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James E Burton
Warrant
Officer 1 - Army - Reserve B Company, 158th Aviation Battalion,
101st Airborne Division |
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21-year-old,
Married, Caucasian, Male
Born on Aug
21, 1948
From COLORADO
SPRINGS, COLORADO
His tour of duty
began on Jun 01, 1969
Casualty was
on Mar 03, 1970
in QUANG TRI,
SOUTH VIETNAM
HOSTILE,
HELICOPTER - CREW
AIR LOSS,
CRASH ON LAND
Body was
recovered
Religion
PROTESTANT
Panel 13W - -
Line 77
This submitted by Douglas Dangerfield:
On a more somber note, there's a small error on the note
attached to the "In Memory" page concerning James Burton. He
was killed on March 3rd, 1970, but the aircraft wasn't shot down. He was
flying as Air Commander with a brand-new WO-1, whose name escapes me, and took
fire going into a LZ. One round entered
the cockpit area and hit him behind the chicken plate, entering his
chest. He managed to get the aircraft airborne and then the "peter
pilot” took the controls and flew the aircraft to the 18th Evac,
I believe, where Mr. Burton was pronounced dead on arrival. I'm
sure the information provided is part of some Army classification, but the
truth is even more powerful, how a mortally wounded pilot mustered the strength
and skill to get his aircraft and crew out of harm's way before succumbing to
his wounds.