Sidney Gardner was born in London England, November 02, 1923. His family moved to Elyria, Ohio when he was 4. Gardner was a middle child of a family of eight boys and two girls. After graduating high school at the age of seventeen, Gardner joined the US Army. His first post was Camp Sibert, Alabama.  Next he was shipped to Calcutta, India where he stayed for the next three years. Grander worked in a photographic laboratory, developing film of classified aerial photographs from surveillance operations. After the war, Gardner obtained a degree in industrial management and worked as an industrial engineer until his retirement in 1989. He was married and has two children. Courtesy of Friends of the WW II Memorial.