More detail on this person: Veteran passes
away 30 hours after accepting Medal of Honor flag
for his late father
December 11, 2009 8:06 PM, Dusty Ricketts, Daily
News
SHALIMAR _ It's been said that people close to
death sometimes will hold on long enough to
complete one last thing important in their
life.
On Thursday night, Michael J. Novosel Jr. passed
away at his home in Shalimar surrounded by his
family. He died just 30 hours after he accepted a
Medal of Honor flag Wednesday for his father, the
late Michael J. Novosel Sr.
"We really believe he held on for that," said Tom
Rice, a local restaurant owner who helps organize
the local Honor Flights that take veterans to the
World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Okaloosa County Judge Patt Maney, a retired
brigadier general in the Army Reserves who served
with Novosel Jr., helped organize the Medal of
Honor flag ceremony for his friend.
"I think he'd like to be remembered as someone
who cared for his fellow man and particularly
soldiers, widows and orphans," Maney said.
Novosel Jr. and his father were the first
father-son pilot team to serve in Vietnam. They
evacuated more than 5,500 dead or wounded.
Novosel Jr.'s commitment continued long after his
military service. He started a foundation named
after his father to help wounded warriors with the
National Guard and Army Reserves and their
families.
"America lost a patriot (Thursday) night and
ordinary soldiers lost a friend," Maney said.
Novosel Jr.'s career and life extended much
further than the military. At the time of his
death, he had been working on an idea to tap heat
from inside the Earth as a source of renewable
energy.
"He was really a man of many talents and for all
seasons," Maney said. "After he retired from the
Army, he flew petroleum service helicopters out
into the gulf. He worked on a fishing boat out in
the Pacific. He did a lot of things."
Visitation is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday at
Emerald Coast Funeral Home.
The funeral is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at
Emerald Coast. Burial will follow at 1:15 p.m. at
Barrancas National Cemetery in Pensacola.
Surrounded by family, Michael "Mike" J. Novosel,
Jr., Age 60, peacefully passed away at his home in
Shalimar, FL on Thursday night, December 10,
2009 after being diagnosed with cancer a month
earlier. Mike, Jr. was born on November 19, 1949
to Michael and Ethel Novosel, who are both
deceased. Mike, Jr. is survived by his wife,
Margaret; daughter, Wendy Latchum [Pete] of
Shalimar; sisters, Patricia "Patti" Clevinger
[Ronnie] of Enterprise, AL and Jeannee Vinyard
[Michael] of Phoenix, AZ; and brother, John
Novosel [Leisa] of Auburn, AL. He is also
survived by three grandchildren, Joshua Latchum,
Breanna Latchum and Kate Peacock of
Shalimar.
Mike, Jr. is the only pilot to fly in the same
helicopter unit with his father in combat! He grew
up around pilots and aircraft. As a teenager, he
took every opportunity to be down on the flight
line. In 1968, at the peak of the war in Southeast
Asia, he graduated from high school in North
Carolina and, at 19, enlisted in the Army. After
basic training, he reported to Fort Wolters,
Texas, for flight school and trained in the same
flight in which his father had served as a
contract instructor earlier.
Mike, Jr. graduated, received appointment to
warrant officer one, and earned his wings on
December 15, 1969. It was exactly 27 years after
his father had earned his wings! He volunteered
for duty in Vietnam and, when he arrived,
requested assignment to the 82nd Medical
Detachment. With his father's approval, he joined
the unit. His father gave him a "dollar ride," an
auto-rotation check, an "in-country" flight
evaluation, and then cleared Mike, Jr. to fly the
Bell UH-1 "Huey." The two Novosels suspended a
normal father-son relationship for the next few
months, but, when Mike, Sr. completed his tour,
his son flew him to the departure processing base.
In July 1970, Mike, Jr. became an aircraft
commander and inherited his father's call sign,
"Dustoff 88."
In a year tour, he flew 1,736 missions, earned 37
air medals, and rescued more than 2,500 allied
airmen, sailors, and soldiers. He returned to the
States as a chief warrant officer (CWO-2), married
Margaret in 1971, and was assigned to Fort Bragg,
North Carolina. After serving at Pusan, Korea, he
flew the "Huey" and the Bell OH-58 Kiowa with the
3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Posted to Fort Rucker, Alabama, Mike, Jr. earned
an associate degree in Aviation Safety and then
went to the 377th Medical Detachment at Camp
Walker, Korea. In 1981, he returned to Fort Rucker
as a flight instructor and earned a degree in
Professional Aeronautics from Embry Riddle
Aeronautical University.
Next, he was Aviation Safety Officer for 2nd
Infantry Division in Korea and then became a
classroom teacher and instructor pilot back at
Fort Rucker. After assignment to the 12th Aviation
Brigade in Germany, Mike's final duty was
Installation Safety Officer at Fort Bragg; he
retired as a CWO-4 in 1991 with over 5,500 flying
hours. In a varied second career, he flew spotting
missions for fishing fleets in the south Pacific,
crop dusted, and hauled timber. In 1991, Mike flew
support for offshore oil exploration and drilling
operations in the Gulf of Mexico. With almost
11,000 hours, he piloted the Bell 407, a
state-of-the-art machine, for Air Logistics and
later extended his wings to helping fellow
veterans.
In 2008, Mike, Jr. started The Novosel Foundation
to provide immediate aid to Wounded Warriors. In
lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to
The Novosel Foundation
(http://www.novoselfoundation.org/) in memory of
the two Novosel men who faithfully served their
God and country.
This information was last updated 05/18/2016
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