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| Bradford and Lydia Gee only had two children who lived to adulthood. Both Richard and Norris were killed while serving their country in World War 2. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/131649736 http://knoxvillealumniassoc.com/class/Obits.aspx?Person=1001 |
Norris B. Gee never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on September 17, 1918 in Nebraska. His parents Bradford and Lydia were both born in Illinois and Iowa, respectively. His father worked as a farmer and later as a highway construction foreman. Still later he worked as a contractor. Norris had one younger brother, Richard, who survived to adulthood. A pair of twins died in infancy. By 1940 Richard had already joined the army and was based in Louisiana.
On May 3, 1941 Norris married Clerice Bularelli in Missouri. They would have a daughter and a son.
Richard became a fighter pilot with the rank of captain in the 428th Fighter Squadron, 474th Fighter Group which was equipped with P-38 Lightnings. He arrived in England in August 1943 and flew combat missions for the next 10 months. He failed to return from a mission over France on June 22, 1944 and was reported missing in action. His status was later changed to killed in action.
Norris also attained the rank of captain. He was in the Headquarters Battery of the 202nd Field Artillery Battalion which as outfitted with twelve 155mm howitzers. It arrived in Normandy in July 1944. It would spend most of ten months in combat with Patton's 3rd Army, all the way to Munich, Germany. It set a record of firing 1,819 rounds in one day.
The fighting was pretty much over when Captain Gee was killed in an aircraft accident (probably an Stinson L-5 Sentinel that crash landed) on May 7, 1945.
Their graves are at Graceland Cemetery in Knoxville, Iowa. Norris's widow remarried and died in 2011. I don't know what happened to his children.
Last year on this date I profiled Thomas Cross, 82nd Airborne, and his AAF brother Robert. You can read about the Cross brothers 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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