Former Bluford teacher attends reunion and speaks about book he co-authored

By RORYE O’CONNOR

rorye.oconnor@register-news.com

MT. VERNON— Former Bluford teacher Chuck Render not only got to visit with people he hadn’t seen in years last weekend, but talk about a subject he loves — the life of Col. Frank Brandstetter and his service in Army intelligence.

Render was in town to attend a Webber High School class reunion. While here, he held a discussion on the award-nominated book he co-authored with Brandstetter, “Brandy: Portrait of an Intelligence Officer.” Highlights of his book were discussed with a crowd of about 20 people in the Wildcatter Room at the Holiday in on Nov. 21.

He said seeing people he knew at his discussion felt a bit like a reunion, too.

“I haven’t seen any of these kids in 20 to 30 years,” he said.

Render, who taught at Bluford Grade School and Webber Township High School in the 60s, lives with his wife in Clarksville, Tenn.

Render has also written 10 fiction novels aimed at high school readers, he said.

“When I was teaching, I got so tired of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew,” he said. “I wrote these based on real, historical events so they could be included in school libraries.”

Render told the attendees that he’d learned Brandstetter was looking for an author through his wife when they lived in Fairfax, Va., and Render was working at the Pentagon.

“My wife got me into this,” he said. “My wife taught private piano and voice lessons, and his family was some of the people taking lessons.”

Brandstetter had found an author for his story, a New Jersey professor, but the two operated “on different wavelengths,” Render said.

“He asked the professor if he had served, and he said, ‘Yes, I got drafted, served my two years and got out,’ and for a man who spent many, many years serving in the military, that didn’t really work,” Render said.

Render said he spent years sorting through the evidence and mementos Brandstetter had saved from his years working with military intelligence in several different arenas.

“Brandy never threw anything away, but he never stored anything in order, either,” he said. “I worked 12 to 17 hours a day for years — he brought back 32 cases of stuff. That took a long time to go through.”

The book originally started out as a pilot and several episodes for a TV show, and narrowly lost being aired to “West Wing,” Render said.

Render explained how the book discusses the life of Brandstetter, who was born in 1912 in Nagyzeben, Transylvania, to a cavalry officer father and a nurse mother, and at birth, was already experiencing his first war zone, Render said.

After his parents divorced, “Brandy” spent his youth in a variety of boarding schools, including a Hungarian military academy at which former German officers taught military strategy.

He came to visit his father in America and found himself kicked into the street with $30 to his name after he took issue with his father’s new, young American wife. He enlisted in the Army and was assigned to be an instructor of German tactics at Camp Campbell in Tennessee.

“What better guy to teach German tactics than this guy who was taught by old German officers,” Render said.

Brandstetter earned the ire of his superiors when he reported to several generals the beer-chugging, barbecuing activities of his contemporaries when they were supposed to be conducting a mock battle, Render said. He was sent to manage a hotel near Le Merchant Camp in Devises, England, and eventually jump-trained with British Intelligence, then jump-training with the 101st Airborne Division.

Brandstetter later jumped with the 18th Airborne Division in Operation Market Garden. He used the Red Ball Express, a British convoy of supplies through France and Germany, to transport more delicate cargo.

“Brandy put his prisoners in the trucks and rode them back to Devises,” Render explained.

Brandstetter was also present May 2, 1945, when the victims at the Wobbelin Prison Camp were released, Render said.

“Brandy and the advance party discovered and cut open the fence to this massive prison camp,” Render said.

After World War II, Brandstetter was a part of the United Nations operation at West Point and designed a patch which can now be recognized as the United Nations crest, Render said.

Brandstetter worked as an intelligence officer while working at a variety of hotels in Jamaica, Cuba and Mexico, having a large effect on a variety of foreign policy decisions, Render told the crowd.

While working at a hotel in Acapulco, Mexico, Brandstetter was visited by an American astronaut who was having marriage problems because of having to be away from home so much, Render said.

“He spoke to the Surgeon General and every returning astronaut was shipped to Acapulco,” Render said, mentioning that among Brandstetter’s possessions are concrete casts of each astronaut’s handprints.

Brandstetter, who is 97 years old, still lives in Acapulco.

“Brandy: Portrait of an Intelligence Officer” was nominated for the 2007 Distinguished Book Award by the Army Historical Foundation.

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