This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: BRANDOW Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ZaB.2ACE/1418 Message Board Post: San Jose Mercury News (CA) - June 7, 1994 MILT BRANDOW, PROFESSOR, W.W. II VET With prodding, Milt Brandow finally talked about flying as a radio-gunner aboard a B-17, about loosing tons of bombs on Caen, France, 50 years ago Monday. The targets of the U.S. Army Air Forces were the rails and roads into that key city directly south of the D-day landing beaches of the British and Canadian armies and southeast of the Americans' Omaha and Utah beaches. The bombing objective was not new to Dr. Brandow's 305th Bomb Group of the 8th Air Force. Its planes had flown mission after mission trying to make sure the German army would not be well-armed when the longest day began. Dr. Brandow took pride in doing his job on D-day in 1944, said his wife, Betty, "but he was also tormented over bombing innocent people, over the lives lost on the ground." ''He always made a point that war was so horrible." He told his son, Scott, about administering an injection of morphine to a wounded tail gunner only later to find a trail of blood leading to the open bomb bay. The buddy couldn't stand the pain. Scott Brandow also had to drag out the story of his father's bravery. He had the evidence, a Distinguished Flying Cross, the third-highest battle decoration of his father's branch. Dr. Brandow finally acknowledged that the award had come during a bombing mission over Germany. A buddy held his ankles while he stretched headfirst into the bomb bay to jar loose a bomb that had failed to release. In the winter of 1944, Dr. Brandow and the B-17 crew were forced to bail out over Belgium. The underground spirited them back to England, and they flew again. When he returned to the United States after the war, Dr. Brandow had also earned the Air Medal six times. His European Theater battle ribbon contained the stars for four campaigns, and his honorable discharge papers said he had flown 42 missions. Dr. Brandow had become one of the liberators of World War II; he looked to higher education as his own great liberator. His family couldn't finance it, so with the GI Bill, he entered Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., met and married Betty Wheeler. With bachelor's degrees, they taught in Pennsylvania for four years and obtained their master's degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. The Brandows moved to California in 1953 and again both taught while he earned a doctorate in education from the University of Southern California. The Brandows moved to San Jose in 1956 to teach. Betty Brandow began a 28- year tour with the Campbell Union School District. Dr. Brandow took a San Jose State University faculty position he would hold for the next 32 years. Hundreds of student-teachers sought his guidance and followed his example, including his son, who now teaches accounting at Trend College in Eugene, Ore. When Dr. Brandow became an emeritus professor in 1988, he and his wife had talked of traveling to see from the ground the Europe he had seen from above. But family obligations delayed it. Then, when the way seemed clear, Dr. Brandow contracted prostate cancer. Therapy sent it into remission, but not soon enough for the couple to make plans to attend the ceremonies this week. The plan shifted to the fall of 1994, but on May 11, Dr. Brandow suffered a heart attack and died. Dr. Brandow was 71. Born: July 23, 1922, Bradford, Pa. Died: May 11, 1994, Saratoga, Calif. Survived by: Wife, Betty Brandow of Saratoga, Calif.; son, Scott of Eugene, Ore.; sister, Dorothy Hocker of Durham, N.H.; brother, Alfred of Texas; sister-in-law, Mary Brandow of Bradford, Pa.; three nieces and one nephew. Services: Have been held. Memorial: Donations may be made to the Dr. Milton Brandow Memorial Scholarship, San Jose State University, Box 7201130, San Jose, Calif. 95172.