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Date posted on this site:
03/10/2024
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Burke was awarded the Silver Star.
I have avoided responding to this message about
the passing of Tommy Burke for I found myself
deeply grieved. Where have the years gone. It was
but two or three years ago that Tom Pember
passed away and now another of the great guys
with whom I flew in Charley Troop.
Tommy is a man whom I remember, not because
we were close, rather because there was something
kind and gentle about him which he kept carefully
hidden. There are two incidents that I remember
very well. One day, over "Flurry Hill" named after
Fearless Fred Flurry who had been killed there the
first day we got to that AO. I took several AK
hits in my little bird and one of them tore a BIG
hole in my fuel cell. Tommy was flying my wing and
as I dove off the side of the hill heading for a
sand bar in the Ahn Lo river, he was screaming in
my radio. "Shut it down! Shut it down! You're
going to blow up"
Too afraid to trust my ability to do a low-level,
low speed autorotation into the huge boulders I
dove down to the river followed by a huge stream
and cloud of JP fuel running past my hot exhaust.
Tommy, bless his heart was terrified for us and
had more trust in my flying abilities, ie to shut
it down and go into the rocks than was
warranted.
The other incident was when Scottie Stanton died
being evacked to Japan following his being wounded
in my bird. Tommy apparently knew how deeply I
loved Scotty and how guilty I felt because Scotty
was shot on my watch. Tough I don't know for sure,
I suspect that, when the "old Man" got the word
concerning Scottie's death, he asked to be the one
who told me. He found me at the club.
Grabbing my hands, he gave me the tragic news
tightly held my hands as I broke down and wept
bitterly. That act of human compassion and
kindness will ALWAYS be remembered by me as it
is remembered in "Red Bird Down." Given that
many years have passed and being a "rough and
tough" Aero Scout guy has no meaning beyond a
silly memory or two of a misbegotten youth. I
shall always remember a young Lieutenant/Captain
who was all too human. Like the rest of us, he
drank too much, was occasionally obnoxious and
loud and very scared from time to time. What I
remember is this small in stature -- yet huge in
heart -- man who strongly grasp my hands and drew
me into his heart as I wept my own out.
As to his Silver Star. I have no knowledge.
HOWEVER, it is my opinion, with no insult
intended to anyone else, that every one of the
kids that strapped on a Red Bird and did the Aero
Scout thing should have AUTOMATICALLY received
a Distinguished Service Cross.
Please, anyone who knows anything about
Tommy's Silver Star, contact me or Mike Law so it
can be "remembered" in the Seventh of the
Seventeenth history.
From: Bruce E Carlson