At a recent American Legion meeting another member of this nation’s “Greatest Generation” was recognized with the presentation of a copy of the posting on the Registrary Of Remembrance on the National World War II Memorial website. The presentation was made by the new American Legion Post Commander Gerry Collins.

Russell Forrest Bartolett enlisted in Toledo, Ohio in 1942 and received basic training at the Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois. Afterwards he was sent to the Naval Air Station at Corpus Christi, Texas for training as an aviation electronics technician. Upon completion of the Class “A” training in Texas, he received advanced training at the Naval Station in Norfolk, Virginia. His next duty assignment was at the Naval Air Station at Pensacola, Florida where he served as an aviation technician first class until his honorable discharge in 1944 when he returned to Toledo, Ohio.

After his military service, Bartolett continued to work in the electronics field, which took him to the Far East, Scandinavia and numerous locations stateside. He worked as a technical representative on Iwo Jima for Philco, an Air Force site engineer for Ford, an engineer on a large array seismometer site in Montana and Norway for MIT as well as radio frequency recording in Saipan. In 1970, Bartolett moved to Los Angeles where he worked on the JPL Deep Space Network for Honeywell Bendix Springer and Lockheed Martin for 18 years.

Bartolett is a resident of La Crescenta and has been an active member of American Legion Post #288 for over 25 years and has served as the sergeant-at-arms for many years. He has participated in many of the Legion activities and programs that support the local community.