Winnell, Hugh
Posted on 15 September, 2021 by in Veterans By Name, W
This Bio of Hugh Winnell born in 1924 are from notes of the July 2012 interview in Petoskey Michigan. This is also from some memories of out talk. I only met Hugh for a short time when Marie Martin (Wife) Trenton Grimes (Grandson) and I went to Petosky to put on a Larry Martin’s World War II In Their Own Words program at the Petosky Library.
Hugh enlisted in the Navy’s V-5 program in December 1942. He was trained on the F4U Corsair in the Philippines and Okinawa. Hugh also trained at El Toro California where he practiced “Dog fights” using the “Thatch Weave method”with the new aircraft F6F Hellcat which had 2.000 hp with a top speed of 400 mph. instead of the old aircraft that he was training on which had 450 hp. Hugh was attached to General Douglas MacArthur’s theater. His group VMF 222. His group shot down 29 Kamikazi plane’s at Okinawa. His buddy Tommy Thompson shot down the last Kamikazi over Okinawa in 1945.
I also met his Marine Corps friend Hank Ameel from the 5th Marine Division who had a beautiful homes overlooking Petosky’s harbor. Hank was wounded at Iwo Jima in 1945. Both of these men died very quickly after our only meeting in July of 2012. Hugh of cancer and I do not remember what took Hank.