Bruce Bell - 2nd Lieutenant

Biography

Year at ISU: 1945

Lieutenant Bruce H. Bell was born in Duluth, Minnesota to Bruce H. Bell, Sr. and Louella Wiggins on August 28, 1923.

Bruce attended ISC from September 1942 to February 1943. He was a licensed pilot before being inducted into the Army Air Corps at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. He received further training at San Antonio, Cuero, Waco and Del Rio, Texas and at Shreveport and Lake Charles, Lousiana. He received his wings and promotion to Second Lieutenant at Waco on March 12.

At Scott Field, Illinois, he was the pilot of a B-26 Bomber when its engine failed on take off. The plane crashed, killing himself and four other crew at on September 18, 1944. 

"We appreciate this effort your are making to perpetuate the memory of our son and the many others, whose youthful ambitions were cut short by the merciless conflict in which we were drawn. It is our earnest prayer that it might soon be brought to a close before more of our youth are called upon to make the supreme sacrifice and thus bring more sorrow and suffering, we know only too well." – Mr. and Mrs .Bruce H. Bell, Sr., letter to the ISC Alumni Association, April 11, 1945.