Ex-president gives WWII pistol away
PHILADELPHIA — Former President George H.W. Bush presented the National Constitution Center with his World War II service revolver, returned to him 60 years after he gave it to a lieutenant on the submarine that rescued him.
The son of the late Lt. J.G. Albert Brostrom on Wednesday returned the .38-caliber Smith & Wesson and its leather shoulder holster to the former president, who in turn presented it to Constitution Center president and CEO Joseph Torsella for permanent display in the museum.
Brostrom was the sonar man on the USS Finback, the Navy sub that rescued Bush on Sept. 2, 1944, after the future president's plane was shot down in the Pacific. He met Bush as he stepped aboard the submarine, brought him to the infirmary, and later shared his bunk with the president.
"It was a little grubby in there, but that's how it was done in those days," he said. As he parted ways with the Finback, he gave Brostrom his revolver in gratitude.
After telling his story, Bush called over 6-year-old Harrison Malone, of Media, who was among a group of children from a Constitution Center summer camp on hand to welcome him, and placed the empty old revolver in the little boy's hand.
"Pretty neat, isn't it? It's a six-shot, I think," he said as the boy, gun in hand, turned to his fellow campers and beamed.
Ron Brostrom, 59, of Chester Springs, Pa., said his father never spoke to his family about the war, except for the kindness and sense of humor of the combat pilot who gave him the revolver.
"We only knew it was a 20-year-old lieutenant," Ron Brostrom said.
It wasn't until 1980 when Bush — then a vice-presidential candidate — announced he was looking for Finback crew members that the family realized who that pilot was.
"Dad was kind of like, 'The kid did OK,"' Brostrom said with a laugh.
After his discharge, Brostrom's father married, raised two sons and worked as an engineer for General Electric. He died in 1982.
"Dad told us, 'He (Bush) was a young man doing a good job at a very tough job,"' Brostrom said. "It's a real honor for me and my family to be able to give it back to him today."
