Watch Norm on C-SPAN2!

Click here to see his 45-minute discussion taped at the Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver, Colorado

You can watch  him read from his book by clicking on this link

Norman Bussel Bio

Norman Bussel was born in Memphis, Tenn. and currently lives in Mohegan Lake, N.Y.  During World War II, he served as a radio operator/gunner on a B-17 bomber.  Flying out of Rattlesden, England on April 29, 1944, he was shot down over Berlin with four of his crew losing their lives.  He was interned in Stalag Luft IV, at Grosstychow near the Baltic Sea.  In February 1945, as Russian troops advanced, he was among the POWs the Germans moved by boxcar to a camp at Nuremberg to avoid liberation.  As American forces closed in on Nuremberg, he was then moved to Moosburg, in Bavaria, and ultimately liberated by General Patton's tank corps on April 29, 1945.

Returning home, he attended Memphis State University on the GI Bill and then joined the family supermarket business.  In 1965, he entered the publishing field, becoming an Editor at Progressive Grocer Magazine and was later promoted to Profit Center Manager.  Later, he joined Supermarket Business magazine as Research Director.  In 1980, he and his wife, Melanie, founded Melnor Publishing, Inc., providing the drug store industry with marketing information.  Now retired, he has been active for more than 20 years in the Hudson Valley Chapter of American Ex-Prisoners of War (AXPOW) serving as Trustee, Adjutant and Commander.  He has served in the N.Y. State Department of AXPOW as member of the Finance Committee and as delegate to national conventions.  He also has held positions in the National organization as Public Relations Director and as committee member.  Elected as a Director on the board of the AXPOW Service Foundation in March 2000, he was named Vice President in September 2000 and elected President in 2003.  He was also Editor of the Foundation TIMES newspaper. He retired from the Foundation in 2007 to concentrate on his writing.

In 2004, he and his wife became AXPOW National Service Officers, and maintain office hours at the VA Hospital in Montrose, N.Y., where they assist former POWs, their widows and other veterans in filing claims for service-connected benefits.

On June 19, 2007, Norm Bussel was called to testify before the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs. He addressed legislation which would correct an inequity affecting POW widows whose husbands passed away before September 30, 1999.

On September 26, 2007, he and his wife, Melanie addressed the 700 employees of the ChampVA office in Denver, Colo. He addressed the cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point on November 8th and was the featured speake at the Memorial Day observance at Cortlandt NY on May 23rd, 2008.

In August 2008, he was elected Vice President of the 447th Bomb Group; his wife, Melanie, was elected Secretary.  He addressed the Southern Chapter of the 8th Air Force Historical Society on September 27th, 2008.

His memoir, MY PRIVATE WAR--Liberated Body, Captive Mind, a World War II POW's Journey, was published by Pegasus Books on November 8, 2008.