Welcome to the website of the USS Bristol DD 857 Veterans Association. The Association was founded in 1998 by a small group of former shipmates. Currently there are 256 shipmates who served aboard the Bristol from its commissioning in 1944 to its decommissioning in 1968.
We invite you to take some time to review the many great features of this website. There is a wealth of information tracing the active history of the ship and the men who served aboard her. As you can see from the list of links to the left there are twelve different sections and most of them have additional links within them.
The History section has six separate links giving much historical information on the ship including all of the Commanding Officers and a list of ports visited. One link called “Photo Albums” contains photos submitted by the shipmates. They are categorized into four time frames 1945 to 49, 1950-54, 1955-59 and 1960 to 69. Included are photos of the Bristol in Japan immediately following the end of the war as well as the initiation ritual which takes place when the ship crosses the equator. Many photos show sailing in very rough weather and having fun in beautiful ports in the world. Of course all of the people pictured were a lot younger then.
The Members section allows you to sort by name or by years served aboard the Bristol. An additional feature is that some of the shipmates have submitted pictures of themselves showing what they looked like while they were aboard the ship “Before” and a current picture “After”. If the shipmates name is in color and is underlined just click on the name. The Membership Info section tells you what you need to do to join up.
Other sections include the quarterly Newsletters and photos and details of all recent annual Reunions. We have just celebrated our 14th annual reunion in Dallas, TX. The 15th will be held in Savannah, GA this fall and Nashville, TN has been selected as the site of the 16th reunion.
