Pottawattamie County

M/Sgt. Robert A. Gidley

 

NOW MASTER SERGEANT

Robert A. Gidley has been promoted from technical sergeant to master sergeant at Great Bend, Kan. M. Sgt. Gidley is a flight engineer in the army air corps. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Gidley, 211 Benton street.

Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Friday, December 10, 1943, Page 6

IN INDIA

Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Gidley, 211 Benton street, Saturday received word that their son, M. Sgt. Robert Gidley has arrived safely “somewhere in India.”

Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Sunday, April 30, 1944, Page 8

Report Gidley Dead in Action

Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Gidley, 211 Benton street, have received word from the war department that their son, M. Sgt. Robert Gidley, was killed in a raid over China on Aug. 2. His widow is staying with his parents.

M. Sgt. Gidley, a flight engineer on a B-29, left the United States April 4 after completing his training at Great Bend, kan. Gidley was a member of the crew of the first Superfortress to ever engage in enemy action, which took place April 26, over the India-Burma frontier.

Before entering the service, he was employed at the H. and H. Chevrolet company in Omaha.

Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Tuesday, September 05, 1944, Page 9

Plan Memorial for Bob Gidley

Memorial services for M. Sgt. Robert A. Gidley, killed Aug. 20 in the Far East, will be held Sunday at 12 noon at the Grace Presbyterian church.

Sgt. Gidley was a flight engineer on a B-29 and had made several flights over Japan and Manchuria. He left the United States in April this year after completing his training.

He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Gidley, 211 Benton street, and the husband of Donna Gidley.

Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Friday, October 06, 1944, Page 7

Obituaries
MASTER SGT. ROBERT A. GIDLEY

Full military rites are being planned for the funeral of Master Sgt. Robert A. Gidley, 29, first of Council Bluffs’ world war II dead to be returned from overseas, Wednesday at 2 p. m. at Woodring’s chapel. Dr. Leon C. Hills will officiate. Burial will be in Cedar Lawn.

Sgt. Gidley died in China Aug. 20, 1944, where he was stationed as a member of the army air corps.

Rainbow post No. 2 of the American Legion will furnish pallbearers and a guard of honor. A firing squad will be present at the cemetery and “Taps” will be sounded at the conclusion of the rites.

Sgt. Gidley is survived by his widow, Mrs. Donnabelle Gidley of Sun Valley, Idaho; his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Allen B. Gidley, 211 Benton street; and two sisters, Mrs. Beth Bromberg of Council Bluffs and Mrs. Marjorie Miller of Phoenix, Ariz.

The body arrived here Monday afternoon accompanied by Sgt. Lewis A. Tollman and was taken to the Woodring funeral home.

Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Monday, October 27, 1947, Page 3