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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Joanne Jones

Mr. Ormont went into the 8th Air Force at just 19 years old. During his time in the Air Force he earned many awards including the Good Conduct Medal, the Purple Heart, the European Theater Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross with 1 oak leaf and an Air Force Medal for flying more than five missions. His basic training began in Texas, advanced in California, and pre-flight in Daggett, also in California. He trained for eight months and was sent overseas to fly missions over Germany in 1942. He flew a B-17 named the Toonerville Trolley named after his favorite comic strip. During the last mission he flew, a propeller was lost. He asked his crew if they should chance getting to the English Channel so they would not crash over Germany, be captured and sent to a concentration camp since Mr. Ormont was Jewish. They made it to the English Channel where he was one of the few survivors when the plane crashed. He then spent a year and a half in a London hospital and was then sent home to a rehab hospital in Oklahoma. Mr. Ormont shares many favorite stories with his family. His children and grandchildren are so very proud of him. He was discharged in 1946 as a Captain.