Isidore Francis Gaspar

• General Notes
  • Isadore Francis Gaspar was born in Howell township, Orient, South Dakota, on June 8, 1916.   He spent most of his life in Hand County, attending school at Zell and Polo. For two years he operated his father’s farm at Huntimer. Later he farmed with his brother, Raymond, near Orient. Before he entered the service, Isadore was farming for his father near Dell Rapids, South Dakota.
    
    While farming, Isadore was called into a year’s mandatory military training for men over 21 and two days before his year was completed, war was declared. Isadore Gaspar was sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky, as part of Company E, 22nd Armed Engineering Batallion of the Fifth Armored Division. After transferring to Camp Cooke, California, in February of 1942, Isadore received basic and advanced training as a driver and equipment operator. The truck to which Gaspar was then assigned became his responsibility for the remainder of his life. Later in 1942 Cpl. Gaspar received additional training at Camp Cooke to prepare for Mojave Desert maneuvers.  In November 1943 Gaspar’s company was transferred to Summitville, Tennessee, and then Pine Camp, New York.
    
    Cpl. Gaspar was sent overseas in December of 1943; on June 11, 1944, a day after the Invasion of Normandy, Gaspar and the rest of Patton’s Third Army arrived at Normandy, France. Cpl. Gaspar served under Capt. Arnold Maker of the 989th Engineering Treadway Bridge Company. On February 24, 1945, while driving a bridge truck across Roer River in Germany, Army Corporal Isadore Francis Gaspar was killed in action when he was struck by shrapnel while taking cover in a building at Linnick, Germany. Isadore was buried in the American Military Cemetery at Margraten, Holland.
    
    At the time of Isadore Gaspar’s death, he was survived by his parents, Joseph and Anna Gaspar, four brothers: Raymond, Leo, Michael, and Harry, five sisters: Renata, Mary, Magdalen, Florence, and Leona.
    
    This entry was respectfully submitted by Lionel Valdez, 8th Grade West, Spearfish Middle School, Spearfish, South Dakota, November 13, 2000. Information for this entry was provided by Florence Coyle, Miller, South Dakota, sister of Isadore Gaspar.