Robert Bluford Jr

Military

Object Number - UPL 22047 - B-24M-10-FO #44-50699 "Parson's Chariot" Code: T9-P 466th BG - 784th BS 1LT Robert Bluford - Pilot

The Rev. Robert Bluford Jr. has been a B-24 bomber pilot in World War II, preacher, historian, preservationist, a Presbyterian pastor and campus ministry director in the Southeast, and the Virginia Press Association’s Virginian of the Year for 2011. He is also the founder and president of the Historic Polegreen Church Foundation and helped to save land around the historic Polegreen Church in Hanover County, Virginia, and was the 2004 recipient of the annual award presented by the Council of America’s First Freedom.

The retired Presbyterian minister's passions have included the Fan Free Clinic, which he helped found in 1968, and Civil War site preservation. At 92, he is still an activist, working for better treatment of Virginia's Native Americans and establishing a Civil War memorial being among his top pursuits. His Civil War dream is to plant a tree for every American killed during the war along a 100-plus-mile stretch of US 15.

The author in detail: In his younger days, Bob, a Richmond, Virginia, native, interrupted his studies for the ministry at Hampden-Sydney College in May 1942 to volunteer for the U.S. Army Air Force. He served as a B-24 bomber pilot and squadron leader in the 8th Air Force during World War II, then returned to Hampden-Sydney and graduated in 1947 as valedictorian.

He subsequently graduated, cum laude, from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond in 1950 and earned graduate degrees from the seminary in 1954 and 1957. In the 1950s, he also served as campus minister at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and in pastorates in North Carolina and South Carolina.

He was active in the civil rights movement on campuses in the 1960s and in peaceful protests of United States military involvement in Southeast Asia. In 1971, Bob was a co-founder of the Fan Free Medical Clinic in Richmond. He served on the board of directors of Planned Parenthood in Richmond. Over the last 30 years, he has served as minister or associate at Presbyterian churches in Richmond and at 86 was still active as a pastor and preacher.

During his ministry he served as a leader and volunteer in projects to preserve numerous historic sites in Virginia, including two — the Historic Polegreen Church Foundation in Hanover County and the Laurel Historic District in Henrico — that were placed on the Register of Historic Places of the U.S. Department of the Interior. He currently is director of the Douglas Southall Freeman Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.

Since 1990, he also has been active with the United Indians of Virginia’s effort to recover nearly 2,000 skeletal remains of their ancestors from the Smithsonian Institute. He was elected to the United Indians’ board of directors in 1995 and is the only non-Indian to be recognized as a board member.

Since 1989, he has devoted time and energy to the Historic Polegreen Church Foundation, the church whose early history is told as an engrossing you-are-there story in this book by the foundation’s founder. Bob Bluford was recognized “for his determined preservation of the Polegreen meeting house site” as the Virginia recipient of the 2004 First Freedom Award bestowed by the Council for America’s First Freedom.

He has authored at least two books:
"The Battle of Totopotomoy Creek" ISBN-13 - 9781626192515
"Living on The Borders of Eternity" ISBN-12 - 2940011272318

Connections

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Units served with

Three little girls hold up a balloon celebrating the 100th mission of the 466th Bomb Group in front of a B-24 Liberator (serial number 42-95592) nicknamed "Black Cat". Handwritten caption on reverse: 'On our 100 Mission party Day- 18 Aug 1944, Attlebridge, 466th- wouldn't it be something if we could identify these girls? How could I do it?'
  • Unit Hierarchy: Group
  • Air Force: Eighth Air Force
  • Type Category: Bombardment

People

  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 466th Bomb Group 784th Bomb Squadron 785th Bomb Squadron
  • Service Numbers: 39465984
  • Highest Rank: Staff Sergeant (3rd Grade)
  • Role/Job: Waist Gunner
  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 466th Bomb Group 784th Bomb Squadron 785th Bomb Squadron
  • Service Numbers: O-2066933
  • Highest Rank: First Lieutenant
  • Role/Job: Co-Pilot
  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 466th Bomb Group 784th Bomb Squadron 785th Bomb Squadron
  • Service Numbers: O-2022807
  • Highest Rank: First Lieutenant
  • Role/Job: Navigator
  • Military/Civilian/Mascot: Military
  • Nationality: American
  • Unit: 466th Bomb Group 784th Bomb Squadron 785th Bomb Squadron
  • Service Numbers: 35891833
  • Highest Rank: Staff Sergeant (3rd Grade)
  • Role/Job: Radio Operator

Aircraft

  • Aircraft Type: B-24 Liberator
  • Nicknames: Chris Crate
  • Unit: 466th Bomb Group 491st Bomb Group 784th Bomb Squadron 853rd Bomb Squadron
A B-24 Liberator (serial number 44-40454) nicknamed "Betta Duck" lands at Mount Farm. Image by Robert Astrella, 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group. Written on slide casing: 'Betta Duck, landing Mount Farm.'
  • Aircraft Type: B-24 Liberator
  • Nicknames: Betta Duck
  • Unit: 34th Bomb Group 466th Bomb Group 493rd Bomb Group 785th Bomb Squadron 7th Bomb Squadron 862nd Bomb Squadron
  • Aircraft Type: B-24 Liberator
  • Nicknames: Parson's Chariot
  • Unit: 466th Bomb Group 784th Bomb Squadron

Missions

Ground crew attend to a crashed P-51 Mustang nicknamed "Baby Jo" of the 357th Fighter Group. Handwritten caption on reverse: ' Lt Noel Breen ran out of fuel 9 Feb '45.'
  • Date: 9 February 1945

Places

Aerial photograph of Attlebridge airfield, looking north, the fuel store and a T2 hangar are in the upper centre, 31 January 1946. Photograph taken by No. 90 Squadron, sortie number RAF/3G/TUD/UK/51. English Heritage (RAF Photography).
  • Site type: Airfield
  • Known as: Attlebridge Arsenal, Station 120

Events

Event Location Date Description
Richmond, VA, USA 3127 Woodrow Avenue

Other

Graduated

Farmville, VA, USA Hampden-Sydney College

Revisions

Date2 Aug 2016 01:27:38
Contributor466thHistorian
ChangesChanges to aircraft associations
Sources

466th BG Archives - 4 March 1945 mission formation plan

Date2 Oct 2015 00:20:41
Contributor466thHistorian
ChangesChanges to service number
Sources

466th BG Historian

Date2 Oct 2015 00:01:56
Contributor466thHistorian
ChangesChanges to biography and events
Date24 May 2015 01:47:01
Contributor466thHistorian
ChangesChanges to suffix, highest rank and events
Sources

466th BG Historian

Date24 May 2015 01:45:04
Contributor466thHistorian
ChangesChanges to media associations
Sources

466th BG Historian

Date31 Oct 2014 14:12:30
Contributor466thHistorian
ChangesChanges to media associations
Sources

Chris Brasfield

Date30 Oct 2014 22:41:51
Contributor466thHistorian
ChangesChanges to unit associations, place associations and mission associations
Sources

Chris Brassfield

Date27 Sep 2014 18:22:50
ContributorAAM
ChangesAAM ingest
Sources

Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / Unit roster in the book ATTLEBRIDGE ARSENAL by Wassom & Brassfield, p 343

Robert Bluford: Gallery (3 items)