A local casualty of the 1944 Normandy invasion will be buried with full honors in May.
U.S. Navy Carpenter’s Mate 2nd Class William R. Burns was 25 when his destroyer, the USS Glennon, struck a mine off Quinneville, France on June 8, 1944. The ship became stuck in shallow water. The U.S. Navy said Burns and a contingent of men stayed aboard the ship to maintain salvage operations and provide additional security for landing operations, defending the shore positions against enemy aircraft .
On June 10, a German shore battery discovered the Glennon and opened fire with heavy artillery. Some of the shells struck the center of the ship and knocked out the remaining electrical power. The commander of the Glennon ordered the crew to abandon ship. The Glennon rolled over and sank a short time later.
Burns and 24 other sailors were reported missing between June 8 and June 10.
The U.S. Navy said scrappers began recovering the ship in 1957, and a civilian worker found human remains in the wreckage. They were buried and listed as unknown until 2022, when the U.S. Dept. of War and American Battle Monuments Commission recovered the remains for possible identification.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency used forensic science, DNA, records and evidence to identify Burns and the other missing sailors.
Other members of the party who are still missing or have been recovered are Alexander Harley, Methodus Balaz, Theodore Baldwin, Charles Belmont, Merle Cuda, James Lawrence Deatheridge, Charles M. Diersch, Billy H. Dixon, Freeman Gates, Glen Greer, Harold Iddins, Kenneth Kaufenberg, William Raymond Kennedy, John James Lausted, Robert C. Lemmerman, Jerome Mullany, Robert Perrin, Frederick Turker and Vincent Viney. Only Harley, Mullany and Burns have been positively identified.
Burns was a native of Evergreen. He was survived by his mother, Fannie Jane Burris.
Burns will be buried May 9 at 11 a.m. at the Chadbourn Memorial Cemetery. The public is welcome to attend.
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