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| Lt. (jg) Norman Imel was a Hellcat pilot in VF-8 until he became a POW in October 1944. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/54359101/norman-wesley-imel http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/302868-vb-8-vbf-8-and-vf-8-uss-bunker-hill-cv-17/ |
Norman Wesley Imel never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Norman was born on April 3, 1920 in Beaver, Oklahoma. His parents Lester and Lottie were born in Kansas and Texas, respectively. His father worked as a farmer and also as a janitor. Norman had two younger sisters and one younger brother. By 1940 Norman was attending Panhandle A&M College in Goodwell, Oklahoma and also taking flying lessons.
In January 1942 he took and passed a test to see if he could become a flyer in the Army Air Forces, but then decided to enlist in the US Navy, probably because the Navy needed flyers sooner than the Army had available planes. He completed naval flyer training in October 1942. He was commissioned as an ensign in February 1943. By the end of the year he was assigned to Fighter Squadron 8 (VF-8) which was equipped with F6F-3 Hellcats. By that time he was probably a lieutenant (jg). During much of 1944, VF-8 was stationed on the carrier USS Bunker Hill. By October most of its missions were over the Philippines and Formosa.
During his time with VF-8, Lt. Imel earned the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal and a Gold Star in lieu of a second Air Medal. On October 8, 1944, Lt. Imel was flying a mission over Formosa where he was shot down by two Japanese Zeros. He bailed out safely and hoped to land in the water for a possible rescue, but his chute took him over enemy territory. He was taken prisoner before he could be rescued.
Lt. Imel's fate remained unknown until November 1945 when his family learned from a fellow POW that he he was flown from Formosa to Tokyo, Japan on October 28, 1944. The flyers were kept in solitary confinement and were beaten almost every day. Lt. Imel's feet became infected in the course of being tortured. He received no medical attention and died of blood poisoning on March 10, 1945. After the war, two Japanese officers, responsible for the death of Lt Imel and others, were found guilty of war crimes and hung.
His grave is at Forgan Cemetery, in Forgan, Oklahoma.
STAN FREEMAN
You may not recognize the name of Stan Freeman, who was born on the exact same day as Norman Imel. Stan was born in Connecticut. Before the war started he graduated with a degree in music from University of Hartford.
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| http://www.radioswissjazz.ch/en/music-database/musician/7004008bded8e375e508b2cbca6e612f8bb44/biography |
Last year on this date I profiled Okinawa fallen Roe McCune, 7th Infantry Division. You can read about Roe here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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