Mr. Birdsall began his military service in the New York National Guard and later joined the USAAC and later again the USAF. He was walking guard duty at Hickam Field Hawaii on night of December 6th into the morning of December 7th and survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and surrounding military targets. Following his service in the Pacific he was sent to England and assigned to the 410th Bomb Squadron, 94th Bomb Group where he completed 35 missions in the B17, "Leave Us Face It". He returned to England several times following WWII as a NCO and saw duty in Arizona, Idaho, Marocco and Florida till retiring in 1963 shortly after the Cuban Missle Crisis. He married SSGT Lucille Scarpelli on his return to the US in 1945 and they had four sons, William, Robert, Nicholas and Frank.