May Brill

Prepared by the Witnesses of War team

May Brill was born on 13 May 1924 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in South Philadelphia as one of seven children. After her brothers enlisted in the Army and Coast Guard, she decided to serve as well. A graduate of South Philadelphia High School for Girls, she joined the U.S. Naval Reserve’s WAVES—Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service—in 1944, aged twenty. Her explanation was simple: “It’s my country too.”

Brill completed six weeks of basic training at Hunter College in the Bronx, New York, followed by specialist training at the U.S. Naval Training School at Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville. She was then stationed in Oakland, California, where she worked in naval supply operations supporting the war in the Pacific.

Her duties included tracking the fleet’s requirements and arranging shipments of equipment, tools, medical supplies and food to ships and Pacific bases. She attained the rating of Storekeeper Second Class. As one of a small group of Jewish women serving there, she also encountered antisemitic misconceptions among people who had never knowingly met a Jewish person. She later recalled how working together helped challenge those prejudices.

After completing her service in June 1946, Brill attended Temple University, where she met fellow Navy veteran Norman Brill. They married in 1948 and raised four daughters. She later returned to education, earning a degree in human services with a minor in gerontology at Glassboro State College, now Rowan University.

Settling in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Brill became an advocate for veterans through Jewish War Veterans Post 126 and local community organizations. Her “Women Veterans Are Not Invisible” campaign encouraged women to wear military service caps so their contributions would be recognized.