FC2c Hershel Homer Bell

Herschel Homer Bell was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Dec. 30, 1919. His mother, Ona Workman Bell, was a homemaker and his father, Ira Newton Bell, a telephone company installer.

By 1930 the family moved to Decatur, Illinois, where the father worked as a lineman for a power and light company.

Herschel graduated from Decatur (Illinois) High School in 1937 and enlisted in the Navy on Aug. 12, 1938. Mr. Bell was a fire controlman second class on the U.S.S. Arizona when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

His brother, Hilbert, who was a year older, served in the Army from June 1942 through November 1945.


 
Sources: The Decatur Herald, the Decatur Daily Review, high school yearbook; Census; Navy muster roll; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This profile was researched and written on behalf of the U.S.S. Arizona Mall Memorial at the University of Arizona.
 
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