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Rutgers Oral History Archives

  • Berenbach, Brian
  • Links to Oral History Sessions: Berenbach, Brian Part 1 (July 19, 2018)
    Berenbach, Brian Part 2 (August 2, 2018)
  • Conflict(s): Cold War
  • Military Branch & Unit: Air Force
  • Theater(s): Pacific
  • Air Force Squadron: 1155th Technical Operations Squadron
  • Air Force Other: Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC), McClellan Air Force Base

Description:

Brian Berenbach was born on May 10, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York.  He grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant and then Midwood.  He attended schools at P.S. 25, John Marshall Junior High School 210 and Erasmus Hall High School. 

Following high school graduation in 1959, he went first to Brooklyn College and then to Long Island University, where he majored in chemistry and got his bachelor's degree.  Afterwards, Mr. Berenbach attended Emory University and earned a master's degree in 1967.  

During the Vietnam War, Mr. Berenbach enlisted in the Air Force in pilot training.  He went to Officer Training School at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.  Then, he trained to be a nuclear engineer at McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento, California.  He served in the 1155th Technical Operations Squadron in the Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC), monitoring Soviet, Chinese and French nuclear tests.  During his military service, Mr. Berenbach served overseas in American Somoa and in Japan at Yokota Air Base.

Following his discharge from the military in 1971, Mr. Berenbach spent time in Israel.  Upon returning to the United States, Mr. Berenbach worked at United Engineers and Constructors, before getting a job at Lederle Laboratories developing the pilot plant control system.  He worked as a controls engineer at Combustion Engineering, which was bought out by ASEA Brown Bovari (ABB) Corporation.  Mr. Berenbach worked at ABB from 1979 to 2000, at which point he went to Siemens and worked as a consultant.  After retiring in 2013, Mr. Berenbach became a professor of systems engineering at Georgia Tech.

Mr. Berenbach has three sons and lives in Edison, New Jersey, where he is a member of Temple Emanu-El.

Targum Cover 11 22 1963a

 

"HERE IS A BULLETIN...": Memories of the Day Camelot Died

 

This month marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas.

Images from that day and the events that followed remain etched in our collective consciousness—the open-top Presidential limo traveling down the people-lined streets of Dallas; President Lyndon Baines Johnson taking the oath of office on Air Force One beside a shaken First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy; John, Jr. saluting his father's passing casket at the funeral in DC.

Those who lived through that traumatic period can recall both their initial shock and the nuances of their reactions.

In "HERE IS A BULLETIN...": Memories of the Day Camelot Died, ROHA presents a sampling of stories related to the Kennedy tragedy, a touchstone event for multiple generations.

The Rutgers Targum (campus newspaper) cover from its November 22, 1963 issue. (Image courtesy of Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.)

 

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Voices of Veterans

 

Voices of Veterans is an online exhibit showcasing passages from oral history interviews of veterans who served in the Second World War and in wars in Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan. ROHA created this exhibit in commemoration of Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT MORE ONLINE EXHIBITS 

 

 

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