My Father, Franklin E. Bristol, served in WWII as a navigator in the 490 Bomb Group which bombed among other things, the Ploisti Oil Fields in Romania. These were strategic oil fields vital to maintaining the Nazi War Machine, so these particular missions were very important to the war effort. The first picture above is taken at our local museum where I currently have a display of my Father's uniform and pictures along with a description of his service. Please note the picture of my parents in above right corner and on the left of my Father alone. I hesitated publishing this picture because they really disliked these pictures of themselves!! HA!
The picture in the doorway was taken at my Grandmother's House in Naugatuck Conn. upon his successful return after completing 50 missions.
I think there is little known about the service of our family members. Therefore I am pleased to post these items as I am very proud of them.
Carolyn, this is a piece of family history that I didn’t know about and it is rather amazing that he completed 50 missions over Nazi territory. Do you know what kind of plane he flew? It looks like he was awarded a number of important medals for his service. I think I mentioned that I am piecing together war-time information about my own father who was his cousin (and also named Franklin) for future postings.
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