Wartime sweethearts’ love tested by time
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| Burdette and Harriet Burch of Sterling, 88 and 89, respectively, recall the day they met on a bus in Georgia while they were serving during WWII, she for the Navy, he in the Army. The couple, now married 64 years, have raised five sons, two of whom also are veterans. They will be traveling Tuesday to Washington, D.C., – where Harriet once was stationed – aboard the Whiteside County Honor Flight. (Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@svnmail.com) |
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Note to readers: This is the sixth in a series of Sauk Valley Newspapers articles on some of the World War II veterans who are going to Washington, D.C., Tuesday on the Whiteside County Honor Flight.
STERLING – Burdette and Harriet Burch agree on how and where they met. What they did when they met is a different story.
It was March 1943, in the small town of Milledgeville, Ga. Harriet, then 23, had enlisted in the Navy as a cryptographer and was attending Georgia State University.
Burdette, then 22, was an Army lieutenant stationed at Camp Wheeler in nearby Macon.
On a weekend pass, he and two friends took a bus to Milledgeville for a USO dance.
Harriet and a couple of friends boarded the bus after a day of shopping, but there were no seats for the girls.
Burdette and his buddies had hiked 5 miles in an hour that day, and he was not giving up his seat.
“I told her she could sit on my lap, because I was too tired to get up,” the 88-year-old said with a laugh, his eyes growing soft behind his silver-framed glasses.
“You can stop right there!” his wife, now 89, shot back. “That’s what he says I did, and I don’t think that I did.”
They saw each other again the next weekend. A week later, Burdette shipped off to Fort Shelby in Mississippi, then later to Fort Riley in Junction City, Kan.
Harriet went to Washington, D.C., where she broke codes for the Navy, and Burdette came to visit once. In November 1944, the two went to Morrison, Burdette’s hometown, for Thanksgiving.
Although they were on opposite sides of the country, their relationship blossomed.
That relationship was tested, though, when Burdette found himself in one of the most harrowing adventures of his life.
On Feb. 6, 1945, he was aboard the USS Peter Silvester, a U.S. animal transport ship that was hauling more than 300 mules and 150 troops and crewmen from Melbourne, Australia, to Burma, in southeast Asia.
Around 10:30 p.m., Burdette was rocked from sleep when two torpedoes from a German U-boat tore into the ship about 700 miles southwest of Fremantle, Australia.
“At that point, you didn’t have time to think,” he said. “You just wanted to get everyone off the ship safely.”
Burdette managed to get on a raft with about 19 other soldiers.
For seven days, they were adrift on the Indian Ocean, only 2 tablespoons of water a day for each of them, until they were rescued by the USS Corpus Christi.
Before that fateful trip, Burdette and Harriet had kept in touch through letters. After he was rescued, he sent Harriet a telegram to let her know that he was all right.
“At that point, we were kind of close, but yet we were so far apart,” Harriet said. “It was good to know that he was safe and sound.”
They continued to exchange letters. Harriet was discharged in December 1945. Burdette served in the Philippines and Yokohama, then finally came home in May 1946.
They married a month later, settling in Morrison, then Sterling, where they managed farms and raised five sons – two of whom are veterans themselves.
To help send vets to D.C.
To help send a World War II veteran to Washington, D.C., on an Honor Flight, send donations to United Way of Whiteside County, 502 First Ave.; the Sauk Valley Chamber of Commerce, 211 Locust St.; the American Legion, 601 First Ave.; or Ward, Murray, Pace and Johnson, 202 E. Fifth St., all in Sterling, IL 61081.
Make out checks to Honor Flight of the Quad Cities.
For more information, go to www.honorflightqc.org online.
The Honor Flight File
Burdette Burch
Age: 88
City: Sterling
Branch: Army
Rank: Captain
Theaters: Australia, Yokohama, the Philippines
Terms of service: September 1942 to August 1946
Medals: Purple Heart
Employment: Burch, originally from Morrison, and his wife Harriet, moved back to manage his uncle’s farm from October 1946 to 1951. They then ran a farm on Quinn Road in Sterling until 1979.
Harriet Burch
Age: 89
City: Sterling
Branch: Navy
Rank: Specialist Q (the equivalent of an E-7 sergeant).
Theater: Washington, D.C.
Terms of service: January 1942 to December 1945
