Frederick Gilbreath was born on a farm near Dayton, Washington Territory, 21 February 1888, youngest of thirteen. Samuel Love Gilbreath, his father, was born in Tennessee in 1825 and his mother, Margaret H. Fanning, in Illinois in 1844. Both crossed in wagon trains with their families in 1852 and settled in Oregon. After marriage in 1859, they moved to Washington Territory.
Youth for Fred meant hard work on the farm, with education starting in the Columbia County Grade School. Graduated from Dayton High School in 1905, he attended Whitman College until appointed to West Point by Senator Levi Ankeny.
Entering the Military Academy 15 June 1907, he was a serious cadet though with a quiet sense of humor. He was an “area bird” but became an acting First Sergeant and a Cadet Lieutenant; played basketball, lacrosse, and polo. He was graduated 13 June 1911 and commissioned in the Cavalry.
Early service was in the Philippines with troop and staff duty and combat duty in Joly, 1912-13, with the 8th Cavalry, for which a Bronze Medal was given. In 1915, he was transferred to Fort McIntosh, Laredo, Texas, where he was promoted to First Lieutenant. During the fall of 1916, four months were spent as Professor of Military Science and Tactics at the University of Puerto Rico. Returning to Laredo, he was married 21 December 1916 to Miss Edna Brown of Laredo.
There followed service in Texas, and in Arizona where he was promoted to Captain, 4 August 1917, detailed with the Quartermaster Corps and ordered overseas. After a period in London as Chief Paymaster, he went to the Port of Embarkation, St. Nazaire, France. In March, he became Assistant G-4, I Corps, later Assistant Quartermaster 2d Division, and then Quartermaster 4th Division. Later, he was in the office of the Chief Quartermaster, returning to the States in October 1919, and to the Cavalry in 1921.
In 1922 he was a distinguished graduate of the School of the Line, in 1923 a graduate of the Command and General Staff School, and then instructor, and in 1927 a graduate of the Army War College. He had four years with the War Department General Staff from 1928. After service with the Cavalry and the Civilian Conservation Corps at Fort Bliss, he had similar duty at Fort Riley in 1934.
During this latter tour, he became a member, Masters of Foxhounds Association of America. Colonel Jonathan (Skinny) Wainwright, Assistant Commandant of the School and Master of the Cavalry School Hunt, invited Fred to become joint Master. On leaving Riley, Wainwright not only gave Fred his cherished fox horn but also presented a sporting brake, a two-horse, two-seated open light vehicle. In 1935, Fred was Executive Officer and Secretary of the Command and General Staff School, where his sporting brake aroused much attention. That vehicle, with coaching harnesses and other equipment given him by Colonel Horace Fuller, was the embryo that grew under Fred’s efforts into the Fort Leavenworth Museum, an outstanding collection of Nineteenth Century horse-drawn vehicles and allied equipment, which was approved by the Secretary of War in 1938 as a Department of the Army Military Museum.
In 1939, Gilbreath returned to Fort Riley as Assistant Commandant and in 1940 to Fort Bliss as Commanding Officer 7th Cavalry. From 1941 to 1944, he was Commanding General at Fort Mason and Coordinator of facilities for the San Francisco Port of Embarkation, promoted to Major General and awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. Ordered to New Caledonia in August as Commanding General SoPacBaComd, he was transferred to Manila to command a new base. Reporting in May 1945, there followed the organizing of the new command. Then ordered to Japan, he arrived in September for logistical support of the Sixth Army.
After a physical checkup in October, he left Tokyo 12 November for Brooke General Hospital at Fort Sam Houston. There, on 31 August 1946, he was retired with total disability. During his long years of active service, Frederick Gilbreath carried out whole-heartedly many difficult duties.
His awards were: Bronze Medal, Philippine Islands; Purple Heart (for service) World War I; War Department General Staff, peace time; Polonia Restituta (Chevalier) Poland, World War I; Distinguished Service Medal, World War II. Badges were: Philippine Island Insurrection; Mexican Border; World War I with five clasps; Army of Occupation, Germany World War I. During World War II: American Defense; American Campaign; Asia-Pacific with two stars; Philippine Island Presidential Unit Citation; Philippine Island Liberation Ribbon with one star; Army of Occupation, Japan.
After retirement, the Gilbreaths lived in Austin where for over twenty years they were attending members of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd and Fred in later years an honorary vestryman. He was a member of three associations: the Retired Officers, the West Point Alumni, and Masters of Foxhounds.
After an extremely active life, he died quietly in his sleep, 28 February 1969, at the age of 81. Services were at his church on 2 March, and interment was with full honors on 3 March in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. Survivors include his wife, a sister and a brother, two sisters-in-law, and several nieces and nephews.
In April, Edna Gilbreath received the following from Washington:
“THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA honors the memory of FREDERICK GILBREATH. This certificate is awarded by a grateful nation in recognition of devoted and selfless consecration to the service of our country in the Armed Forces of the United States. (sgd) Richard Nixon President of the United States.”
-H.F.N.