Gordon Redtfeldt

February 2, 1922 - July 4, 2019

“Gordon was a navigator on B-17s in WW2. He retired from the Air Force as a Lt. Colonel. He passed on to be with his wife, Lucille, on July 4, 2019, after a short illness.

“He was born on Groundhog Day 1922 as the son of a Missouri sharecropper. Gordon had many jobs as a young man, one of which was skinning skunks for the pelts.

“He joined the Army Air Corps in 1942 and was shot down on his eighth mission over Germany and became a POW for the remainder of the war. Gordon went on to serve 30 years in the Air Force — he logged over 4,000 flight hours. He was on active duty in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

“He was married to Lucille Vaughn in 1943 and raised three daughters — Judy, Paula and Madeline. Gordon and Lucille were married 74 years before she passed away.

“Gordon was predeceased by his wife Lucille and his oldest daughter Judy, as well as by a brother and sisters. Being the true patriot and war hero, he held on and left this world on the 4th of July 2019. Graveside service was at Ocean View Cemetery, Eureka.”

Previously, the Rotary Club of Eureka also recognized Gordon’s patriotism and sense of duty. In 2012, the group reported that “Gordon was a navigator in a B-17 and told a story of getting caught in the jet stream over water with lots of cloud cover as they were flying to Iceland. Even though the jet stream was unknown at the time, Gordon trusted his training and the plane landed exactly when he said it would. On Gordon’s eighth mission to Germany, his plane was shot down and he parachuted to the ground fracturing three vertebras. He was captured by the Germans and spent 1 year in a POW camp. After WWII, Gordon stayed in the military due to his strong patriotism and fought in the Korean and Viet Nam wars.