Rose Brotzky (July 11, 1922 – April 21, 2021)
Rose Brotzky was born on July 11, 1922 in Glen Ridge, NJ and passed away on April 21, 2021 in Lakewood, NJ.
Rose was a United States Marine, a veteran of World War II and a member of the Lance Corporal Slattery Detachment of the Marine Corps League
A Funeral Service was held on April 26, 2021 in Manchester, NJ and interment with Military Honors was held on April 26, 2021 at Brig. General William C. Doyle Veterean Memorial Cemetery , 350 Provinceline Road, Wrightstown, NJ
In 2014, Leonard Brotzky,her husband, was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds he received during the Battle of the Bulge. The medal should have been awarded in 1944 but was apparently overlooked because of a record-keeping foul-up. It was corrected through efforts begun by his Congressman, US Representative Chris Smith, more than a decade prior to the presentation.
At Brotzky’s side was his wife, Rose, who was also honored for her trailblazing service as a Marine radio operator in Hawaii during the war. She was presented by Smith with a flag that flew over the Capitol.
“I was waiting for this [the flag] when I passed on,” said a smiling Rose Brotzky, 92, who met her husband after the war at a veterans’ gathering. “It’s just an honor to be here. I’m so proud of my husband.”
During a brief ceremony, Smith praised the couple’s contributions in and out of uniform.
“We honor today two extraordinary Americans – Lenny and Rose Brotzky – for their courageous service to our nation during World War II,” he said. “The Brotzkys are the quintessential example of the ‘greatest generation’ – patriotic, generous, brave, and selfless. (BY EDWARD COLIMORE, Inquirer Staff Writer. Original article at this link.
“They not only saved America and the world from tyranny, but they built and sustained America and American values,” he said.
“The French honored him with the French Legion of Honor, but the U.S. government is a little bit later than the French,” Smith said.
Leonard Brotzky’s division had been “part of the Allied forces that chased the Germans out of Italy and France, and back to Germany and ultimate defeat,” said Smith.
“He was injured in the heat of battle and is fully deserving of this Purple Heart,” he said.
Brotzky was honorably discharged in 1945 at Fort Monmouth. At the time, he didn’t know Rose Katz of Bloomfield, Essex County.
She had signed up with the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve in 1943, learned a new skill as a radio operator, and was sent to Hawaii.
“I was 20 when I enlisted,” she said. “When we did have the time, we went to the beach . . . but I’d rather be at a Jersey Shore beach than Hawaii.”
Rose Brotzky (center), Slattery MCL member, died on 04/21/2021.
Her husband, Leonard (left) with his Purple Heart and US Rep Chris Smith (right)
Rose Brotzky served at the Marine station at Ewa for eight months and returned to the continental United States in October 1945. She was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant.
“Tears fell from my eyes as we approached the Golden Gate Bridge,” she wrote in her recollections of that time. “There was a boat escorting us with a band playing ‘Sentimental Journey.’ “
After the war, Rose Brotzky worked at the Bloomfield Independent Press and West Essex Tribune while Leonard Brotzky graduated from Cornell University with a premed degree and Rutgers University with a hospital administration degree. A pharmaceutical sales representative, he married Rose and they settled in Livingston, where they raised two children.
“These are two extraordinary Americans,” Smith said. “This is the ultimate power couple, people who believed in America and did so much to save America.”
