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Laguna Woods honors ‘Greatest Generation’ of veterans

June 18, 2023

Michael Brigandi was 18, not long out of high school, when he was drafted into the Army in February 1944.

Four months later, he found himself in England, waiting for transport to Utah Beach in Normandy. That wait took four days, for reasons unknown to him.

“When you’re 18 or 19 years old, all you’re worried about is getting back home,” he said.

Brigandi was with the 234th Engineer Combat Battalion, whose mission was to build bridges and roads, dig foxholes and “anything else that needed to be done” after the Allied invasion of Western Europe on D-Day, June 6, 1944, during World War II.

“The first bridge we built we were under mortar fire by the Germans,” he recalled. “But they got taken care of by our artillery.”

Brigandi survived, he said, because his company followed the 2nd Armored Division inland.

“We didn’t see anybody around anywhere,” he said. “The tank guys cleared the way for us.”

Laguna Woods resident and World War II veteran Michael Brigandi.
(Photo by Mark Rabinowitch)

Laguna Woods resident and Holocaust survivor Eddie Hoffman.
(Photo by Mark Rabinowitch)

Laguna Woods resident and World War II veteran Gilbert Rowland.
(Photo by Mark Rabinowitch)

Laguna Woods resident and World War II veteran Jerry Schur.
(Photo by Mark Rabinowitch)

Laguna Woods resident and World War II veteran Joe Toifel.
(Photo by Mark Rabinowitch)

Laguna Woods resident and World War II veteran Roland Davis.
(Photo by Mark Rabinowitch)

Laguna Woods resident and World War II veteran Charles Luce.
(Photo by Mark Rabinowitch)

Laguna Woods resident and World War II veteran Lillian Davis.
(Photo by Mark Rabinowitch)

Laguna Woods resident and World War II veteran Don Goldberg.
(Photo by Mark Rabinowitch)

Laguna Woods resident and World War II veteran Elmer Shapiro.
(Photo by Mark Rabinowitch)

Laguna Woods resident and World War II veteran Charlie Claxton receives an honorary quilt from Donna Karbach, right, of the Crazy Quilters Guild.
(Photo by Mark Rabinowitch)

Pat Burr, president of the American Legion Post 257 Auxiliary at Laguna Woods, leads the POW/MIA ceremony in front of a Missing Man Table during the post’s meeting May 25 in Clubhouse 1.
(Photo by Mark Rabinowitch)

Alan Clark, chaplain of American Legion Post 27 at Laguna Woods, reads from a card made by an elementary school student honoring World War II veterans at the post’s meeting May 25 in Clubhouse 1.
(Photo by Mark Rabinowitch)

Laguna Woods residents, bottom row from left, Eddie Hoffman, Roland Davis, Michael Brigandi, Gilbert Rowland, Charles Luce and Lillian Davis, and top row from left, Charlie Claxton, Jerry Schur, Don Goldberg and Joe Toifel were honored at a tribute by American Legion Post 257 of Laguna Woods in Clubhouse 1 on May 25. Not pictured is Elmer Shapiro.
(Photo by Mark Rabinowitch)

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Eddie Hoffman also survived the war, but he came face-to-face with the horrors of Auschwitz: At age 14, he watched, he said, as his entire family perished in the Nazi concentration camp in Poland.

The Nazis then shipped Hoffman to camps around Europe. In May 1945, he was at a camp in Austria when it was liberated by Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army.

As a young man, Hoffman emigrated to America and was drafted into the U.S. military – the 3rd Army. He served in Korea and Japan.

“I loved the Army and felt allegiance to the country and the 3rd Army that liberated and gave me a new life,” he said.

Brigandi, Hoffman and nine other Laguna Woods residents and members of the “Greatest Generation” of veterans were honored at an American Legion Post 257 dinner meeting May 25 in Clubhouse 1.

The meeting started off on a solemn note after Commander Dennis Powell welcomed those in attendance – the veterans, Legionnaires, and members of the American Legion 257 Auxiliary, female family members of Legion veterans.

Pat Burr, president of the Auxiliary, gave the bugle call “To the Colors,” honoring the nation, and Chaplain Alan Clark presented the opening prayer.

Burr then led the POW/MIA ceremony in front of a Missing Man Table set up inside the clubhouse.

It is a small round table laden with symbolism: a single red rose as a reminder of the missing and their loved ones who keep the faith, a lemon slice for the bitter fate of those captured and missing in a foreign land, a pinch of salt for the tears of the missing and their families, an inverted glass showing the inability of those missing to share in the toast, an empty chair at the table, and more.

The mood in the room changed after dinner, when each veteran was introduced and asked to share their most vivid memory of the war. A sense of reverence prevailed as guests listened to the 10 men and one woman who endured the war, lived to talk about it and are still alive even as the number of World War II veterans rapidly dwindles.

But it was clear that many of the veterans didn’t take themselves quite as seriously as the guests did. Laughter broke out as the vets shared humorous memories, often poked in the ribs by their wives, prodded to “tell them about the time you …”

Gilbert Rowland was in the Army Air Corps. Since he was a teenager, he said, he was “nutty about learning how to fly.” He finally got to do it at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas.

Rowland told the story about having quite a bumpy landing. In fact, his biplane bumped down on the ground several times. When he was finally able to bring the plane to a stop, his superior told him, “You only get credit for one landing.”

Jerry Schur enlisted in the Navy in 1944 at age 17 and was promptly sent to college for one year in Wisconsin to learn how to fix radars. But when he was done, two things happened in rapid succession, he recalled: FDR died (April 12, 1945) and Germany surrendered (May 7, 1945).

Schur was on only one ship, he said: He took a tour of his brother’s vessel when it was docked in San Francisco.

Joe Toifel also was in the Navy and also got in at the tail end of the war, he said, in time to “decommission a couple ships.” But he recalled that in high school he worked on making .50-caliber machine gun bullets that were used in the war.

Roland Davis recalled his Army career as being “like having an office job in Hawaii.” He graduated from high school in 1944 and got into a college program for engineers at Camp Roberts, near San Luis Obispo, before being shipped off to Hawaii.

“If I learned anything, I did learn to type in high school,” he said, so the military put him in an anti-aircraft office.

Davis didn’t see combat, but he did a lot of training, he said. His most vivid memory is of training on Oahu in a stream with water up to his neck and holding his rifle above his head.

Charles Luce joined the Army Air Corps at 18 and was sent to gunnery school in Greensboro, North Carolina. He recalled being “small enough to fit in the belly of a B-17 – even though you’re not supposed to be in the belly for landing.”

Because he had lost the eardrum in his right ear, he was sent to England for radar school and eventually learned computer programming.

Lillian Davis, 101, was the only female World War II veteran in attendance. She had a more sobering memory to share.

She joined the Army at age 21, was trained in physical therapy, and spent the bulk of her military career helping service members who were wounded in the war – first amputees, then those who had brain injuries.

Also among the veterans were Charlie Claxton, who served in the Navy in the North Atlantic and the Pacific, and Elmer Shapiro, 102, who served in the Army.

Don Goldberg was called into the Navy in 1944 at age 17. He spoke about his father, who fought in World War I and was wounded in combat.

Goldberg himself served on two destroyers in the North Atlantic.

“I was never shot at,” he said, “and I never shot at anybody else.”

Orange County Register

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Laguna Woods honors ‘Greatest Generation’ of veterans

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