Staff Sergeant Harold Russell

SSgt. Harrold Russell, 20, of Ladd, was a radio operator and aerial gunner on an Army B-24 four-engined Liberator bomber engaged in anti-submarine warfare when his plane was shot down over the English Channel on September 18, 1943. Harold was a graduate of Hall Township High School with the Class of 1940, where he served as a sports writer for the Hall Light yearbook. He was employed as a bookkeeper at the Lakewood laundry, Chicago prior to his enlistment in the Army Air Corps January 8, 1942. Harrold was the youngest member of the crew of a Liberator bomber which was credited with the sinking of a Nazi submarine in the Bay of Bombay off the west coast of France and was awarded the Air Medal for meritorious achievement in operations against the enemy. He was based in North Africa for a time and also England with the provisional U.S. anti-submarine wing of the British Coastal Command. Ladd American Legion Post #938 is named for him.