Golden Gate Wing Guest Speaker Archive

Presentation Date: November 18, 2010

Col. Tito Gandarillas Moruza USA (Ret)

Speaker Photo

* Born February 15, 1921 in Santander, Spain
* Attended and graduated from CAL Berkeley - as non-citizen was not allowed to participate in ROTC
* Married Margaret De Longpre March 8, 1942 and volunteered for the Army upon graduation - processed through Ft. Ord.
* Volunteered for the 10th Mountain Division where he trained at Camp Hale, Colorado
* Volunteered for the Army's Counter Intelligence Corps - trained at Ft. Holobird, Baltimore, MD
* Parachute training at Ft. Benning, GA
* Sent to England
* Landed in Glider with 82nd AB on D-Day in Normandy, France in which the tree soldiers next to him were killed - made his way to St. Mere-Eglise, the first town liberated, to rendevous point.
* Became "migrant farm worker" enroute to Paris, which he entered on August 7, 1944. His job was to keep track of activities of Gestapo HQ and its records.
* Three days before liberation of Paris he saved the Gestapo files from being destoyed by fire.
* These files were used in the Nuremburg Trials.
* Speaking four languages, Tito assisted Displaced Persons and war refugees following the war, while presumably looking for infiltrators, spies, Germans trying to avoid detection, etc.
* Involved in the planning for Vietnam and Grenada.

A fascinating story. Come to hear a true hero * Born February 15, 1921 in Santander, Spain
* Attended and graduated from CAL Berkeley - as non-citizen was not allowed to participate in ROTC
* Married Margaret De Longpre March 8, 1942 and volunteered for the Army upon graduation - processed through Ft. Ord.
* Volunteered for the 10th Mountain Division where he trained at Camp Hale, Colorado
* Volunteered for the Army's Counter Intelligence Corps - trained at Ft. Holobird, Baltimore, MD
* Parachute training at Ft. Benning, GA
* Sent to England
* Landed in Glider with 82nd AB on D-Day in Normandy, France in which the tree soldiers next to him were killed - made his way to St. Mere-Eglise, the first town liberated, to rendevous point.
* Became "migrant farm worker" enroute to Paris, which he entered on August 7, 1944. His job was to keep track of activities of Gestapo HQ and its records.
* Three days before liberation of Paris he saved the Gestapo files from being destoyed by fire.
* These files were used in the Nuremburg Trials.
* Speaking four languages, Tito assisted Displaced Persons and war refugees following the war, while presumably looking for infiltrators, spies, Germans trying to avoid detection, etc.
* Involved in the planning for Vietnam and Grenada.

A fascinating story. Come to hear a true hero