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    Tony K. Burris: The Hero, The Person, The Letters
    Tony K. Burris: The Hero, The Person, The Letters
    Tony K. Burris: The Hero, The Person, The Letters
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    Tony K. Burris: The Hero, The Person, The Letters

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    Tony K. Burris was born May 30, 1929 in Blanchard, Oklahoma just in time for the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.  The family lived as sharecroppers on farms they did not own, they were often hungry when drought or dust destroyed crops.  In 1939, the family moved to a larger farm belonging to his Aunt Jenny Curry Apple and her husba

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTony K Burris Family, LLC
    Release dateApr 3, 2020
    ISBN9781087872698
    Tony K. Burris: The Hero, The Person, The Letters

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      Book preview

      Tony K. Burris - Larry Wayne Wilson

      DEDICATION

      This book is dedicated to Loretta Wilson, sister of Tony,

      mother of Teresa and Larry,

      and grandmother of Lee Anne Hite.

      The Burris family knew her affectionately as Sister Bea.

      Tony K. Burris: The Hero, The Person, The Letters

      Copyright © 2020 by Larry Wilson, Norfolk, Virginia. All rights reserved.

      All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form whatsoever without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief passages in connection with a review.

      Book Design: Marshall Rouse McClure

      Published in cooperation with

      PARKE PRESS

      Norfolk, Virginia

      ISBN 978-1-0878-6624-6

      ISBN 978-1-0878-7269-8 (e-book)

      Library of Congress Control Number is available upon request

      Printed in the United States of America

      CONTENTS

      Editor’s Note

      Preface

      The Letters

      Korean War Begins Suddenly

      Electronics School

      Pole Climbing

      Home on Leave

      Korea via Japan

      Hoengsong Massacre

      Rehab

      Back in Action

      Inje and Chun-Chon

      The Lull

      Silver Star

      The Storm Continues

      Fighting Vagabonds

      Heartbreak Ridge

      Medal of Honor

      Epilogue

      Appendices

      Discussion Questions

      Donor Acknowledgments

      Editor’s Note

      When I was three years old, my uncles Burnett and Tony rode horses to Blanchard and led me, Larry Wilson, around on a horse called Cherry. At the farm a few months later, they put me on that same mare and turned us loose. My Grandmother Burris came out of the house immediately to shut us down, loudly saying that horse was way too dangerous. Unfortunately, I now have more memories of that horse¹ than of Tony. He joined the Army before I was eight years old and was home for only a few days after enlisting.

      I have come to know Tony through family stories and posthumous honors, but primarily by reading his letters, transcribed here as written without correcting for spelling, punctuation, or grammar. The honors began with the Silver Star and the Medal of Honor. They have continued into the new millennium as Blanchard, the Choctaw Nation, the State of Oklahoma, veteran and military organizations, the U.S. government, the Korean government, and others continue to honor Tony. The purpose of this book is to share the letters and his story as widely as possible.

      I would like to thank the Burris family and Pam Witt for making this book possible, by entrusting me with the letters, and supporting this project. I would also like to express my appreciation to Twila J. Wilson, my wife, who put up with me while providing invaluable real-time editing, feedback, and comments for this project.

      Larry Wilson

      Norfolk, Virginia

      1 My memories of Cherry include being dumped on my head when she bolted to scrape me off on a fence post, and her biting or kicking me every time she had the opportunity. I now know, from Burnett, that she had once scratched Tony up by bolting through a thicket of bushes and blackjack trees in earlier times.

      PREFACE

      TONY K. B

      URRIS WAS BORN

      MAY 30, 1929 in Blanchard, Oklahoma. He enlisted at the start of the Korean War, and after four months of training was assigned to third platoon, Love Company, 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division of the 8th U.S. Army in late January 1951. Sergeant First Class Tony K. Burris died on Heartbreak Ridge near Mung Dung Ni, Korea on October 9, 1951. His military honors include a Purple Heart with two Oak Leaf Clusters, a Silver Star, and the Medal of Honor.

      Tony sent over seventy letters to the Burris, Wilson, and Witt families during his fourteen months of service. These letters tell his story from basic training to Heartbreak Ridge. They provide insight into the life of a truly decent, Tabasco-loving, homesick young Choctaw doing his duty while trying to survive and maintain contact with his family and friends.

      Young Tony

      Tony was born just in time for the Great Depression and the Oklahoma Dust Bowl. The family lived on farms they did not own and worked as sharecroppers to survive. They were often hungry, particularly when drought or dust destroyed crops. In 1939, the family moved to a larger farm belonging to Tony’s Aunt Jenny Curry Apple and her husband Harry, but still had trouble making ends meet. Their modest three-bedroom house did not have a phone or electricity until the early ‘40s. The family had an outhouse and carried water from an outdoor pump. With help from the older children, the Burris family planted large gardens and raised chickens, cows, and pigs. Tony also contributed by trapping rabbits and catching fish.

      Pre-War Tony

      Little brother Burnett described many adventures with his older brother Tony including noodling,¹ a high school prank, and a challenge:

      While noodling, Tony came up holding a snake. Burnett laughed at him and asked, What are you going to do with that? Tony replied, I am going to throw this &#@* thing as far as I can.

      Tony, Burnett and seven others put Mr. McBride’s cow in a classroom. This resulted in a trip to the police station for proper threats and intimidation.

      Several years later, Burnett observed a man challenge Tony and a friend as they were leaving the Blanchard pool hall, saying I’ve got five dollars that says I can whip both of you. Tony approached the man to say quietly, I believe I’ll have some of that five. The man walked away.²

      Pruitt Lewis (pictured here), now a retired Blanchard School Superintendent, says, I have never heard anyone say a bad thing about Tony Burris. He also describes in detail Tony’s performance in the 1946 Junior Class Play:

      Tony played a gruesome deranged killer who escaped from a mental institution to commit murder and mayhem. During the matinee performance for the K-12 student body, the younger students sat up front, close to the stage in a darkened auditorium. In the final scene, a detective, played by Red Mitchell, was to shoot Tony’s character who would fall and die as the curtain dropped. Instead of falling, Tony leaped aggressively into the audience, creating chaos and hysteria, particularly amongst the younger students. Pruitt, in the eighth grade and sitting several rows back recalls, As Tony ran up the aisle past me, he was grinning from ear to ear, and nearby School Superintendent Mac Starry murmured, Tony, Tony, Tony. Pruitt concludes by saying, I never will forget that as long as I live.

      The Burris Family

      Tony Kenneth Burris was the third of ten children born to Samuel Sidney and Mable Agnes Curry Burris. He grew up with older sisters Loretta Florence (1925) and Wanda Lou (1927), younger brother Sidney Burnett (1932), and sisters Joyce Joan (1935) and Karen Jane (1938). Eventually twin brothers Terry Doyce T.D. and Perry Royce (January, 1945) and twin sisters Cathryn Jennifer and Diana Judy (December, 1945) joined the family. Tony also considered Loretta’s husband Doyce Wayne Wilson (1924), their son Larry Wayne (1942), Wanda’s husband Virgil O. Witt (1925), and their daughter Pamela Janet (1947) to be part of his family.

      The Family. Back row (L-R) – Sid, Tony, Burnett with niece Pam on his shoulders, Mable. Middle Row – Karen, Wanda, Loretta, Joan. Front Row – Ralph Gamble (nephew of Sid), Perry, Judy, Jen, TD, Larry, and Pooch – December 1950.

      Blanchard, Oklahoma

      Tony grew up on a farm near Blanchard, a small farming community twenty-five miles southwest of Oklahoma City. Downtown was one block of Main Street. The west side contained a grocery store, pool hall, drugstore, five and dime, two department stores, and a bank. The east side included a Ford dealership, a movie theater, and a feed and seed store. Nearby were City Hall, the jail, the bus station, a lumberyard, a barbershop, filling stations, beer joints, and many churches.

      Blanchard had a single school for all grades with about 20 students per grade. On Saturday families came to town for the children’s matinee movie, followed by a drawing in which a lucky ticketholder might win a new pair of overalls or a frying pan.

      Downtown Blanchard Parade – circa 1948

      1 They noodled by going underwater to grab catfish: once Tony nearly drowned, and another time friend Dickie Clanton lost a finger.

      2 In the Choctaw Legacy film, Tony K. Burris, Billy Wilson, a childhood friend of Tony’s says, Tony was easygoing and pleasant, but if you wanted to get a little tough with him, he was ready.

      THE LETTERS

      JULY / AUGUST, 1950

      KOREAN WAR BEGINS SUDDENLY

      NKPA invades ROK; Tony enlists

      June 24: Secretary of State Dean Acheson phones President Truman to inform the president that North Korea has invaded South Korea; four days later the North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) captures Seoul, the capital of South Korea (ROK).

      June 30: President Truman authorizes the use of ground forces in Korea.

      July 29: General Walton Walker orders U.N. troops along the Pusan Perimeter to stand or die in a desperate effort to keep the NKPA from pushing them into the sea.

      Tony Burris and his friend

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