Born in Valdez, Colorado on November 4, 1922. Graduated from high school in Primero, Colorad in June, 1940. Max Vigil was a POW from May 1942 to July 1, 1944. Max enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps on August 16, 1941, and after completing his military training at Fort Logan in Denver, he was transferred across the Pacific Ocean by ship to the 20th Air Base Group, Nichols Field, Rizal, Philippine Islands. After the fall of Bataan in the Philippines, Max joined the American forces on Corregidor Island, who surrendered to the Japanese on May 7, 1942