He was killed overseas at 17 after lying about his age. Now his remains are returning to Butler County

A somber military procession after the funeral, on the way to his burial, will start around 12:40 p.m. Saturday and take a route that includes Main and High streets through Hamilton. The public is encouraged to line the streets in Brandenburg’s honor.

Brandenburg, 17, was fighting the Japanese on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The battle, which lasted several days, killed 1,000 Marines and sailors and wounded more than 2,000 Americans. The Japanese “were virtually annihilated,” according to a news release about Brandenburg from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).

Brandenburg, who went by “Billy,” died on the third day of battle, on Nov. 22, 1943. Born in New Miami on Jan. 3, 1926, he was the son of Robert and Mattie (Rice) Brandenburg. His parents and siblings are all deceased, but still living are numerous nieces and nephews, as well as great-nieces and great-nephews.

“A lot of people in New Miami are related with the Brandenburgs, so there’s going to be a lot of the family members here,” said Dave Mangus, a veteran who served 23 years in the Navy and husband of Brandenburg’s great-niece, Marla Mangus. “His family is also anybody who was in the military, and we have a lot of military brothers and sisters coming to bring him home.”

The military listed Brandenburg’s age as 19, but he actually was 17 when he died. Like many others during WWII and Korea, he fibbed about his age and enlisted at 16, four months after his father died and he begged his mother for weeks to let him sign up.

Brandenburg’s bittersweet homecoming, and burial just feet away from his parents, was made possible by modern scientific methods.

His unidentified body was buried in one of several battlefield cemeteries on the island. His was known as Central Division Cemetery, which later was renamed Cemetery 26. A military operation on Betio between 1946 and 1947 recovered his remains and those of many others, but were unable to identify his body.

Formal Saturday procession through Hamilton

Brandenburg’s body is scheduled to arrive at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport at 3 p.m. Thursday, and there will be military honors there, before a formal procession to the Brown-Dawson-Flick Funeral Home at 1350 Millville Ave.

Because of scheduling delays that could happen with flights and traffic, officials aren’t encouraging people to line the route for that procession.

They are hoping many people will line the streets and roads Saturday between the funeral home and Hickory Flat Cemetery after his noon funeral service at the funeral home. That procession should start around 12:40 p.m. and take the following route:

From the funeral home at 1350 Millville Ave., the procession will take a slightly different route than initially announced. It will go east on Millville Avenue. It will turn left onto Dick Avenue and then turn right onto Main Street, before continuing onto High Street. It will turn left onto North Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard before turning right onto Hamilton Trenton Road. The procession then will turn left onto Jackson Road and right onto Morganthaller Road and onto the cemetery.

How was he identified?

All of the remains from Betio were sent to the Schofield Barracks Central Identification Laboratory in 1947 for identification. By 1949, those remains that still were unidentified were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. One group of those bodies was designated as Tarawa Unknown X-074. That set was dug up in October 2016, for identification.

Scientists from the DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis, anthropological analysis and “circumstantial and material evidence” to make identifications.

Because Brandenburg’s body now has been identified, a rosette mark will be placed next to his name on a monument in Honolulu that lists the names of missing military.

During the federal fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2018, the military identified remains of 203 military — 156 from World War II, 37 from the Korean conflict, and 10 from Vietnam — said Chuck Prichard of the DPAA. Still, as of Tuesday, 72,688 service members were missing from WWII, 7,649 from Korea and 1,588 from Vietnam.

Brandenburg’s sibling who survived longest, Mae Black, gave a DNA sample about eight years ago to help identify him. She died in 2013. She, like their parents and all the family, are buried in the same graveyard.

“For me, it’s very bittersweet, because my mother wanted him home so bad, and then she didn’t live long enough to see the day come,” said Patricia Moore, Mae’s daughter, who said for her to know about her brother’s return, “I think she would be absolutely elated.”

Brandenburg’s siblings were brothers Carl, Charles, Findley and Clyde; and sisters Mae Black, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Steele and Emogene “Dolly” Laws.

The funeral will be held at Brown-Dawson-Flick Funeral Home at noon Saturday, with the Rev. Alan Weaver of Hamilton Church of God officiating. Burial with full military honors will follow at Hickory Flat Cemetery. Visitation will happen from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, at the funeral home.

WWII Marine Pfc. William “Billy” Brandenburg’s Return

Here’s how to participate in the funeral and homecoming of WWII Marine Pfc. William “Billy” Brandenburg, who died in an intense Pacific Ocean battle against the Japanese in November, 1943: