Later Life
After the Dutch East Indies surrendered, Bruggink became a prisoner of war and was forced to work at the infamous Burma Railway, while his wife was interned in a camp in Java. They were reunited in December 1945, after the war ended.
Bruggink left the air force in 1955 and immigrated with his family that same year to the United States, where he worked as a flight instructor for civil aviation in Texas. In 1959, Bruggink started working for various research organizations, including the National Transportation Safety Board, inspecting aircraft incidents and air safety before retiring in 1982. He died in his home in Skipperville, Alabama, on 5 December 2005, after a long illness. He was 88 years old.
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