Gidel, Darwin, 1924-

Darwin Gidel was born in 1924 and grew up in Rockwell City, Iowa. After graduating from high school in June of 1942, Gidel immediately joined the military. His basic training took him from Minneapolis to Missouri, after which he was stationed in Nebraska, California, Florida and South Carolina for further training.

Gidel’s overseas assignment was in London, England, beginning in November of 1943. His B-17 was shot down over Belgium in March of 1944, and he and eight other crew members were held as prisoners of war for eleven months. Much of his incarceration was in a Luftwaffe Hospital in Brussels, where his injured leg was removed.

After the war, Gidel earned a degree in accounting on the GI Bill, which eventually led to general administration work in Sacramento, California. Along the way, he married and had four children. After his wife passed away in the late seventies, Gidel relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada and remarried.