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Like his parents who emigrated to the United States from England in the early 1920's, Ozello resident Roy Henry Norman is an adventurer who appreciates our land of opportunity to the fullest.
Six months after being born in Detroit, Michigan, Norman's family relocated to Niagara Falls, New York. While a student at Niagara Falls' LaSalle Junior and Senior High School, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor led Norman to drop out of high school to enlist in the United States Navy on his 17th birthday in September 1943.
After completing Navy boot camp at Samson, New York, he was transferred to Naval Air Station, Memphis, Tennessee where he completed training as an aviation machinist mate and aerial gunner. Norman was then temporarily assigned to a torpedo bomber squadron in Hollywood, Florida until reassigned to Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida at which time he became a member of VP-117, a newly formed PB4Y (B-24 Bomber) squadron.
Upon completion of eight months of operational training, the squadron, composed of 18 specially selected flight crews with 15 PB4Y aircraft, deployed initially to Tinian Island, Marianas in the fall of 1944 where it operated under Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet conducting offensive reconnaissance and interdiction missions as a warm up for the Philippines campaign
On December 1, 1944, the squadron redeployed to Tacloban airstrip, Leyte, Philippines. With the airstrip still a contested area, Norman's plane was damaged by enemy ground fire upon its initial landing at Tacloban. Despite the plane being damaged, Norman and his crewmates escaped injury. Although the squadron's mission was primarily search, it sank 66 ships, damaged 22 others, and shot down 31 aircraft during 68 days of operations from Leyte
In February 1945, the squadron, named the "Blue Raiders" by Tokyo Rose, redeployed to its final wartime base at Mindoro, Philippines. From the southern tip of Mindoro, the squadron flew low-level combat missions primarily in single plane operations covering the quadrant from the Saigon and Cam Rahn Bay area of Indo China, north along the China coast to Formosa, and then north to the Ryukus Islands.
It was during one of these single plane missions on April 25, 1945 that Norman received his Purple Heart. While flying over Indo China, his plane was attacked by six Japanese "Zero" fighter planes. Hundreds of machinegun and cannon rounds riddled the plane wounding Norman and eight of the plane's 11 crewmembers, including the pilot. Norman, in addition to shrapnel wounds in the back, also received a serious wound to the right thigh that severed his sciatic nerve.
Although the plane sustained heavy damage and all but two of the crewmembers suffered painful wounds, contact with the enemy fighters was miraculously broken. With the plane's number three engine on fire, it limped back to Mindoro in a grueling five and a half-hour flight. With the plane's landing gear inoperative from a loss of hydraulic fluid, the crew's long ordeal finally came to an end with a safe but tension filled belly landing.
Initially evacuated to a Navy field hospital for treatment, Norman remained there several weeks until transferred to a hospital ship. Given the complex surgery to repair his sciatic nerve, he was evacuated to a hospital ship at Leyte and then transported aboard the USS Refuge hospital ship to San Francisco for further evacuation to a naval hospital in Corvales, Oregon. At the naval hospital, seventy-one days after being wounded, Norman finally underwent surgery to repair his damaged sciatic nerve.
Following two more surgeries at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Norman was assigned to the Navy's first helicopter squadron in the fall of 1946. However, recurring problems with his sciatic nerve ultimately saw Norman medically discharged in February 1947.
After leaving the Navy, Norman's pursuit of opportunity saw him successfully embark on various careers as a radio broadcaster, New York City restaurateur, heavy construction owner, tugboat owner/operator, developer and motel owner/operator.
Norman discovered Citrus County while visiting the Homosassa vacation home of a friend and associate. Always seeing opportunity, he and his wife Gail moved to Citrus County almost a quarter century ago where they now enjoy life on the Nature Coast.
A recent Life Member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Norman is the proud recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, Air Medal with 2 gold stars, Presidential Unit Citation and the Naval Aircrew Badge with 3 service stars for participation in combat missions.
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