Tom Kilduff is being honored as the 2022 Parade Marshal. His family will represent him in the parade. Kilduff passed away on Dec. 21, 2021, at the age of 74. He was honored posthumously in Washington, D.C. on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives during a brief speech given by Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert. Her speech was entered into the Congressional Record. A copy of her speech and a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol will be displayed at White River Convenience. The following article was published in 2017 in the HT and details just some of his many accomplishments during his lifetime.
MEEKER | The term “Renaissance Man” has been used for centuries to refer to those who sought to develop skills in all areas of knowledge: physical development, social activities and the arts. The most famous Renaissance Man, of course, was Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), who was not only an artist, but also a chemist, musician, architect, anatomist, botanist and mechanical engineer. His accomplishments still stagger the mind 500 years later.
Well, Meeker’s Tom Kilduff is a different kind of Renaissance man. While not gifted in all the areas of Leonardo, his abilities and accomplishments are deeply significant to his local community and wider country.
Among the most significant periods of Kilduff’s life, one that molded him in many ways, was his membership in the 237 person fraternity from Rio Blanco County who served in Vietnam. As a Force Recon Marine, he earned 16 awards, including two bronze stars and three purple hearts during his 35 months in country.
Kilduff also explained one of the legends behind the term “leatherneck”: a leather neckband was worn in the late 1700s to protect Marines from the slash of the cutlass. Another legend, however (according to the Marine Corps Association and Foundation), says that the leather-lined collar was designed for discipline to keep the Marine’s heads high and straight. Although neither explanation has been definitively verified, the name stuck and the legacy continues with the distinctive dress blue uniform blouse today.
When he first arrived in Vietnam, Kilduff was assigned to Headquarters Company manning an M40 106mm Recoilless Rifle, which could be used in both anti-tank and anti-personnel roles.
“But I was always in the rear,” Kilduff said. “I wanted to be out in the war.”
So he made a deal with Captain Dick Murphy, who made Kilduff his radio man so he could stay out of the rear area. Murphy was actually a third cousin of the legendary Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier of World War II, including the Medal of Honor.
“My goal was to stay close to Captain Murphy, where I’d be safe,” Kilduff said. With a laugh he added, “But he was Audie Murphy’s third cousin! I had to follow him as he was running around at the front of the battle! I thought to myself, ‘What have I done?’”
It was during that time that Corporal Kilduff earned his most notable bronze star. According to the official report as verified by two eyewitnesses—2nd Lt. G. B. Rogers and Lance Corporal J. R. Donnelly—on 11 December 1968, he volunteered to leave the relatively secure position as radio operator to rescue Marines wounded during an ongoing firefight. He then volunteered again to take ammunition to those still pinned down.
It was actually as a result of this event, and others, that Kilduff made “Sergeant after only two and a half years in the Marines, which is almost unheard of,” he said.
After that battle, he volunteered for the 3rd Force Reconnaissance Company and was sent to Okinawa for training. Similar to the Navy SEALs, Force Recon has an 80 percent washout rate. It is responsible for operating independently behind enemy lines, gathering intelligence, performing unconventional special operations and supporting conventional warfare.
Upon his return to Vietnam, Kilduff spent most of his time among the Montagnards, the primitive tribal people of the Central Highlands. “They’re the original ‘Indians’ of Vietnam,” Kilduff said.
“Montagnard” is a French word that means “mountaineer,” but the Vietnamese people preferred to use “Mi” or “Moi,” derogatory terms that mean “savages.” The hatred of these two peoples is infamous.
While the Army Green Berets are well-known for their involvement with and training of the Montagnards to fight the Viet Cong, Kilduff said that this was also true of Force Recon Marines, as well as Navy SEALs and Army Rangers.
“Sometimes when we crossed the border on a mission into Laos we were in a group as Marines, but usually it was just a group of Montagnards and me, or other Force Recon Marines,” he said. “They took very good care of us.”
Kilduff had actually intended on making the Marines a career, but his most devastating wound ended that would-be calling. Already wounded in the leg by small arms fire during a mission, a B-40 rocket, the Vietnamese variant of the Russian RPG (rocket–powered grenade), hit the landing zone while he awaited transport. Shrapnel struck him on the left side of his head causing severe concussion and brain swelling.
After coming out of a nine day coma, “I was paralyzed from the neck down for 11 months,” Kilduff said. “They turned me every two and half hours (on my Stryker frame bed). I read westerns when I was face down and could turn the pages with a pencil in my mouth.”
It was more than two years later, after endless therapy rebuilding his motor skills and teaching himself to walk again, that Kilduff left the hospital.
As reported in the Herald Times back in June 2009, Tom Kilduff is now all about veterans and present military people. “No matter what your politics are, you need to be behind your troops or get out in front of them. They are the reason for our free society today,” he said.
Soon after Tom Kilduff “came back to the world” (a Vietnam veteran’s expression), on New Year’s day in 1971, he and a friend were driving (actually creeping along) towards town in a blinding snow storm when they came upon an accident. The identity of the victims quickly became apparent.
“I was walking and saw the bright red, 1920s wool coat that my mom wore,” Kilduff said. As he looked further, and to his horror, his mom had already passed away and his father lived only another 32 hours. After what he had already been through in Vietnam, this compounded the grief.
Kilduff comes from deep ranching roots, even having a great-great uncle as another namesake. Born in 1855, that Thomas Kilduff came to Colorado 20 years later and had multiple successes both in the hotel business and retail merchandising, but tired of both and turned to something else by way of a unique twist.
As the result of a whiskey debt, the K Bar T Ranch was born in 1884. After losing both stock and store by fire, Kilduff turned to his creditors, Isaac and Adolf Baer, who sold whiskey both retail and wholesale. So he could eventually pay his $2,000 debt, the brothers grubstaked him to settle 160 acres six miles upriver from Meeker. They chose their cattle brand for two reasons: it was Kilduff’s initials and it could be applied to the animal with one straight iron instead of a stamp.
And so it was that upon his return to the world, the 20th-century Kilduff also returned to ranching. Starting as a cowboy hand for the K/K in 1971, he worked his way to foreman for the lower ranches on Highway 64 for the next 22 years. Eventually bad knees contributed to the need for a career change.
“A soil conservation job opened up with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS),” he said. “It required two years of college, but I was six months short of that. My lifetime of agricultural experience made up for it so I got my two year degree and worked there for 18 years as an agricultural engineer/technician.”
One of Kilduff’s accomplishments while working for the NRCS was designing a ditch break for the Powell Park Ditch. Such a structure provides greater erosion control.
Many Meekerites will recall one of Kilduff’s greatest deeds of almost 21 years ago, namely, bringing the Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall to Meeker, a half-scale replica of the Wall in Washington, D.C., that stood on the courthouse lawn from June 30 to July 6, 1997.
When he first saw the wall in Colorado Springs in 1990, it helped Kilduff put at least some of the ghosts of the past to rest. That spurred him to bring the wall to Meeker so it could do the same for others, as well as make non-veterans aware of the sacrifice of those 58,196 who gave their lives (that number is now 58,220).
While Kilduff spearheaded the project, he credits many others with their help: the V.F.W., all the Meeker veterans, the Range Call personnel and sponsors. He was concerned about how many people would actually come to view the wall but was pleased when 17,000 signed the guest book.
In that same year, Kilduff returned to Vietnam with the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines for the 29th anniversary of the Battle of the Dia Do, which brought some more healing. He even decided to adopt a Vietnamese family. While the family stayed in Vietnam, he put their two children through college there.
Following that trip, Kilduff started working for the Military Historical Tours as a Vietnam expert. He took veterans back to battle sites to help turn them into places of healing instead of horror.
Kilduff’s concern for veterans has not been limited to those who served in Vietnam. Via Military Historical Tours, he’s been to Italy, Germany, France, Iwo Jima, Peleliu, Okinawa, the Philippines and Korea. He was also the commander of our V.F.W. Post (5843) for many years and has been involved in several other endeavors.
Kilduff readily admits to the missteps he took and the mistakes he made along the way, and is proud of none of them, but he is no less a Renaissance Man who has impacted many lives in our community, our country and even our world.
By DOC WATSON – Special to the Herald Times
