Burke, Edward Charles, Cpl

PLEASE DESCRIBE WHO OR WHAT INFLUENCED YOUR DECISION TO JOIN THE MARINE CORPS.
Unemployed and a high school dropout, my parents insisted I enlist in the military on my 17th birthday. I wanted to go in the Marines, but my parents refused to sign for anything but the Air Force. Even today, I am ashamed to say that I was back on Staten Island five weeks later when I was washed out of boot camp as "Unable to Adjust to Military Life.". The military euphemism for a shitbird.

Five years later, 3 Friends and I left NYC for CA in 1965, working across the county: roofing in Miami, a busboy in New Orleans, and tree trimming in Houston. I finally started to get my act together and took and passed a GED test in Florida.

I arrived in California, worked in odd jobs, took some classes at a community college but still was a little aimless, I thought again about the military. Maybe I thought the Army would take me even with my AF failure. Well, yes and no. According to the Army Recruiter, the only way they could allow me to enlist was if I was able to change my Draft status from 1-Y (drafted only in a national emergency) to 1-A.

I petitioned the Draft Board for a classification change, and when they approved it a few weeks later (no surprise) I went back and talked to the Army recruiter. I wasn't keen on the Army after all, so I decided to talk to the Marines to see if my 1-A carried any weight.

As they say, you don't ask, and you don't get," The Marine recruiter also thought the 1-A made a difference. I asked for a 2-year enlistment, but he said the 2-year quota was filled, and I would have to wait several weeks to go in. OK, I said, how about three years? The same story, he said. But If I signed up for four years, he said I could be on the bus in days. I don't know what came over me, but I said OK.

Sent to LA for the physical, I was separated from the rest of the recruits and sent to meet with the senior NCO, a Gunnery Sergeant responsible for the LA recruiting office. The obvious question, he said, if I couldn't make it through Air Force boot camp, how could I possibly make it through Marine Corps boot camp? I made the case that I was too immature five years earlier and was now more responsible at 22 and ready to make up for my Air Force failure. It was a nerve-wracking and tense interview, but in the end, he said the Marines would take a chance on me.

WHETHER YOU WERE IN THE SERVICE FOR SEVERAL YEARS OR AS A CAREER, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DIRECTION OR PATH YOU TOOK. WHERE DID YOU GO TO BOOT CAMP AND WHAT UNITS, BASES, SHIPS OR SQUADRONS WERE YOU ASSIGNED TO? WHAT WAS YOUR REASON FOR LEAVING?
I wanted an Infantry MOS and Vietnam but instead got 2531 (field radio operator) and MCAS Beaufort, SC. Little did I realize that carrying a radio was as high risk in combat as being a machine gunner. Thanks, Staff Sergeant, for telling me that. It was a good duty, and I made meritorious Lance Corporal with less than a year in service. Ultimately, field radio operators don't belong at an air station, and orders To Vietnam finally came after almost a year..

I flew to Danang and caught a truck to Phu Bai, reporting to Golf Battery on 3/12. On the first day, a trip to the armory turned up a choice between an M-14 or a 45 since there were no M16s available. Being a boot, I didn't focus on the fact that my job was as a communicator, not a grunt, and I opted for the 14 pounds of rifle and the extra weight of a bandolier with six magazines. Rather than stay in the Battery, I asked my CO for an assignment to a FO team when one came up.

The very next day, Lt John Dawson came to the COMM tent to ask if I wanted to replace the radio operator on his FO team. That afternoon we headed north to an ARVN Artillery Base near Dong Ha to coordinate artillery for Operation Fremont. We only had a single fire mission and returned the next day to Phu Bai, where we were assigned to Bravo 1/4. We moved our kit then to their base at Camp Evans and spent the next several days on company-sized sweeps. With 25 lbs. of PRC-25 and 15 lbs. of field gear, I unloaded the extra weight of the M14 for a 45, a switch I was to regret later.

IF YOU PARTICIPATED IN ANY MILITARY OPERATIONS, INCLUDING COMBAT, HUMANITARIAN AND PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS, PLEASE DESCRIBE THOSE WHICH MADE A LASTING IMPACT ON YOU AND, IF LIFE-CHANGING, IN WHAT WAY?
Operation Granite began on Oct. 25, 1967, a sweep of Hills 674 and 300 west of Hue. It was known to be the Regimental HQ of the 6th NVA Division and the 800th NVA Battalion. According to the 1/4 Command Chronology (CC), there were 31 WIA, and 14 KIA on Friday the 27th, 12 from Bravo and two from Delta.

The day began with three companies sweeping and Alpha blocking. We were with Bravo Company climbing on the left side of 674 when at 11:36, the first ambush was sprung. It lasted 10-15 minutes by an estimated 6-10 NVA. We called in a strike from Golf Battery but without any results.

We kept moving up and had a second ambush sprung a while later. We called in another artillery strike and lucked out, catching one NVA. The CO, Captain R.A. Ross, gave the point man credit for the kill, but the exit wound was through his eye from the back of his intact skull. My guess is that it was a flechette from one of our 105 HE rounds that dropped in behind him since a round from a rifle at 20 yards would have taken his head off.

We tied a rope on the body and pulled him over in case he was booby-trapped. The CO then ordered him to be tied to a tree, and a "compliments of Bravo 1/4" sign was pinned on his chest. I remember standing there and looking up into the jungle and thinking that if someone was watching, they were not going to like this. It was a premonition.

The trail was narrow and steep, and we were strung out in single file as we made the climb. Up to that point, we had traveled with the command group about the middle of the company. Because of the hit-and-run pattern of the ambushes, Lt Dawson decided to move forward on the next contact between the lead platoon and the point man to better spot targets. We positioned ourselves in front of the company and behind the point man.

At 1445, we again thought we were in another quick hit-and-run ambush. The point man, PFC Verne Johnson III, who had just volunteered a few minutes before and was a few yards ahead of us when he was taken down by the first burst of fire. Lt Dawson and I ran forward toward the firing and dropped down behind a rock outcropping, maybe twenty or so yards in front of the company. The CC says we were in heavy contact.

A machine gun ahead on the trail opened up, and rounds started coming in from across the ravine on hill 300 to our left and above us. A fire team rushed forward toward the gun, and the lead man made it abreast of me before taking a round in the gut. He dropped a few feet to my side, and a second man fell just below my legs. HM3 Kenny Stommes ran out and dropped to his knees next to him and was reaching for a dressing when I saw him thrown on his back by a burst of rounds. I tried to do what I could with a 45 until I used all my ammo. A useless weapon anyway, but it left me with only a couple of smoke grenades. The CC says that the CO was wounded in the initial burst of fire but remined in command.

The guy who dropped next to me was still alive but withering in pain. His weapon was lying just beyond my reach, so I asked him to push it over. He tried but couldn't move. When I reached out and grabbed it, I caught a round through the base of the thumb through the center of the palm. The hand was completely numb, with a hole in the palm that looked like it was made with a spike. I tucked my hand under my armpit to stop the bleeding and tried to calm the guy lying next to me. After a few minutes, he said he couldn't stand it, and he just rolled himself back toward our lines. When I turned toward Dawson, he was gone. I learned later; he crawled back to confer with the CO on the next steps to counter the ambush.

I exchanged TWS emails with Sgt. Tom (Jake) Jacobs, who led a fire team in Bravo 1/4 that day. Here is what Tom said in his own words. "I was with Bravo Co., 1st. Platoon on that day. I lost two members of my fire team running up the trail to get the machine gun, Merrick Pierce and Paul Betts. Also, my best friend and our Corpsman, Kenny Stommes. There were four of us running up the trail to get the machine gun. First in line was McClavey, then Pierce, then me, then Betts. McClavey was a 2nd. Lt. and got shot in his left side. Pierce got shot in the left side of his head. The NVA across the ravine missed me, but Betts was hit numerous times in the lower torso. Stommes was already hit in the chest a little below us and was already dead when we passed him. So, we must have been pretty close to you. As we lay on the trail, another friend of mine, Vince Matthews from White Plains, NY, ran past us and shot 3 LAWS into the bunker around the dogleg to the right. Vinnie received the Silver Star that day. Also close to us was a Lt. (I think his name was Dawson), who was an AO. He also got killed and was close to our Captain, who was wounded." (The guy whose weapon I tried to reach was probably Lt McClavey. He was also on the same manifest as me on the flight back to conus so he survived the gut shot)

I was surrounded by the dead; at my feet, beside me and in front of me on the trail. I could do nothing but play dead myself since I had no weapon. The company continued to try and get the bunkers up the trail rushing by me but continued not to make it. I remember A machine gunner ran up next to me and rained brass down my neck before he was hit. (Must have Thomas Uhl who won a posthumous Silver Star.)

As it turned out, playing dead didn't work (the NVA didn't get the memo), The NVA kept shooting the dead periodically anyway. I lasted minutes, hours? before the next hit. Even though just my legs were sticking out from the rocks, I caught a ricochet in the forearm. It must have hit the wall above me and angled down. Although it just imbedded in my arm, it did add to the blood loss and left a nice scar. Later, how long I don't know, I took another round through the right mid-thigh shattering the bone and taking 2 inches of bone and tissue out a more than 6-inch exit wound. The upper and lower femur were completely disconnected, and my leg was at an unnatural angle. I had to pull the lit back in position and press hard on the wound to try to stop the bleeding. The pain was unbelievable. As luck would have it, the round only nicked the femoral artery, otherwise, I would have quickly bled to death. It was the kind of wound many do not survive. Calling for a corpsman would only get him killed like Stommes, so I just laid there trying not to move, in incredible pain and shaking from shock from the blood loss from both extremities.

At 1647, according to the CC, Bravo was low on ammunition and ordered to consolidate and be relieved by Delta. Delta tasked with retrieving the WIA and nine Bravo KIA on the trail They lost two KIA and two WIA in the attempt. Here is where memory does not serve me well: I think I heard someone say they were pulling back and yelled I am alive, can someone help! (The line was about ten yards back)

The next thing I remember is being surrounded by faces as a corpsman splinted my leg with a sapling hacked from nearby trees. I don't know how I got from where I was to where I was being treated or how the radio got off my back. All I remember was it was dark when I woke up. I suspect it was Delta men who came to get me.

I do remember the Corpsman trying to find what he thought was a chest wound because of all the blood from holding my hand under my armpit. I was a bloody mess all over. According to HM3 Mike Thompson, "I was the Senior Line Corpsman with four other aids. Kenneth Stommes was the only corpsman KIA that day. You were in pretty bad shape when I reached you. You had been pinned down for about six hours, being one of the first ones hit. I reached you about two hours after Lieutenant Dawson was calling for air support. He got hit, and then Captain Ross was hit in the back, leaving him paralyzed. I ran out of morphine on you after having given you four shots in two hours."

(When Captain Ross was hit, Lt Dawson covered him with his body and took a round in the shoulder. He died from blood loss and was awarded the Navy Cross for his effort.)

With Delta moving up and replacing us, Thompson also recalled that "there were about thirteen of us (Bravo) left on the hill, and just before dark, we started to make our way back to the LZ. (The CO probably held the senior wounded back until everyone else had gone down). "You and Lt Dawson were loaded on the same medevac with Captain Ross. As I was also wounded, they sent me to Danang on the last chopper." When we withdraw, we left nine bodies on the field. Delta last two KIA and two WIA trying to retrieve them. (They we gotten the next day)

I remember being carried to the LZ in the dark and being repeatedly dropped and dragged until I woke up in the pitch black on the LZ. The CC says that both companies were down the hill by 2330, and the last wounded were Medevacked just after midnight.

I got an email from Bob Lascher, "I was with Bravo on 1/1/4, and I was one of the guys that helped you and Lt Dawson down that trail after that ambush during operation Granite. I remember seeing the Lt on the ground with a serious wound under the armpit loosened the cartridge belt; he was having trouble breathing. I'm sorry when I read his Memorial post. I thought he survived. And you, my friend, were not very happy with a couple of clumsy marines trying to carry you down that slippery trail. I knew you were hit badly in the leg. You grabbed me by the throat and then apologized. I remember telling you it's ok; we're going to get you out of here. That was a tough day for all of us."

The dead from that day were Lt John Dawson HM3 Kenneth Stommes, LCpl David P Betts, LCpl Robert M Carlozzi, Pfc Douglas F Clemmons, Pfc Michael J Fonseca, LCpl William R Hackett JR, Cpl Angus L Hare, Pfc; Verne D Johnson III, LCpl Curtis W Painter, LCpl Merrick R Pierce, Cpl Thomas F Uhl, (Silver Star). From Delta, Cpl Eddie L James and LCpl Curtis Painter. It was probably at least around a 20-25% casualty rate for Bravo.

I recall freezing on the medevac and being pulled out and rolled into bright lights before losing consciousness again. I woke up in the hospital ward in a whole-body cast from the high chest down to my toes, with a cast on my left hand to the elbow and bandages on my right forearm. (A body cast was the way the leg wound had to be stabilized.)

The ordeal was just starting. I was told I was being evacuated to CONUS to a Navy Hospital nearest home, and I told them that was San Diego or Long Beach Naval Hospital. When they returned later, they told me I was going to the Naval Hospital in Oakland, CA, 500 miles from home. I asked why and they said because "Oak Knoll Naval Hospital is the amputee center for west of the Mississippi."

The telegram to my parents said my "condition and prognosis was good." Still, instead of Western Union, it was delivered by a Marine Casualty Officer the same day I arrived at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital on October 30th, 3 days after being wounded. (The telegram is in my pictures below). I have little recollection of those days except being in constant pain and awake only briefly before my next morphine shots.

My condition in the hospital alternated back and forth from a rampant leg infection, and I barely survived pneumonia and a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung) in December. Another embolism from my infected leg a month later also set me back again. I had multiple surgeries on my leg and could have lost it at any point in the first few months .No matter how bad you thought you were there was someone worse. There was a headshot on life support, a Latino with both legs and an arm off who kept throwing himself out of his wheelchair. A cannoneer lost both arms when a round exploded in the breech. A guy in the next bed was blinded by a booby trap in a tree. A tanker who was shot in the eye and the round went around the inside of his skull and exited over the other ear. And my friend Bob Bliss (picture in my reflections) who kept having pieces of his leg amputated until they got all the was to the thigh socket. Survivable wounds like a leg off below the knee turned out not to be so as LCpl Lemon, a guy across from me succumbed to an infection.

Oak Knoll was an old WWII hospital laid out in long barracks-like buildings connected to one another by an outside walkway. You knew you were getting better as you moved down from the nursing station and ultimately down the ramp to a lower barracks. Of course, you knew you were getting worse when they moved you up. I ping-ponged up and down a few times in the first months. After ten months of multiple leg and hand surgeries, I walked out on both legs, aided by a cane.

I had lost some of the use of my left hand, and my right leg was 2 inches short with extensive muscle loss, a dropped foot, (flops when I walk) and a prosthetic knee. Ultimately the tilt of the skeletal structure to one side creates havoc in the back and leads to spinal deformities over time. I have had more issues today with my spine and hand injury, which, even after 55 years, is frequently ornamental rather than functional.

On a lighter note, while I was in the hospital recovering, I had a surprise visit by the Everly Brothers singers and a couple of Playboy bunnies. Then-Governor Ronald and Nancy Reagan came by and signed my scrapbook, but I was unfortunately in surgery. (See both in my pictures). I made the scrape cover my shadowbox with Regan's autographs prominently displayed.

DID YOU ENCOUNTER ANY SITUATION DURING YOUR MILITARY SERVICE WHEN YOU BELIEVED THERE WAS A POSSIBILITY YOU MIGHT NOT SURVIVE? IF SO, PLEASE DESCRIBE WHAT HAPPENED AND WHAT WAS THE OUTCOME.
As noted above, I did not think I would survive when I was cut off and wounded and a second time when my infected leg threw a blood clot into my lung. I could not breathe and had to be revived.

OF ALL YOUR DUTY STATIONS OR ASSIGNMENTS, WHICH ONE DO YOU HAVE FONDEST MEMORIES OF AND WHY? WHICH WAS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE?
I liked MCAS Beaufort-liberty in Charleston, Myrtle Beach, and Savannah. Bored stiff, though, at work.

FROM YOUR ENTIRE MILITARY SERVICE, DESCRIBE ANY MEMORIES YOU STILL REFLECT BACK ON TO THIS DAY.
I almost bought it in the field and again in the hospital. A close second was being told in the hospital ward at Phu Bai that I was being transported to the Amputee Center west of the Mississippi and not to Long Beach or San Diego, the hospitals closer to home.

I don't have PTSD, but I think about that day quite often now. Oddly enough, it didn't cross my mind for probably 30 years after the fact.

WHAT PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF FROM YOUR MILITARY CAREER?
Finishing Marine Boot Camp after failing to do so in the Air Force and, of course, 2 Purple Hearts and a CAR.

OF ALL THE MEDALS, AWARDS, FORMAL PRESENTATIONS AND QUALIFICATION BADGES YOU RECEIVED, OR OTHER MEMORABILIA, WHICH ONE IS THE MOST MEANINGFUL TO YOU AND WHY?

Hospital

Two Purple Hearts and a combat action ribbon (CAR) on the same day, 27 October 1967. I was wounded three separate times over a 6-hour period. I have to thank the Corpsman in the hospital for having written my wounds up as on two separate incidents. (See the telegram)

The Purple Heart makes me a third-generation combat-wounded veteran after my grandfather in WWI and my father at the Battle of the Bulge. I am a second-generation disabled veteran, and I know my son, Rennie Morgan Burke, MD, is not going to be a third-generation casualty unless some future draft calls up physicians.

WHICH INDIVIDUAL(S) FROM YOUR TIME IN THE MILITARY STAND OUT AS HAVING THE MOST POSITIVE IMPACT ON YOU AND WHY?
There was a Gunny at the Los Angeles recruiting station who, because of youthful mistakes, could have scratched my enlistment. However, he trusted his instinct that I was a changed man with the right reasons for being a Marine.

LIST THE NAMES OF OLD FRIENDS YOU SERVED WITH, AT WHICH LOCATIONS, AND RECOUNT WHAT YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT THEM. INDICATE THOSE YOU ARE ALREADY IN TOUCH WITH AND THOSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO MAKE CONTACT WITH.

Visitors

I just had Joe Wright contact me. He was in ITR, radio school, and MCAS Beaufort with me and post-Vietnam, was a frequent pal when he was in Pendleton, and I was in College. Bill Klunk (TWS) also came with me from Beaufort.

Bob Bliss, in the pic in the hospital with me, lost his leg at the hip and as of 2022, is still with us and he he says had a good life in spite of it

WHAT PROFESSION DID YOU FOLLOW AFTER YOUR MILITARY SERVICE AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW? IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY SERVING, WHAT IS YOUR PRESENT OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY?
Looking back, I had a great career almost entirely at the executive level. Primarily healthcare finance but a good mix of other interesting opportunities.

I owe it all to the VA. While recovering in Oak Knoll Naval Hospital, the VA administered a battery of tests that suggested that I would be an A- student if I pursued a college degree. That was a surprise since I only had an 8th-grade education and a Florida State GED. But I also had hand and mobility limitations that greatly narrowed any career choices.

That September, on medical leave from the hospital, I began taking classes at the local community college. On 10/30, 1 year and 3 days after being wounded I was medically retired from the Corps.

I finished the first two years at the CC before transferring as a junior to the University of California, Riverside, for a BA with Honors and MA. And finally for a second MA at the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1974.

My career interests were to work with veterans and the disabled. An ivy league degree opens a lot of doors, and I was able to pursue my career goals right out of school. My first two jobs in 1974 were in the Washington State Rehabilitation Department and later, as the State Director of Veterans Affairs. I was probably the youngest state VA Director in the country (I was 30) and at that time and I am certain the first who was a Vietnam Veteran. When Vietnam fell in April 1975, I asked for and received a supplemental appointment as co-director of the state Vietnamese refugee resettlement program. We resettled more than 1500 refugees (transported them, set them up on social services, and linked them to a community sponsor. I personally supervised the selection of those we resettled on-site at Camp Pendleton in April 1975.

Over the course of the career that followed, I had three international posts and multiple VP Finance positions at hospitals and health systems in New York City, California, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Alaska. In addition:

In the late nineties, I co-founded a telecommunications start-up in Alaska. I was CFO at HCI Medical Center in Glasgow, Scotland, with offices in Abu Dhabi, Cairo, London, and Athens in the early nineties. In the 80's, I was the General Manager of a computer system start-up in Tokyo. Also, in the '80s, I was Assistant Budget Director for NYC, and later I had my first hospital job as the CFO of the city's hospital system, the fourth largest hospital system in the country. In the late '70s, I worked for a multinational foundation that placed me in a consultant exchange with the British Home Office in London, England.

WHAT MILITARY ASSOCIATIONS ARE YOU A MEMBER OF, IF ANY? WHAT SPECIFIC BENEFITS DO YOU DERIVE FROM YOUR MEMBERSHIPS?
DAV and VFW Life Members, TWS, Marine Corps League, and Marine Corps Association. Both the DAV and VFW were helpful in filing for VA appeals but you must educate yourself on your conditions and complications and do the work you need to do to present a cogent argument. No one is really going to do it better. I was retired at 60% but help from the DAV and VA brought it up to 80% all orthopedic in the 80s. I was moved to 100% in 2009.

IN WHAT WAYS HAS SERVING IN THE MILITARY INFLUENCED THE WAY YOU HAVE APPROACHED YOUR LIFE AND YOUR CAREER? WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT YOUR TIME IN THE SERVICE?
I believe I am the product of the self-discipline and motivation to succeed taught me by the Marine Corps. I was a totally different person before enlisting and a completely changed man after wearing the uniform.

It is as though I were three different people that inhabited and shared one lifetime.

From shitbird to Princeton University, surviving combat and then again surviving its effects took self-discipline and the persistence to overcome, which I attribute to the Marine Corps experience. I was a Gung Ho Marine and carried that spirit into doing well in college and on the job. I also still spit shine my shoes. I tied my wife Judy to the Marines by also being married in the chapel at Camp Pendleton.

BASED ON YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO THOSE WHO HAVE RECENTLY JOINED THE MARINE CORPS?
Train hard.

IN WHAT WAYS HAS TOGETHERWESERVED.COM HELPED YOU REMEMBER YOUR MILITARY SERVICE AND THE FRIENDS YOU SERVED WITH.
I didn't start to think about putting some proverbial "footprints in the sand" until 10/13. As I started on the TWS website, I reflected on how little I knew of my father's war. He jumped into Normandy with the 82nd Airborne and was wounded and disabled at the Battle of the Bulge. I regretted not knowing more and wanted to leave my family and friends more about what my war was like.

In addition, TWS enabled me to connect with Lt. John Dawson's family (his picture below), who then posted his TWS profile. His classmates from high school had him recognized as an outstanding graduate in the year (2013). I also was able to get a better sense of the battle where he was killed, and I was wounded by Tom Jacobs, Mike Thompson, Bob Lascher, and the Silver Star Citations of Mathews Hackett and Uhl.

As a TWS history volunteer, I have been fortunate to assist in completing or adding profiles to the website. I am up to over 6,500 profiles now.

KC 1.31.24