1/3/2024 0 Comments World war 2 navy veteran cap![]() ![]() He has a T-shirt emblazoned with the ship's name with 18 Japanese flags - count 'em - on the perimeter. The Navy made a submariner out of Burner. When a reporter suggested that just keeping any two of those promises would have been an accomplishment for a young sailor, Burner looked surprised and said he kept them all. "Well, I promised my mother I wouldn't drink, or smoke, or hang around wild women," he said, ticking off those nasty vices on his fingers. That's the way it was in World War II.Īnd Burner still is youthful and clear-headed today. But many underage young men were joining up. ![]() It's doubtful he fooled anyone, let alone a Navy recruiter. If you look at the photos, Burner looked like the very young man he was. But his two older brothers, Russell and Francis, already were in uniform and fighting by 1944. Clyde Burner had served in the Navy in World War I and didn't think young Cecil was ready to go off to war. Then he begged his father to sign enlistment papers saying he was two years older. "But it got me thinking about exactly when I could enlist," the man said, and meant it. Good training for outrunning dogs but not much for fighting the Japanese. I was one of the men he needed," the 88-year-old Navy veteran laughed, sitting in his Pueblo West home.Īt the time, Burner was a paperboy for The Pueblo Chieftain. ![]() "I thought the president was talking to me. When President Franklin Roosevelt went on the radio after the attack on Pearl Harbor and called America's men to defend her, 12-year-old Cecil Burner was listening to every word. This is a story about a missing hat, but forget about that for now. ![]()
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