NORMAN BRILL
Age: 83
Hometown: East Los Angeles
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Navy
Years served: March 1944 - February 1946
Rank: Machinist mate third class
Family: Wife Ruth; three children, Linda Cottle of Camarillo, Caryn Ogroskin of Northridge and Robin Breding of Eugene, Ore.; six grandchildren; two great-grandchildren.
Coming tomorrow
U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Richard Nelson of Palm Desert.
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U.S. Navy veteran Norman Brill, as a member of a pre-invasion commando team, was among the first to land on the beaches of enemy islands in the Pacific during World War II.
Brill served on attack transport ships in five major invasions in the Philippine Islands.
“When I was on board the ship heading for an invasion I was part of ship's company,” he said. “I was assigned to the engine room. My gun station was a dual, 40mm anti-aircraft gun. There was plenty of actions most mornings.”
Creeping around in soggy beaches and jungles, enemy fire wasn't the only thing attacking the men.
“I got malaria and jungle rot (a tropical skin disease) in Guadalcanal,” he said.
Brill wasn't any safer on the water, suffering a concussion when a nearby ship was blown up.
“I got blown around the engine room and woke up in sickbay,” he said. “I can remember the engineering officer asking me if I was OK. Saying ‘Yes,' he then said, ‘Change your shorts and get back to work.'”
After graduating from high school, the Los Angeles native had his sights set on becoming a Navy pilot. He was accepted into the Naval air program, but during a physical exam, it was discovered that Brill was colorblind — a disqualification.
The Navy found a place for him in a new, little-known operation known as the ‘Navy Beach Battalion.'
There were 25 beach parties — 18 men in each party, he said.
“(Our) job was to land as a commando beach party one or two days before the invasion took place,” Brill said. “Once on the nonsecured beach, the party would determine the terrain depressions on the beach and the ability of landing craft to approach and secure themselves.”
Brill said these beach parties became part of the invasion force, attached to whatever military organization made the invasion — either the Army or the Marines.
The night before the invasion, the men were briefed on the topography of the island.
“Some islands had long beaches like those in Normandy, requiring special long-range ordnance, in which case the landing would be about 100 yards from the beach,” he said.
Then there were the “bowl beaches” where the landing craft dropped the men on the beach.
“These had snipers in the trees,” Brill said. “The worst was Okinawa. We had to come in over a reef that was about 100 yards from the beach. We had to do this when the tide was not high enough. When we approached the reef we found that the tide was lower than projected and our landing craft could not make it over the reef.”
The men had to transfer to Marine landing craft — known as “alligators,” which could climb over the reefs and run on land.
“And then we met the Japanese,” Brill said.
The men were on the beach for about two weeks.
“We were regularly strafed by Japanese Zeros,” he said. “We also had to contend with the enemy who was trying to pick us off on the beach.”
From Okinawa, Brill was headed to Japan — for the long-planned invasion — when the atomic bomb was dropped.
“That whole war to us was a good war,” Brill said. “There was a reason. I felt proud to be in that war.”
He paused, then added, “You grow up pretty fast.”
