A Veteran's Story: Peter Brandel

Peter Brandel was only 18 years old when he was inducted into the U.S. Navy in Sept. 1944. It had been nearly three years since the United States had entered World War II and American troops were now fighting in both Europe and the Pacific.

As Brandel stood aboard the U.S.S. Waukesha, bound for the waters of the Pacific in the spring of 1945, the life he had known began to drift further away-his job at the bank, his family in the Bronx- and ahead of him lie danger, the unknown and a Japanese army that, he says today, "just wanted to kill."

Brandel's ship had been ordered to join the invasion of Okinawa, in what would become known as the bloodiest battle, the largest amphibious invasion and the last major advance of the Pacific War. 

"We were attacked by kamikazes during the day, and Japanese bombers in the night," Brandel recalled.

More people would perish in the Battle of Okinawa than during the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"We lost a lot of ships there," Brandel said. In total, 34 U.S. ships and craft were sunk and 368 were damaged in the battle. The loss of lives was astounding.

Roughly 12,000 American soldiers were either killed or considered missing, and more than 38,000 were left wounded. The Japanese took an even bigger hit. More than 107,5000 Japanese soldiers perished, 23,764 were sealed in caves or buried by the Japanese, and another 10,755 were captured or surrendered.

The U.S.S. Waukesha's next orders were to proceed to Pearl Harbor, but when the ship received news that the Japanese were considering surrender in the aftermath of the atomic bombs dropped in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, they crew was instead ordered to steer toward Guam.  On Aug. 12, they pulled into Apra Harbor and soon after, began loading soldiers from the 14th Marine Regiment to escort them out of the Pacific. On the day of their departure, the Japanese accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration.

"Our ship took the official surrender of the Japanese and captured the Nagato, the last surviving Japanese battleship," Brandel said. "When the war was over, we brought army, navy and marines back from the Pacific to Seattle."

Brandel was not finished yet though. He stayed in the service for another year following the war, achieving the rank of radarman second class, before being discharged in 1946.

"We had been away for some time," Brandel recalled "There were no replacements back then. You just went from one battle to another."

He returned home to a warm reception. "We were treated very nicely when we came out of the service," he said. Back then, he recalled, "everybody sacrificed during the war, including the women who stayed home to raise kids, grew liberty gardens, had to deal with rationing and even went off to work."

While Brandel said he was happy to serve his country, he was ready to get back to the life he had before.

"I'm glad I was in the service and made my contribution," he said. "What I didn't like was that it put me back two years of my civilian life."

When he returned home to Yorkville, he started making up for that lost time.  He resumed working at Manufacturer's Trust Bank in Manhattan, where he would ultimately put in 44 years before retiring in 1988.

A year after he left the service, he also met a lovely woman, who would soon become his wife.  They married in 1948 and moved to West Hempstead six years later, where they raised their five children: Al, Peter, Paul, Valerie and Mary.

Today, Brandel belongs to the local VFW and the West Hempstead Lions Club. "The  the community and the people are great here."