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Recent Posts
- May 1973 First F-4 Combat Mission over Cambodia May 17, 2023
- Jungle Survival – A Piece of Cake May 2, 2023
- Leaving Luke For Southeast Asia 1973 March 28, 2023
- The POWs come Home and we welcome one January 24, 2023
- Greeting the Future in Times Square December 29, 2022
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© John Norvell
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Category Archives: Family History
Leaving Home
I have been reading a great memoir of the Second World War: Quartered Safe Out Here, by George MacDonald Fraser. It details his experiences in the Burma Campaign as a 19-year old private in the Border Regiment fighting the Japanese … Continue reading
John and Priscilla and Myles and Rose
John Alden and Priscilla Mullins Alden are my 8th great grandparents. Lets get this out of the way right at the start. Does this make any of me better than anybody else? Nope. So that said, I will share … Continue reading
Posted in American History, American holidays, Colonial History, Family History, Holidays, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, Longfellow, Pilgrims, Plymouth, Thanksgiving
Tagged Courtship of Myles Standish, Famous John Alden Descendants, Longfellow, Pilgrims, Plymouth, Thanksgiving myths
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The Hardest Thing I Ever Did
Lord, guard and guide all those who fly Through the great spaces in the sky. Be with them always in the air, In darkening storms or sunlight fair; Oh, hear us when we lift our prayer, For those in peril … Continue reading
My Grandfather and the Great Depression
Next to the Civil War, the Great Depression was the single most major event in American history that impacted nearly all Americans. John Steinbeck wrote the story of the “Okies” who lost their land and were forced to move … Continue reading
Freeman Norvell and The Detroit Free Press
Although his time during the Civil War was marked by controversy, in the years after the war things seemed to settle down. About 1866, my great-grandfather Colonel Freeman Norvell and his brother-in-law, Henry Nelson Walker assumed the ownership of the … Continue reading
4th of July long ago
More than anything else, the holidays we celebrated together demonstrated and defined our sense of community. In our little town of Hannibal New York, each holiday had its own special rituals and observances, this was especially true of the 4th … Continue reading
Washington in the 1830s
We often see politicians as living exciting lives today filled with much media attention. It wasn’t always so. In a letter dated December 18, 1835 John Norvell, soon to be a US Senator, wrote to Kate Mason commenting on his … Continue reading
Stolen Valor
There has been a lot in the news lately about celebrities and politicians who inflated their participation in combat. Others, who were never in the military, passed themselves off as veterans. This has been called “Stolen Valor.” But in a … Continue reading
Posted in Air Force, Alaska, American History, F-4 Phantom II, Family History, Fighter Aircraft, Military history, Stolen Valor, Veterans, Vietnam War, World War Ii
Tagged Air Force, Alaska, Chuck DeBellevue, F4 Phantom II, Military history, POWS, Roger Locher, Stolen Valor, The Right Stuff, United States Air Force, Vietnam War
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An American Family 