Frank Bostwick was born in 1925 in Blanchard, Louisiana and grew up in Blanchard during the Great Depression. His family had difficulties after the crash of 1929. Hard times were experienced by the family living on a small farm. Bostwick's father was a farmer and logger. Bostwick went to work around the farm at an early age. His mother had an asthmatic condition. As a result, the family moved to Port Lavaca, Texas on a doctor's recommendation. The relocation did not benefit Bostwick's mother so the family returned to Blanchard. His mother died shortly afterward. It was a hard life for Bostwick. He attended high school in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Frank Bostwick joined the ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] for three years while he was in high school. ROTC was beneficial for Bostwick to learn basic training skills such as close order drills. Bostwick enlisted in United States Army Air Forces flight training. His drill instructor noticed that Bostwick had knowledge of marching skills. The drill instructor divided his new recruits into two groups with Bostwick taking one of the two groups so that he could instruct them in close order marching requirements. Basic training was at Sheppard Field, Texas. Not only did Bostwick know about marching but he knew how to obey commands. Some trainees did not know that fundamental requirement. Basic training was not bad for Bostwick. On an occasion during basic, Bostwick was ordered to guard a portion of the field during one very cold evening. He was issued a carbine rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 carbine] without ammunition. Anyone wanting to enter the field probably could have gotten past him and his empty weapon. [Annotator's Note: Bostwick chuckles at the recollection.] Following basic training, Bostwick was given aptitude tests to confirm his best fit in the service. Although he had joined the Army Air Forces cadet program to learn to be a pilot, his test results shifted his training focus elsewhere. He was to be a gunner in a bomber. His next training was in gunnery school at Laredo, Texas. Aircraft recognition was taught. The physical features of both friendly and enemy aircraft had to be known to avoid shooting at the wrong planes. There was also training in the operation and maintenance of the .50 caliber machine gun that Bostwick would be using. Testing included a final check of the gunner to assure that he could reassemble a dismantled machine gun without seeing it. Bostwick was blindfolded and required to take the individual parts of the gun and reassemble it despite the instructor randomly scattering the pieces. It was all by touch and memory. Bostwick completed the test in the allotted time. Gunners were trained in skeet shooting, as well as firing stationary machine guns at moving targets. As a next level of difficulty, the machine gun was mounted on a moving truck, and the gunner had to fire at a moving target. It was good training. Following successful gunnery training, the men were sent to Lincoln, Nebraska. Lincoln was where the aircrew was formed up. Enlisted men met first and the officers came on afterward. The next stop was Boise, Idaho for advanced training for a couple of months. Cross country night flights were planned for pilot training. During one such flight, Bostwick heard radio chatter between his crewmates about an engine fire being out. It turned out that one of the four engines had ignited and had to be extinguished and feathered. The pilot successfully saved the crew and the B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. At that juncture, Bostwick developed a strong confidence in his pilot. That same pilot would safely command Bostwick's plane through all his overseas missions. Further training in Boise included gunnery practice. Other medium bombers would tow a target behind them for gunners to practice firing upon. The men knew they were headed to a combat zone and really did not care whether it was in the Pacific or Europe. The crew shipped out in the summer of 1944 to Harrington, Kansas for processing of their records and assurance that the proper equipment has been assigned to them. From Kansas, the crew went to the port of embarkation in Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. From Camp Kilmer, the men went aboard a ship for overseas deployment. It took two weeks for the trip to England. The officers were in quarters separate from the enlisted men. The trip to England was not as rough as the return trip after the war. The large convoy had to maneuver to avoid German submarines. The crossing was in the summer of 1944, after the D-Day invasion of Normandy had occurred on 6 June 1944. When the convoy tied up after the voyage, the men discovered that they had arrived in Liverpool, England.

Frank Bostwick arrived in Liverpool, England. Shortly afterward, the men were shipped to Northern Ireland for additional training. The enlisted crew trained separately from the officers. After being shipped to Glasgow, Scotland, the men were transported to their base in England. There, they were assigned to the 466th Bomb Group within the Second Air Division [Annotator's Note: 466th Bombardment Group, Second Air Division, 8th Air Force]. They flew B-24 Liberator bombers. The first five missions were flown by a skeleton crew that did not included Bostwick. Those first missions delivered fuel to General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton] and the rapidly advancing Allied assault in France. Life at the bomb group's base at Attlebridge, England was austere. The barracks housed enlisted crews for six aircraft. That made up 30 men to a mostly unheated arrangement. At night, the men would pile covers on them to lessen the cold. There was no warm water so showers were done using cold water. Norwich was close by Attlebridge so the men would take liberty runs to the town. The British civilians were very accommodating and became friendly after getting to know them. The local population had been suffering for quite a long time. The Americans shared such items as candy and soap with them. Those items were hard to get for the civilian population. Bostwick thought highly of the British people. Meanwhile, troops during World War 2 were able to keep up with the progress of the war by reading the Stars and Stripes newspaper.

Frank Bostwick flew 35 missions over Europe. His whole crew stayed together and relatively uninjured during those flights. The radio operator was injured after opening the bomb bay doors with a putt putt engine for raising the hydraulic pressure for bomb doorway actuation. While doing so, he looked at Germany through the bomb bay. Coincidentally, a flak burst exploded and he was struck above the eye by a piece of the shrapnel. The radio man, who was a full blooded Indian from Norman, Oklahoma, returned to his station and asked the engineer if there was blood on his face. That was the only injury the crew suffered in its 35 missions. There was also the instance of the nose gunner blacking out due to malfunction of his oxygen breathing equipment. The navigator had to check on the gunner. Seeing he was passed out, the small navigator pulled the large gunner from his position and put an oxygen mask on him. The bomber flew at 23,000 feet and not only was the breathing air very thin but it was extremely cold. The temperature would plummet to minus 40 degrees during the high altitude flights. There was insulated and electronically warmed clothing but it was not very effective. The suit and gloves were like heating pads. It would burn a crewman in one location while the remainder of his body was cold. The men knew never to remove their gloves to charge their weapons because their hands might stick to the weapon. The range of ordnance carried was from 100 pound bombs to blockbusters at 2,000 pounds. Targets were airfields, transportation facilities, fuel dumps, and other enemy installations. Flak defenses were generally heavy against the Allied bombers but there were few enemy aircraft defending the homeland at that stage of the war. Some bomb runs required low level flights at 10,000 feet. The risk of flak was greater at that time. On one run, the lead navigator got the formation off course. Time was lost and excess fuel used. The pilot looked ahead and saw the Germans anticipated the arrival of the bombers. The flak formed a big black cloud. The pilot told the crew to get their parachutes on because it could be bad. The pilot and copilot had seat parachutes but the crew had chest parachutes because of the constricted room for them to operate. Being a tail turret gunner, there was no room for Bostwick to put on his parachute in the ball turret and operate the machine gun. He placed the parachute on the top of the turret and attached a cord between it and his harness. Shortly after, a flak burst exploded under the aircraft and a piece of shrapnel went through the parachute resulting in it being unusable. It was lucky that Bostwick did not have to bail out and call on the chute for his rescue. Flak also damaged an engine on another bomb run. the engine was killed and the propeller was feathered. Another engine was running poorly at the same time. The pilot did not want to ditch in the North Sea en route back to England. As a result, the pilot flew down closer to France to find a friendly airbase. None was to be found. The pilot brought the aircraft higher in order to have enough altitude for the crew to bail out. The navigator talked the pilot out of giving the order to bail out and the pilot attempted another pass to locate a friendly airfield. That time one was located and the plane successfully landed. The damaged bomber was left on that airfield and the crew returned to England in a C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] transport aircraft. On another mission, the plane Bostwick and the crew flew was running low on fuel. Estimating that they could not return across the North Sea to England, the pilot decided to find a British airfield in Holland in order to refuel. After landing in a busy airfield that had British dive bombers coming and going all the time, the bomber was refueled. It then took off seeking its home base in England. While en route over German occupied islands off the Dutch coast, the bomber received flak fire. The pilot opted to turn the airplane and return to Brussels for a landing there. The next day the bomber and its crew returned to its home base in England. All missions flown by Bostwick were in B-24 Liberator [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] bombers. Despite the B-24 being nicknamed the "Flying Coffin," Bostwick thought it was a good airplane. The B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] was rumored to be more stable and sturdy. The B-24 was faster, could carry a heavier load, and was more maneuverable than the B-17. Although no particular mission stands out, each one had enemy flak to be briefed on prior to take off. Some flak guns were even mounted on railcars. Bostwick's last mission was flown without any particular fanfare.

Frank Bostwick was en route back to the United States when the Germans surrendered on 8 May 1945. His air missions over Europe had just ended in April. He was headed home for stateside duty. The seas were rough, it was stormy weather and the ship was tossed about. While on guard duty on the deck, word of the surrender came. It was a hospital ship carrying wounded back to the states. A medic concocted a celebratory drink that made him stupefied and as unstable as the ship. The medic appeared bloody when Bostwick came upon him. The unsteady man was ordered inside because he was falling and injuring himself. [Annotator's Note: Bostwick finds humor in the recollection of the intoxicated individual.] The troopship docked at Boston. Bostwick disembarked and went to Camp Miles Standish outside of the city. After processing, Bostwick was sent to Camp Shelby in Mississippi where he was given a furlough for a couple of weeks. Reporting back to Greensboro, North Carolina, Bostwick was asked for his preferred location for stateside duty. He was lucky because he did not have to plan on service in the Pacific as many veterans from Europe did. Bostwick wanted to be assigned to Barksdale Field, but he was sent to Laredo, Texas instead. Bostwick served in gunnery maintenance while at Laredo. He was assigned to repair and clean .50 caliber machine guns for the firing range. He was discharged at Laredo in October 1945. Following discharge, he returned home. Afterwards, he used the G.I. Bill to further his education. Ultimately, he would work different odd jobs until he married. Following marriage, he decided to settle into better employment. He built a career and then retired from a gas pipeline company. He lived in Shreveport and Houston during his employment. Looking over the attitude and knowledge of the majority of today's population, Bostwick feels that most people do not appreciate the efforts and sacrifice that service people made during the Second World War.