Hometown: Cedar Rapids, IA
Branch: U.S. Army
Unit: 1st Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division
Military Honors: Bronze Star, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: August 31, 2007 - KIA in Ramadi, Al Anbar Province, Iraq
Age: 24
Conflict: Iraq War, 2003-2011

Kevin Gilbertson was born and grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. According to his stepfather, Randy Frank, “Kevin was very energetic growing up. [He] was always curious on how things work, so he would take them apart and put them back together.”

At Taft Middle School, Gilbertson played youth football, basketball, and participated in gymnastics.

While attending Thomas Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids, Kevin’s interest in how things work grew into a love of racing radio-controlled cars. Once, his mother, Keely, smelled smoke coming from Kevin’s bedroom. After asking him what he was up to, Kevin replied, “I wanted to see how the wheels burn rubber.”

Choosing to serve

After graduating from high school with the class of 2001, Gilbertson knew what he wanted to do next. His father, Don Gilbertson, told the Des Moines Register, “He joined the Army right out of high school to get a college education when he got out. His dream was getting a degree and supporting his family.”

Gilbertson’s mother later recalled, “It was his decision to go into service. He asked me if it was okay. I couldn’t say no, and I couldn’t say yes. I said if you want to go into the service, I will be there for you.

“He loved [being a soldier],” his mother added. “From day one, especially all the exercise, lifting weights, that is what he really liked the most.”

After Basic Training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, Gilbertson was sent to Rose Barracks in Vilseck, Germany, for training as an M1 Abrams tank armor crewman.

From 2002-2003, Gilbertson and his unit participated in Operation Joint Guardian—a U.S. effort with European allies to bring peace to Kosovo. In the 1990s, Serbian forces under Communist Party strongman Slobodan Milosevic had driven out 800,000 Albanians and killed some 12,000 more.

Living abroad

Gilbertson remained at Vilseck until 2005, when he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, and stationed at U.S. Army Garrison Schweinfurt, Germany.

While living abroad, Gilbertson met and married Nina Sullivan of Chemnitz, Germany on December 30, 2005. The young family—including Nina’s son, Nickolas—set up home in Schweinfurt. Two years later, the family welcomed another son, Timothy.

A close call

From his home base in Germany, Gilbertson served two deployments to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. [and one to Kosovo?]

Given the nickname “Gilmoe,” he survived a close call in what became known as the “battle of Donkey Island” in Iraq’s Anbar Province.

On the moonlit night of June 30, 2007. Gilbertson’s unit was traveling along Nassar canal, looking for possible weapons smugglers who were using wooden boats. With Gilbertson at the wheel of a Humvee, the convoy came across two large semitrucks and as many as 70 heavily armed insurgents.

An intense firefight erupted. Bullets shattered the ballistic glass and popped two tires on Gilbertson’s Humvee. He jumped into the gunner’s sling while a teammate took control of the Humvee.

NBC News recounts what happened after American forces overwhelmed the insurgents:

Even when dozens of the [insurgents] lay dead, [Staff Sgt. Norman] Stark and his platoon mates discovered that their enemy possessed an unsettling determination. Making a final push toward the canal in his hobbled, bullet-pocked Humvee, Stark saw a wounded insurgent on the ground with a hand behind his back.

“Turn on your stomach!” Gilbertson, the gunner, yelled, intending to detain the man. But the insurgent hurled a grenade at the truck. The pin failed, and Gilbertson shot him with his machine gun.

The Humvee lurched forward, and Stark saw an insurgent curled in the fetal position but still moving. [The insurgent] detonated his suicide vest…ball bearings splattered the right side of [the] Humvee, which was lifted off its wheels and thrown down, causing its third flat tire.

Final mission

Gilbertson survived that firefight. Two months later, on August 29, 2007, he was engaged in combat operations in the city of Ramadi, Iraq, when insurgents attacked his unit.

Badly wounded, Gilbertson was brought to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where he died of his injuries on August 31, 2007, at the age of 24.

Another member of Gilbertson’s unit, his close friend SGT Edward L. Brooks of Dayton, Ohio, was also killed on the mission.

SGT Kevin A. Gilbertson was laid to rest in his hometown with full military honors. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of sergeant and awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals.

To memorialize SGT Gilbertson’s service and sacrifice, the Sgt. Kevin A. Gilbertson Memorial Bridge in Arkansas City, Kansas, was named in his honor. His name is also inscribed on the First Infantry Division Monument in the nation’s capital.

Sources
Details provided by Mr. Randy Frank, SGT Gilbertson’s stepfather
American Legion: A Day of Honor for 631 Gold Star Families
U.S. Army: Fort Riley's Army family there for survivors of fallen
United States Congress: Honoring Our Armed Forces—Sergeant Kevin Gilbertson
NBC News: U.S. troops in deadly clash at Donkey Island
Stars and Stripes: Soldier wounded in Iraq dies at Landstuhl
Military Times—Honor the Fallen: Army Sgt. Kevin A. Gilbertson
Together We Served: Gilbertson, Kevin Allan, SGT
The Gazette, Sep. 7, 2007: Sgt. Kevin Allan Gilbertson
Iowa Today, Sep. 12, 2007: C.R. native laid to rest with honors
Burial Site: Find a Grave