Gale Dean Morelock
Born: June 13, 1924 (Newton, Iowa)
Died: November 3, 2007 (Fulton, Missouri)

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Like many young Americans of the “Greatest Generation,” Gale Morelock joined the U. S. Navy six months after Pearl Harbor, as an 18-year old straight out of high school. He served in the Pacific Theater for the duration of the war as a member of the Naval Armed Guard – an all volunteer, hazardous duty assignment that placed U. S. Navy 3-inch gun crews on merchant vessels transporting troops and supplies (often without warship escorts) throughout the theater. Morelock sailed to Australia, the Fiji Islands, India and the Aleutian Islands. During one voyage, two out of the three ships in his convoy were sunk by Japanese submarines. While Morelock was steaming around the Pacific, his future wife, Dorothy Hummel, was making B-26 bombers at the Maytag Washing Machine factory back home in Newton, Iowa. In fact, as in many families, all three Morelock brothers joined up – eldest brother, Gene lugged a BAR through Italy while middle brother, Jerry, was a bomber crew chief in the Army Air Force.

After the war, Morelock continued to serve, becoming a U. S. Army Warrant Officer and full-time technician for over twenty years in the Iowa and Florida National Guards. In 1963-65, both Morelock and his son, ACG Editor in Chief, Jerry Morelock, served together in the same Florida National Guard outfit – a rare “father-son team.”

As the Greatest Generation continues to depart this earth, it seems appropriate to pause and recognize one of those 16 million Americans who served in uniform during World War II. Rest in Peace.

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