World War II Vet, 95, Recalls His ServiceBobbie Brill of Warsaw celebrated his 95th birthday May 11.
However, Brill isn’t the average 95-year-old since he served his country during World War II.
In 1942, Brill was drafted into the 65th Infantry in the Army after he graduated from high school. He was stationed in the southern part of France during the war.
He was brought over on the Queen Mary with, he believes, 60,000 troops. He anchored in Glasglow, Scotland before crossing the English Channel.
During the war, he served as a radio operator, where his job was to carry around a 40-pound radio and keep close to the captains. He would receive messages and call the captain and tell him what the messages were.
After the war, Brill’s unit was deactivated and he was reassigned to special service for a year, he said. During that time, he took guards around to and from the Eagle’s Nest, which is a rocky outcrop that rises above the Obersalzberg near the town of Berchtesgaden. Brill also drove nurses around the area.
During the war, his brother also served, being drafted during the first draft to the 3rd division in the Army, serving in Africa, Sicily and Italy, coming home before Brill did.
The brothers didn’t cross paths during the war.
“We wanted to” meet up once, Brill said, “but they wouldn’t let him cross the French border.”
However, once Brill came back from the war, both Brill brothers worked on the family farm for awhile, something Brill’s brother eventually took over.
Brill did have some memories that stood out of his own experience during the war.
One of them includes walking past one of the concentration camps, although he doesn’t remember which one, and seeing some bodies lying on the ground.
Another memory was being pinned down in a town in Germany and having to have the Air Force come in and rescue the infantry, probably in 1944.
At the time, Brill’s unit was putting together pillboxes and taking a small break afterwards.
“We knew we were back in service,” when they were pinned down by enemy forces.
Even with these memories, Brill said the war needed to happen with Hitler crossing over to France and doing what ever he wanted. He called Hitler crazy.
“It had to be stopped one way or another,” he said.
Brill almost took part in the Battle of the Bulge as he was on the train to go there, but he was rerouted to a river, the name of which escapes him today.
He also participated in the Siegfried Line. The Siegried Line was a system of pillboxes and strongpoints which were built along the German western frontier in the 1930’s and expanded in 1944.
The war did have an affect on Brill, as it helped him in going back to civilian life.
The first way, Brill said, was it helped him appreciate life.
“I wanted to live so bad,” he said.
It also helped him transfer to a job at the telephone company where he worked for 39 years. At the time, the company he worked for was called United, then it changed to Sprint, eventually becoming Century Link. During that time, Brill became the parent of a son, Mike Brill of Leesburg, and a daughter, Deborah Woods of Sturges, Michigan.
The time Brill spent as a radio operator helped him in his civilian job, because “they were both in the communications business.”
“He worked a long time and woked a lot of over time to put me through school,” Mike Brill said, stating Brill once told him, he did it so he could invest in his son. This is something Mark has tried to pass on to his own children.
The advice Brill would give to the younger generations is to get a job, work hard and help society.
One thing Brill said was he didn’t want to be made into some sort of hero.
When thanked for going overseas, he stated, “I didn’t have much choice.”
