Service Cross . The next day , July 12 , Gorham and his little group of paratroopers came face to face with another German tank near Niscemi , Sicily . William B . Breuer in " Drop Zone Sicily " describes the action : Gorham “ grabbed a rocket launcher and edged his way within range of a menacing Tiger Tank which had continued to roll forward . Gorham , out in the open and in full view of enemy tankers , kneeled to take aim at the tank . Gunners in the Tiger spotted the parachute leader and fired an 88mm shell at Gorham at point blank range . Gorham , hardnosed to the end , fell over dead . " The citation for the Distinguished Service Cross he was awarded for his actions reports : “ Lieutenant Colonel Gorham personally manned a rocket launcher and destroyed one tank . While attempting to destroy another with hand grenades and a rifle , Lieutenant Colonel Gorham was killed . ” This second description is consistent with the reports relayed to Gorham ' s family by " Chicago Tribune " reporter John Hall Thompson in December 1943 . LTC Gorham ' s death was first reported by then - LTC Bill Ryder in a March of Time radio broadcast on August 19 , 1943 . " One of the outstanding examples of heroism was Lt . Col . Arthur Gorham whose unit was attacked by tanks . When one of his bazooka teams was wiped out by an approaching tank , he manned the weapon himself and got the tank single - handed before being killed himself by another tank on their flank . " There is some confusion about the actual date of Gorham ' s death . Army records list his date of death as July 11 , 1941 . His second Distinguished Service Cross citation lists the date as July 14 , 1943 . This is the date listed on Gorham ' s headstone . In Phil Nordyke ' s " Four Stars of Valor " , page 425 , he explains : " Colonel ' s Gorham ' s death is listed in Army records as July 11 , 1941 . Both Captain Edwin Sayre , in his monograph written in 1947 , and Dean McCandless , who was with Gorham when he was killed , state that Gorham was in fact killed during action that took place on July 12 , 1943 . McCandless states that he found Gorham ' s CP ( command post ) on the morning of July 11 and was put on outpost duty by Gorham that evening . He states that the next morning Gorham recalled him and they moved to Hill 41 , where Gorham was killed . " For his actions on Sicily , Gorham was awarded two Distinguished Service Crosses . He was one of only five members of the 82nd Airborne during World War II to be twice awarded the Distinguished Service Cross . The other four were General James M . Gavin , General Matthew B . Ridgway , Major General Reuben Henry Tucker III and Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin H . Vandervoort . Gorham was also posthumously awarded the Purple Heart , the Combat Infantryman Badge and a combat star to his jump wings . In August 1948 , Gorham ' s remains were returned to the United States . He was interred in Bellevue , Ohio in a family plot . Tributes and Memorials . In a letter to the Gorham family , General Jim Gavin credited Gorham and his Paratroopers with much of Operation Husky ' s success : " Most of the combat success of the regiment in Sicily was due to Art and the men of his command . " In his book , " On to Berlin " ( page 47 ) , General Gavin wrote " Colonel Gorham and his small group of troopers and the lieutenants from the 3rd Battalion , 504th , accomplished all of the missions assigned to the entire regimental combat team . It was a remarkable performance , and I know of nothing like it that occurred at any time later in the war . . . His death was a great loss to the division . " General Matthew Ridgway , commander of the 82nd Airborne Division , probably put this in the best perspective when he wrote to Gorham ’ s widow , " The action which resulted in his death was typical of his inspiring leadership , for it was he that personally instilled the spirit of the attack at a time that those around him were thinking only of defense , and in person led the attack , which succeeded . His indomitable spirit acknowledged no odds . ”