GERALD T. SKIDGEL, LT, USN

Gerald Skidgel '60

Date of birth: December 30, 1937

Date of death: February 14, 1968

Age: 30

Lucky Bag

From the 1960 Lucky Bag:

GERALD THOMAS SKIDGEL

Saco, Maine

After a year of college at Bowdoin, which is in the heart of the Ivy Colleges in Maine, Jere decided to don the Navy Blue and to enter into the arms of Mother Bancroft. Being an ardent sports enthusiast, he will always be remembered for his spirit and sportsmanship which brought victory to several company and battalion teams. Although not a star man, he experienced little difficulty with academics. After his classmates mastered his New England dialect, they never seemed to tire of his tales of his beloved Maine. When he enters Navy Air, we know the Navy will have a hard worker, cool thinker, and above all, a fine gentleman.

GERALD THOMAS SKIDGEL

Saco, Maine

After a year of college at Bowdoin, which is in the heart of the Ivy Colleges in Maine, Jere decided to don the Navy Blue and to enter into the arms of Mother Bancroft. Being an ardent sports enthusiast, he will always be remembered for his spirit and sportsmanship which brought victory to several company and battalion teams. Although not a star man, he experienced little difficulty with academics. After his classmates mastered his New England dialect, they never seemed to tire of his tales of his beloved Maine. When he enters Navy Air, we know the Navy will have a hard worker, cool thinker, and above all, a fine gentleman.

Loss

Gerald was lost on February 14, 1960, when the Marine helicopter he was co-piloting crashed into the guywire of a 2060-foot television tower at Galesburg, North Dakota. The four crewmen were also killed. The helicopter was assigned to Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Maryland, and was flying out of Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, on a routine training flight performing cold-weather tests.

Other Information

From Shipmate, April 1968:

Lt. Skidgel, who was born in Maine, graduated from the Naval Academy in 1960. Following flight training at Pensacola, he was designated a naval aviator in January 1962. He served with Helicopter Squadrons 10 and 6 at Ream Field, Fla. He was assigned to the Naval Air Test Pilot School, Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent at the time of the accident. He is survived by his widow, Jane, and three children, Stephen Pratt, Michael Folsom and Mary Katherine Skidgel, all of Lexington Park.

Gerald is buried in Maryland.