Airman First Class Bell was a crew member of a B-29A Superfortress Bomber with the 93rd Bomber Squadron, 19th Bomber Wing. On January 23, 1952, while on a bombing mission the aircraft's engines died leaving one engine. Contact was lost between Okinawa and South Korea. He was listed as Missing in Action and was presumed dead on February 28, 1954. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.