Colonel Joseph Lloyd Kulmayer, U.S. Army Retired, 78, passed away peacefully July 17, 2015, at his home in Williamsburg, Virginia.
A native of Cranford, New Jersey, Colonel Kulmayer was the only child of Joseph E. Kulmayer, a professional violinist and Julianna Kecskes Kulmayer, a licensed nurse. He attended the Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, and upon graduation in 1958 was commissioned a Lieutenant in the United States Army.
His 30 year Army career included two tours of duty in Vietnam where as an OV1 Mohawk pilot he earned the Distinguished Flying Cross and two Purple Heart decorations for being wounded in action. A Master Army Aviator, he commanded both fixed wing and air cavalry units, and managed initial entry and graduate flight training programs at the Department of the Army level. As a field grade officer he served in joint, unified, and combined commands, including Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), as well as on the Army Staff. Rising to the rank of Colonel, he retired from active duty in 1989 and went on to serve 14 years as a contractor in support of the Doctrinal Literature Program at the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.
Colonel Kulmayer is survived by his wife of 57 years, Alice Faye, to whose dementia care he devoted his final years; sons Joseph, Jr., a mathematics teacher in Sandown, England, and Jeffrey, an Army Colonel currently assigned to the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.; and eight grandchildren.
He will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery at a date to be determined.
