Gerald Kenneth Tilney was born April 17, 1916 in Bismark, North Dakota. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in August of 1941 and married his high school sweetheart, Jean Marie Cunningham, on December 19, 1941 in Crawfordsville, Indiana. The young couple had two weeks together before he was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia for paratrooper training and then went overseas in 1942. He survived several campaigns but was killed in southern France on August 25, 1944, while trying to locate enemy snipers who had pinned down his platoon. According to reports, Tilney deliberately attracted sniper fire so the platoon could move forward. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. One of his fellow soldiers remembered him as a "fellow who loved his wife and had enough will power to stay away from other women. Any time there was a church service of any kind, he took time off from everything else."
Gerald Kenneth Tilney was born April 17, 1916 in Bismark, North Dakota. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in August of 1941 and married his high school sweetheart, Jean Marie Cunningham, on December 19, 1941 in Crawfordsville, Indiana. The young couple had two weeks together before he was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia for paratrooper training and then went overseas in 1942. He survived several campaigns but was killed in southern France on August 25, 1944, while trying to locate enemy snipers who had pinned down his platoon. According to reports, Tilney deliberately attracted sniper fire so the platoon could move forward. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. One of his fellow soldiers remembered him as a "fellow who loved his wife and had enough will power to stay away from other women. Any time there was a church service of any kind, he took time off from everything else."
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