Chuck Burger Closes Doors on an Era, a War

U.S.S. Chuck Burger, a place known for burgers and a side of war stories, has closed its doors.

On Monday, Chuck Bresler, 76, and his wife Vi, 70, called it quits. They have children to spend time with and other parts of the world to see.

“If I don’t retire now, when am I going to retire?” Chuck Bresler said simply.

Since 1986 Chuck Burger had been a place where families went for a fast bite, teams congregated after a game and veterans swapped tales of their tours overseas. The memorabilia on the walls included World War II firearms, movie posters of a decidedly wartime nature--”PT 109” and “Beach Red”--and more than 50 models of military-type aircraft. One wall was devoted to Bresler’s commendations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Many of the jukebox selections were from another era, with Al Jolson and the Andrews Sisters playing at the drop of a coin.

“This place is like a museum,” said Ron Johnson, 60, who stopped by on the restaurant’s last day for a final Chuck Burger lunch. “I guess I’m kind of stuck with going to fast-food places now.”

At one point, Bresler had Chuck Burger restaurants in Oxnard and the San Fernando Valley, but both closed. Sitting in his Simi Valley restaurant Monday, Bresler easily lapsed into his own war stories.

Born in Chicago in 1920, he signed up with the U.S. Naval Reserve in February 1942. “A guy asked me why I joined the Navy instead of the Army,” Bresler said, “and I told him that I didn’t want to be stuck in a trench full of mud.”

He was a waist gunner in the VPB-116 patrol bombers and was sent to Tinian in the Mariana Islands, south of Japan. The Blue Raiders, as they were known, a squadron of B-24 Liberators, did lots of “island hopping,” dropping bombs on the Japanese along the way. The airstrip at Tinian, which the Blue Raiders used in the early part of the war, eventually became the airstrip used to launch the Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bomb.

On Oct. 11, 1944, the Blue Raiders lost a plane in a battle off Iwo Jima. The next day two Liberators went out to search for possible survivors. They were met by eight Japanese Zeros, which engaged them in a 45-minute fight.

Bresler’s squadron downed six of the Zeros. The U.S. planes came away with almost no damage.

Bresler left the service in February 1946 and returned to Chicago. He and Vi were married in 1948, and in 1960 they headed west to Encino, where they lived until moving to Canoga Park in 1984.

It was one of Bresler’s daughters who came up with the World War II theme for the restaurant. After he cleans out the Simi Valley location, Bresler will donate some of the memorabilia to the Confederate Air Force in Camarillo and the rest to the American Legion in Woodland Hills.

In 1997 Bresler will fly to Boston for a reunion of VPB-116 squadron members, and he is also planning a trip to some of the many islands he was ordered to bomb during World War II. Recent pictures from the islands show the rusty remains of Zeros and tanks, surrounded by lush green foliage.

It will be a chance to relive an important period from Bresler’s and the United States’ past.

“When I’m there I can say I made it through all of this,” he said, “and years ago I used to punish it with bombs.”