Posted on 05/16/2006 4:50:49 PM PDT by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA — Maj. Gen. Gerd Grombacher, who commanded a major Army organization on Fort Huachuca for six years and who continued in a leadership role in the civilian community after he retired, died Sunday of pneumonia at the University Medical Center in Tucson.
Local people remember him for his leadership in the community, especially his role in establishing the local United Way chapter, and as a person who took being a citizen and a soldier to heart. The 83-year-old general, GG as he was called by friends, once told the Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review that as an immigrant to the United States who received the blessing of the country he had an obligation to return what he received by helping others.
And, according to Judy Gignac, Susan Tegmeyer, Bob Strain, Mario Gonzales, Ethel Berger, Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, Col. Jonathan Hunter, retired Command Sgt. Maj. John P. O’Connor, Betty Olson and Randy Groth, the general more than returned to the community — civilian and military — compared to what he received.
“He was a no nonsense kind of guy. He always told you how he felt about things,” Gignac said.
For the years she has known him, Gignac, who has held elected office and managed businesses in Sierra Vista, said one of Grombacher’s strengths was getting things done.
Like many, she mentioned what she called GG’s legacy, the formation of the area’s United Way program.
“He was Mr. United Way,” Gignac said.
From the initial step to now, the organization has grown, helping many charities, she said.
When Grombacher was involved in anything, he was like a person who jumped into the middle of a pond and saw his ripple effect take hold, Gignac remarked.
To Tegmeyer, Grombacher was an extraordinary man who led an amazing life.
Because of his public service, the Greater Sierra Vista Area Chamber of Commerce, of which she is the executive director, honored his lifelong commitment to the area with a community service award in 2004.
“In putting together the film clip chronicling his life for the presentation, I was honored to go through his photo albums and many keepsakes of his life and military service, including a commendation letter from Gen. George Patton,” Tegmeyer said.
While his military career was impressive, it was what he did when he retired from the Army that is even more so, she said. “After leaving he military GG took up another cause he believed in, and that was the United Way.”
He served selflessly with the organization, which improved the area, Tegmeyer said.
“GG was a gift to Sierra Vista,” she said.
Strain, Sierra Vista’s mayor pro tem, called the general “the backbone for United Way.”
While on active duty his contributions to the nation’s defense were critical, but that he found a new mission, ensuring charities could flourish in the area. That is as much an accomplishment as his Army career was, Strain said.
“Gen. Grombacher has always been stalwart in what he takes on,” the mayor pro tem said.
Gonzales, who is now the executive director of the local United Way program said the non-paying executive director position Grombacher held until he decided to step down as age and illness began to take a toll is an example of a dedicated person committed to the community.
“GG had the foresight to know when it was time to bring in someone,” Gonzales said. “He mentored me, and the change went seamlessly.”
But that didn’t mean Grombacher walked away from the organization. He was still a member of the board of directors, filling the position as corresponding secretary, Gonzales said.
Hardly a day went by without Grombacher showing up to give Gonzales a 20 minute briefing.
“He had an encyclopedic mind,” Gonzales said. “Once in a while I was ahead of him, but not often.”
Grombacher also had a great sense of humor, he said, noting one day GG saw him arrive at work on a bicycle.
“He just laughed and laughed,” Gonzales said, adding he rode the bike because gas prices were getting out of hand.
Like others, Gonzales said, “He will be missed.”
It was a sentiment held by Berger, who knew the general for years, remembering him as a member of the Noon Rotary.
“As a general he was so down to earth. He was a wonderful person. He worked hard for the United Way,” said the former Sierra Vista mayor.
Grombacher’s roots began in Germany.
But like many, those roots were removed when his parents decided to bring him and his sister to the United States.
It was the 1930s, a time of danger in Germany for Jews.
Germany was a Nazi state, and under Hitler, Jews, like the Grombachers, were targets.
In 2001 Grombacher sat down and talked abut those times in Germany, his trip to the United States, being drafted in the U.S. Army, going on to serve as an enlisted soldier in the intelligence arena and becoming an officer.
Once, he was an a temporary interpreter for Patton.
A master sergeant, Grombacher used his German language skills to interrogate prisoners of war.
During one battle, he and other German-speaking soldiers put on German military overcoats and went to different pillboxes manned by Nazi soldiers, trying to convince them to surrender.
“The war is lost” was his ploy.
“Sometimes we were successful, and there were times we were shot at,” he told the Herald/Review.
His exploits during the war led to him being awarded a Silver Star Medal. His wounds led to a Purple Heart Medal.
During his time in Europe, Grombacher tried to find his family. His parents returned to Germany, thinking Hitler’s regime would collapse.
He did find his mother’s grave — she died before the Nazis began the massive roundup of Jews and others.
As for his father and nearly 30 other relatives, there were no graves.
During the interview, Grombacher said those who do not believe the Holocaust happened cannot face reality.
“I’ve seen the camps. I know because my family died in those camps,” he said in a June 24, 2001, issue of the Herald/Review.
In 2005 Grombacher was inducted into the Arizona Veterans Hall of Fame.
Like many others in the Sierra Vista area, he knew there was a need for a veterans cemetery.
Grombacher joined with others in a push to have a state-operated cemetery for veterans constructed in Sierra Vista. It was successful.
He attended many events on post, during his retirement years, always supporting soldiers.
Fast, who commands the Intelligence Center and the fort, said Sunday was a sad day for Fort Huachuca, with the death of the general whom she described as Signal Corps professional, community leader and friend.
Grombacher will always be remembered as a prominent figure in the history of the post, Fast said.
“In the late ’70s and early ’80s he commanded the Army Communications Command leading Signal soldiers and taking care of their families,” she said. Prior to that assignment he served on the post as a brigadier general commanding another unit from 1972 to 1974.
It was 24 years ago this month, when Grombacher hung up his uniform but that did not stop his service to soldiers and their families, especially through the United Way, Fast said.
“He said the United Way was his way of paying back the United States. We owe a debt of gratitude to GG as he was the ultimate example of a military and civic leader,” she said, adding, “Our hearts go out to is wife Ellen, and to their family and friends during this time of reflection.”
For Hunter, the fort’s garrison commander, Grombacher was and will remain a legend on the post.
“Judy (Hunter’s wife) and I consider ourselves blessed to have had the opportunity to know both him and Mrs. Grombacher over the last two years. All of us at Fort Huachuca will miss him,” the colonel commented.
While most of the tributes to Grombacher were serious, O’Connor said when he was a younger noncommissioned officer he would go to the sauna on post and occasionally Grombacher would be there, too.
“He used to put Old Spice on the hot stones which I thought was unusual,” O’Connor said.
But during those times in the sauna — O’Connor, who was not a member of the general’s command — said Grombacher “would talk about down-to-earth stuff on how to help soldiers. He was a regular guy.”
Not long after Grombacher arrived to take on the job as the head of the Army Communications Command, he countermanded an order prohibiting soldiers to go into Sierra Vista in their fatigues to eat.
It was reported at the time he made his decision that Grombacher had said, “We go to war and die in those uniforms,” meaning he saw no reason GIs couldn’t wear them in town to eat.
Perhaps one of the people who knew GG best was his secretary Betty Olson, who still works on the post.
“I consider it a great honor to have worked with a person of General G’s caliber. I always admired his intelligence. He was one of the smartest people I have ever known, but he always stayed low-key and gracious. He was a great boss and a dear friend.”
Summarizing the view of many held about Grombacher is Groth, the Arizona Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army.
Groth, a Sierra Vista resident, said GG’s lost will be hard on the community.
Calling him a great American, Groth said, “It’s real sad. A community this size can’t lose a person like him.”
It was George Washington who said because a person takes on the cloak of a solider does not mean that person gives up the mantle of a citizen.
Based on what people are saying about Grombacher, he wore both the cloak and mantle well.
ping
A commendation letter from Patton?
That says a lot.
RIP Maj. Gen. Gerd Grombacher
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