Oral history interview of Joseph John Burton

Collection:: Veterans History Project: Oral History Interviews
Title:: Oral history interview of Joseph John Burton
Creator:: Gardner, Robert D.
Burton, Joseph John, 1919-2008
Date of Original:: 2004-06-17
Subject:: World War, 1939-1945--Africa, North
Leyte Gulf, Battle of, Philippines, 1944
Harvard Business School
La Guardia Airport
Shannon Airport
Sitkoh Bay (Cargo ship and aircraft ferry)
Escort carriers
People:: Roosevelt, John A. (John Aspinwall), 1916-1981
Mountbatten of Burma, Louis Mountbatten, Earl, 1900-1979
Montgomery of Alamein, Bernard Law Montgomery, Viscount, 1887-1976
Rommel, Erwin, 1891-1944
Moore, George Eugene, 1908-1997
Albert, Frank Cullen, 1920-2002
Halsey, William F. (William Frederick), 1882-1959
Spruance, Raymond Ames, 1886-1969
Location:: Algeria, Oran, 35.69906, -0.63588
People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, Oran, Mers el Kebir, 35.7279, -0.7081
Philippines, Surigao Strait, 9.8153114, 125.4545447
United Kingdom, Scotland, Argyll and Bute, Gare Loch, 56.03333, -4.8
United Kingdom, Scotland, Argyll and Bute, Rosneath, 56.00985, -4.80151
United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
United States, Georgia, Atlanta Metropolitan Area, 33.8498, 84.4383
United States, North Carolina, Guilford County, Greensboro, 36.07264, -79.79198
United States, Oregon, Clatsop County, Astoria, 46.18788, -123.83125
United States, Virginia, City of Norfolk, 36.89126, -76.26188
Medium:: video recordings (physical artifacts)
hi-8
Type:: Moving Image
Format:: video/quicktime
Description:: In this interview, Joseph Burton relates his history as a supply officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He began his career as a probationary officer, and received his commission on completion of the Navy's training program. He was chosen to go to Scotland to train for the invasion of North Africa, and relates many incidences with Irish customs officers in Ireland and Vichy French officers in Africa. He describes the massive chaos resulting from the German surrender in Africa and how the Germans efficiently dealt with it. He recalled how each street corner would have an American MP and a German MP on it, and describes the exchange of cigarettes for a silver identity bracelet with a German POW. He remembers his trip back to Norfolk from Casablanca aboard ship. He believed he would be assigned shore duty and began plans to get married, but received orders for sea duty again. He got married in Norfolk and traveled with his bride by train to commission an escort aircraft carrier in Astoria, Oregon. He sailed on a "baby flattop" ferrying men, planes and equipment to the fleet in the Pacific. He recalls that the Navy used toy planes and ships to determine how to pack them on the deck most efficiently. He describes the one time he was launched off the deck of the aircraft carrier; his captain sent him to broker a trade with the Australian Navy to replace the incorrect parachutes they had brought from Pearl Harbor in exchange for beef. He also describes their participation in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Navy's traditional crossing the equator ceremony, and the experience of living through a typhoon.
John Burton was a U.S. Navy officer during World War II.
ROBERT GARDNER: This is an interview of Mr. Joseph John Burton, 2765 Peachtree Road Atlanta, Georgia, and born March 9th, 1919. The date today is June 17th, 2004. The interviewer is Robert Gardner. Mr. Burton, can you tell me what war and branch of service you were in, served in? JOSEPH BURTON: I served in World War II, I was in the Navy and I was in the Supply Corps. of the Navy. ROBERT GARDNER: Were you drafted or did you enlist? JOSEPH BURTON: I was one of a group of people that the services, that was called a “Probationary Commission” upon graduating from college. That meant that you could not worry about the draft and [being] subject to some unusual event. You would get a commission at the time you completed training, subsequent training in the service. And I did that. I was commissioned an ensign in the Supply Corps when I graduated, a probationary one. And I subsequently ended up at Harvard University business school where the Navy had its Supply Corps School, and got my permanent commission. ROBERT GARDNER: Where were you living at the time? JOSEPH BURTON: I was living, my home was Greensboro, North Carolina. And I am just counting that from when I graduated to college. I went to work after I graduated because the commission didn't go into effect immediately, and I worked in New York City for about a year until I was called up to go to the business school at Harvard, which was in June of '41. We stayed in the—the school was not in session at the time we were there, and it was comprised mostly of learning all the techniques and technical matter about Supply Corps handling. I had one interesting classmate who was John Roosevelt, the son of the President of the Unites States, at the very time that we were in school together, very amicable, nice young man. And I remember well that we had only one telephone on each floor in the hall. And when John would go out, when Daddy would call, for some strange reason there was sort of an appeal and wonderment in saying, to me at least and I think other guys, because the doors would be cracked all of a sudden, thinking, this guy is talking to one of the most powerful people in the history of the world. And I'm standing here in this hall overhearing him. And minor as that might be that was one of my memories of Harvard. The rest of it was learning how to march and all those other things that I didn't have much interest in. ROBERT GARDNER: Do you recall your first days in the service? JOSEPH BURTON: I guess they were the first ones in that, the first regular assignment I had in Portsmouth, Virginia at the Navy Yard. And I was just, as a Navy term for it goes, I was a “Matey Learned.” I'm sure that expression came from the China station in the Navy, where a young guy that didn't know anything was referred to as a “Matey Learned.” And I was that in the Portsmouth Navy Yard. The main event and importance in my life of that first little service was I met my wife-to-be in Norfolk, while I was stationed in the Portsmouth Navy Yard. I met her at some party. That was, of course, the most important day of my life. ROBERT GARDNER: Did you actually go to boot camp training? JOSEPH BURTON: Nothing except the Harvard experience, drilling on the playground or the football field. And learning all the things that you needed to know about procedures and how to go aboard a ship and all the things that you would prepare which I guess is a boot camp type thing. One of the essential differences was I was already an officer by having gotten that Probationary Commission and you didn't have the same experience as boot camp guys do with a tough sergeant, so that was a blessing. ROBERT GARDNER: Which war did you actually serve in sir? JOSEPH BURTON: World War II. At the time it was sort of a assumed thing by people my age, coming out of school, by the way, that we were going in the service. There was no question about it, of course we had the universal draft. There wasn't any, it was just taken for granted if there ever was one about a matter that important. Although, the companies that recruited employees from colleges consistently sent people down there to spite of all the possibility. I guess they may have needed it even better if they could get a hold of somebody that wasn't going in the service. But they recruited just as much as they would in normal times. ROBERT GARDNER: Where exactly did you go, sir? JOSEPH BURTON: From the Norfolk Navy Yard? ROBERT GARDNER: Yes, sir. JOSEPH BURTON: There was a captain that was running the Navy Yard, that was an old time Navy guy. He came up through the ranks, he didn't go to Annapolis, and I was very fond of him. And he asked me if I would be interested in joining him. He had been ordered to go to Scotland on a very secret mission, which turned out to be to train, to run the camp, the place where they would train troops who were going in with the British on the invasion of North Africa. And he was to be the supply man for the whole operation, which lasted approximately three or four months, maybe six months. So, I was delighted to accept that and go with him, because I liked him a lot. So, when I left Norfolk, we flew over to England and stayed there for a week or two. The order was actually to join Lord Mountbatten's staff, his staff was running this training thing in Scotland. And we stayed in London probably a week. I saw the great man one time in a massive meeting where I sat pretty far in the back. But from there we went to a place called Rosemead Castle Cay lock [PHONETIC]. If you know anything about the geography of Scotland, the massive lakes are endless from the ocean, all up through the western end of Scotland. And the conditions are just like being at sea, so it was a perfect place for that kind of work, that travel and we took a ____. After we stayed in London, we went and established this camp. And pretty soon the big ships would come in there under the Army, [there was] a general in charge of the Army part of it as well as an Admiral in charge of the Navy part of the whole program. I was there for six months, I guess. From there we thought we were through, that we had done all the ships and the day was coming, we had been told, when the invasion was coming. Of course, it hadn't been generally circulating, [just to] those who had to know something about packing up. About a week or two before we left, the British informed us that they didn't have anybody to run the port of Oran Algeria, which was one of the places that we were going to take. And so, they wanted the Americans who were running the camp there in Scotland, wouldn't we love to go with them on their nice ships down for the invasion of North Africa. Needless to say this caused a sudden change in our plans. Before going on with the story, after leaving Scotland with the British, on the British ship, I neglected to tell a detail or two about the trip from LaGuardia to Shannon, Ireland by commercial airline. At that time Northern Ireland was a neutral country and had commercial service from New York and other places into Ireland. But you could not land there in uniform lest you would be in prison for the rest of the war. And so, to prepare the people who were going over there for the flight, there was sort of a two or three hour school in which you were shown how to pack your suitcase so that it didn't show any military buttons or other give-away paraphernalia when it was opened by an inspector in Ireland. We were told that the inspectors were very aware of what was going on, but they didn't, we didn't want to embarrass them and there was a possibility that the Germans at the time had one of their consuls [?] out just accidentally to be there when the plane came in. And just to let the Americans know that they knew what was happening. And, so it was important that the thing be done that way. As a consequence, when the plane took off, there was a planeload of people all in muftis, no uniforms on the plane, and you didn't know who you were sitting by. I was a low rank, ensign, in the United States Supply Corps, and I learned later that I was sitting next to a full general in the Army. I knew he was something very important to somebody, but he looked like an awful pretentious corporative executive. I knew he was a very senior fellow. Also, on there, we had an interesting incident. There was a courier from the White House to Churchill, that's what we were told; this went from Roosevelt to Churchill. And this very young guy had a bag of mail chained to his arm, so that it would never be misplaced and no one was to touch it, which was fine. He found when he started to go to men's room, he couldn't get the bag in the men's room with him. And he did not have the key to the lock, so by some ingenuity he worked out a way to hold his hand and the bag down in the aisle and close the door sufficiently. But it was a weird situation for a while. Getting back to the North Africa adventure, we were told, as I previously said, on short notice that we were going to go with the British, and run the port of Oran after we had got there. What had happened that provoked the invasion, I think is worth noting. Montgomery had become the new commander of the Eighth Army in the desert against Rommel. They weren't doing very well, and when Montgomery got hold of it, they had a lot more troops, they got a lot more active and they crushed the Africa Corps, not too long after Montgomery had taken over. And Rommel was pushed back, and he didn't stop falling back until he got to Tunisia. The allies', the British and the American's, plan was to land guys that left him in the middle between Montgomery and the new land, which would be North Africa. I forgot to do the most important thing, I swear I'm real sorry, Bob. Another important part of the maintenance of secrecy of keeping you from revealing your military connections that we had to take care of in going on a civilian airplane into Ireland, was that we were issued passports provided by the Navy of course that did not—that the photographs of which we were in civilian clothes and the description on the passport was Government Employee. As you will see from, right here it reads Government Employee. Here is my photograph in civilian clothes, looking at it, it seems that I've aged considerably since that photograph was taken. You'd never guess that I was a naval officer. It has always been wonderment to me that our government would go to that sort of deception, I don't know why it's so curious, but it always has been to me. I'm glad they did. As I took my passport out to be examined, the inspector, being an Irishman, had an exaggerated sense of humor. And I'm sure he saw an extremely nervous young man. I was one of the last in the whole line going through the inspection, if not the last. And he took my bag and opened it and he ruffled through it. I was just so obviously nervous, I think he overdid that just so and finally he decided he would close it up, and looks me straight in the eye and said, “Army or Navy?” Immediately I had visions of the rest of the war in an Irish prison, and I utterly did not know what to say, and almost came unglued. And finally I said, I'll just have to take a shot at it, to myself. I said, “Navy.” And he closed the thing and just broke down laughing. I think I may have been one of his funniest victims, but I've always remembered that as a good example of the Irish sense of humor even in very serious, consequential events. Back to North Africa, we landed on, the staff that landed—was scheduled to land—on D plus one. The first wave went in on D-day and we were the next a.m. That part of North Africa was under the control of the Vichy French at that time. And it was not certain whether there would be, how much opposition there would be when we landed. And it was modest, the French—I think there was one American cruiser that was damaged a bit, but I don't think they sunk anything. When we went in the next day we saw no visible evidence of a whole lot of naval damage. And we went in and went straight to our dock and tied up, which was probably one of the great peaceful invasions in history. One of my first and most important tasks assigned to me was to go see the head of the French navy, to sell him that we were setting up a supply situation in Oran. And we wanted their help on where to get supplies and how to begin operations. And I had some particular lists of things that were urgently needed. And I gave that, I was provided with an interpreter, and I gave that message to the stern fellow that I went in to see, and he looked me very steadily in the eye for a while, and then he reached down and pulled open a drawer of his desk, and pulled out about a foot long piece of shrapnel. And held it up, and I don't know what his words were, said that he didn't have any intention on helping the Americans. The shrapnel is tied to another pre-invasion incident in which the British navy, the Vichy French had most of the French fleet in Marseille Corbea [PHONETIC] right near where we went in and tied up. And the British navy told the French to get them out because they were afraid the Germans would get in. The Vichy French refused to remove them, and the British said, if you don't remove them, we're going to sink them. And they didn't remove them, and they shot up the French navy, who foolishly had left them tied up at harbor. And this shrapnel was a piece from the assault on Marseille Corbea. So, I reported that back and actually after a reasonably short time, the Vichy French saw fit to be cooperative because they saw the size of the endeavor when we unloaded the Third Army to come in with Montgomery to trap Rommel. And they came in and they had modest fighting I think for a while, but the surrender finally occurred in Tunis, I think about less than a year later, I'm not sure of when that date was. But I at the time had been sent by my superior down to Tunis when they were foreseeing this surrender because there were thousands of German soldiers out there that, who were going to surrender, and there needed to be some provision made, not that I could do that, but they needed all the help they could get in handling how the traffic and how the loading of these guys on ships. We loaded them on ships in Tunis for prison, they were all taken prisoners. And I've never seen more of a scene of mayhem in my life of just total disorganization than when I got into Tunis, and got into the middle of the traffic area. It was stuck cars, and they couldn't make any progress at all, and it looked like a hopeless situation to me. Less than twelve hours later, eight hours later, overnight I guess, the Germans being the orderly people that I have always known that they are, extremely organized, extremely ordered, and extremely I think realistic, simply went and got their MP's, their military police, their traffic people and put some of their own people all over the roads, one at every corner. And the odd thing, that corner would have an American MP and a German MP standing together, directing whatever cars were coming. They could speak to them and so, the thing cleaned up in practically no time at all. I'm sure there were other examples of that. Some of the Germans actually came to Oran where I was stationed originally before I ran—I just went to Tunis to help with that situation. And we had a port near where our offices were just full of German prisoners there, and for a day or two they were behind a fence and we would go out and talk to them. Some of them could speak very good English. And the Germans to begin with, were very good-looking Nordic type big guys and very good-looking soldiers if I'd ever seen any. So I made a trade among other things with one for, he had a bracelet, this may not show up at all but anyway, he had it on his wrist with his ID information on it, and he wanted cigarettes so bad that he told me—showed me the bracelet and said, “You ought to have this for your ID.” I had an ugly thing hanging around my neck. I said, “What do you mean?” And he said, “If you could find me a carton of cigarettes, I'll swap you.” So, that's what we did. I got this for a carton of cigarettes and I got it redone. And I had one of the all-time great ID's for the rest of the war. I'll take a break if I could. ROBERT GARDNER: Okay. JOSEPH BURTON: After the surrender in Tunis, or not too long thereafter, I was relieved of duty to return to the United States and to report to the Navy department for my next assignment. My first duty when I arrived back in Norfolk, Virginia, which by the way I reached by ship from Casablanca over through one of the worst storms at sea that I've ever had anything to do with and barely made it back, it seemed to me. There were a whole bunch of people that were very desperately seasick. That's just on the side. Anyway I called my wife-to-be with complete confidence that, having been as long as I had on foreign soil, that when I went to Washington I would be able to choose virtually anywhere where it was a Navy Supply Corps situation in the United States. Because there's a rotation in the Navy that's called “Sea Shore, Foreign Shore,” you go from sea to the shore back to the United States to foreign duty and back to the United States. Stateside duty alternates with either being at sea or being on foreign land. And I had been on foreign land for two duties. And I said, we can get married and go wherever we want to go, but I'll first run up to Washington and find out just where it is we can go. So, we had some thoughts about it and I think she was somewhat cautious about my certainty, as it proved to be correctly. So, I walked in the Navy office to announce to them what I wanted to do and the guy said, what you're going to do is go to Astoria, Oregon, and help commission the USS Cisco Bay a, baby carrier which will be commissioned as soon as it's completed, that's in the ship yard at Astoria. And then you will proceed as the Supply Officer on board that ship to the South Pacific, which somehow did not seem like an ideal situation to report back to my wife-to-be. But I did so, and what we planned to do was, I would go out and look the situation over and see how long we had before I went to sea. What seemed like a sensible thing to do. And having done that I called her virtually every day in a very public place where these ladies were working, and I could use the phone right up on the desk. And they couldn't wait each day to hear me propose again. It was an event that they looked forward to, but anyway I did that and we finally decided on a day that I had enough time I saw in commissioning the ship and I could get a couple of weeks leave. So, having done that, we decided on a date to get married and I went back to Norfolk, and we had a fantastic wedding, and a trip by train from Norfolk to Chicago and Chicago to Astoria, Oregon, which was somewhat arduous because it was full of troops and a few wives. The ladies were not permitted to eat all the meals that the troops were. I guess it was because of shortness of food or whatever, but it didn't appeal particularly to a new bride, the whole process. But anyway it was successful in that sense, and we got in Astoria and got settled in a very nice place and were planning on commissioning the trip. I was married in February of 1944 and the ship, I went to sea on the USS Cisco Bay, in what I think was about June of '44. I haven't got the exact date in mind right now. I stayed on that until actually the Japs surrendered, which was not all that long. It was closer to the end of the war then most of us realized. But I made innumerable trips back and forth from either San Francisco or San Diego to Pearl Harbor, to the Manus Islands, the Philippines, all over, and our mission was to carry aircraft and the crews, the fliers that flew them, taking a load on in the United States or at Pearl Harbor and going back to the fleet and replenishing all the planes that they had lost in any air battles. So, they were constantly in good shape. I've got some pictures here of the ship. This would be when we were sailing out to go to deliver the planes. Usually the flight deck would be much more filled with aircraft. This has got all the flight deck completely covered as well as the hanger deck, just as tight as—so that we got geometrically arranged things, they used little toy planes to get the arrangement, to get the most planes on each trip. I would call your attention to one other thing in this photo. And that is that all these planes are propeller planes, and the jet plane had not become generally used in battle at least at that time. So, the launching of them by a hydraulic sling, a catapult it was called, was extremely touchy because it only had the propeller power to be thrown off the ship and still catch before it fell into the sea. I was privileged to be on one that did that one time while I was on the ship, and I could tell you it was not the most pleasant thing I ever did. We took a load of ships, I mean of airplanes, you had to have parachutes when you took them. An airplane you had to have a parachute for everyone. We left the states and got on the way to the Admiralty Islands with a load, and one of my people in a supply department started unloading the chutes out of their carts. When we discovered that they were the wrong kind of chutes, you had a chest pack or a seat pack. And the planes we had, let's say we're chest pack planes and we had enough seat packs for one for each plane that was totally useless. The cartons that we had were marked wrong. The captain called me up on the bridge, and was somewhat upset as you can imagine. And he said, “I've got a little job for you to do” and he told me about the situation. Or I think I had been told, but he said, “I'm going to send you over to the island as a big Air Force, English, or some other country, I can't remember who it was now, facility over there and I know that they will have the proper chutes to go with there—seats to go with these airplanes.” He said, “I think if you make judicious use of some of this beef that we've just loaded at San Diego that you might come back here with enough seat packs to take care of the situation.” I said, “How am I going to get over there.” He said, “I'm going to put you on a plane with an Air Officer,” the head man on the ship, “and fly you over there.” So, I saluted and said, “Aye, aye, sir” with not the greatest enthusiasm. And it is a trick to do it. First, you must sit upright in the plane when you're going to be catapulted, and you reach your right arm across over your body, and take hold of the other side to help hold you in, besides having your seat belt on, because it's a tremendous force put on you. When we launched I thought we had gone in for sure, and it looks that way because I'd seen it done before. But the plane just does everything but lands on the sea. It drops persistently and then these motors are going at full blast. It catches finally and lifts you up, and then he took me over, I remember they were Australians, they were Aussies. And sure enough, the beef worked wonders, and when our ship came on in to unload part of the ships, part of the planes, we got the plane back, I believe, part of it, and took to another port. I need a break. I have to look at my notes to see, I haven't got all this in my head. Among several other instances that are worth noting about on my duty on the Cisco Bay and in the South Pacific, among them one of the more entertaining which most people in the Navy are aware of, is the induction to any person on the ship who has not been across the equator. When you go across for the first time you must be initiated into the Eptuna, Neptunus Regis Society, which involves an initiation process that's almost unheard of as to what happens to you. Here is a certificate which is awarded to you after you survive. I think you might be interested to whom this certificate is addressed. “To all sailors wherever you may be, and to all mermaids, whales, sea serpents, porpoises, sharks, dolphins, eels, skates, suckers, crab, lobsters, and all other living things of the sea, greetings on this day, the 9th day of September of 1944 in latitude and longitude of 153, 52 East, there appeared within our royal domain the USS Cisco Bay bound south for the equator, and for a secret US Naval mission. Be it further understood, that by virtue of power invested in me, I do here by command all my subjects to show due honor and respect where you may be. Disobey this order under penalty of our royal displeasure.” Signed David Jones, his majesty's scribe for Neptunus Rex, ruler of the raging main. As you can see this is an extremely serious matter with the United States Navy, and I have here some snapshots that give you some idea of the mayhem that ruled aboard the ship during that time. Yet another unforgettable incident was being on board ship at sea during a monsoon. And most people have heard of the terrible power of monsoons, and they tend to occur in that part of the world, in the South Pacific and around the Philippines and I think in Australia, probably. We got word that a monsoon was coming when we were tied up in the Admiralty Islands at Manus, and there was an emergency order for all ships to leave the harbor because of the power of these things, and the danger they would endanger to the ship itself. So, the process was to go out in clear water, a sizeable distance from the port, and head into the sea, into the direction of the wind coming toward you. This is where the ship is most easily controlled and can handle those high winds the best. If it's turned to the side, it would roll the ship over, and likewise behind you would be dangerous. The ship was empty; we had no planes on it. And the process with aircraft carriers was to let all elevators from the main deck down to the bottom, the hanger there, so that it would put as much weight as possible in the bottom of the ship. Now all of this is an emergency thing, and it was a terrifying experience when we were told to do all this, because frankly there were those aboard who said this thing could turn over. We were in the CVE, escort carriers, which were built originally as, not as an aircraft carrier, as a transport ship and they just put a hanger deck on, so it was top heavy anyway. But we went out and by the grace of God endured it, and to give you an idea of the force and violence of that monsoon, one ship in the squadron we were in, the Captain reported on his report of the event that he could stand, or the crew or anyone, could stand on the hanger deck with an elevator down as it was, and look straight up through the elevator and see blue water. Now there's not much way to interpret that except that the ship was lying almost on its side, and I know that our ship had somewhat the same reaction. I don't think anybody did report it, but that was an official report. So, I got to enjoy the violence of the South Pacific, which I had not been prepared to do. Finally the ship, while I was on it, was engaged in what has been described as the greatest single naval battle as, remembered as the biggest naval battle ever fought anywhere, and I forgot how many days it lasted but it was an enormous battle. And I was, my ship was fortunately among those that did not get any violence of the battle itself. Three or four, I can not remember which, CV 86's [PHONETIC] sister ships of ours were sunk in that battle. Here is a map of the lady carrier. The famed Surigao Strait is right here where the Japanese fleet came through unexpectedly. The Japanese had devised a plan whereby he would draw one of our groups under the control of Admiral Halsey off to the north, as you can see from the map, thereby leaving that part of the Leyte area unprotected or less protected. And it was all based on MacArthur's famous return. And these ships were gathered down there to cover his return. The Japanese admiral had some ships go north to make Halsey think that the whole fleet of Japanese were north, further away than they were. And the group of ships that I was in was under Halsey, and he took the bait and we all went north. Another group, a fleet under Admiral Spruance, had most of our ships, our baby carriers in it, and we had been in it and were transferred to Halsey, fortunately for us. That was the group that had the ship shot up bad, but they did so well against the Japanese, much to their surprise the Japanese trick worked. But the rest of our group under Spruance actually tore up the Japanese fleet, which had come through that small strait with planes off of the baby carriers. And thus, succeeded in one of the real important, if not the most important, battle of the South Pacific campaign, and not that long thereafter the Japanese surrender occurred with Truman's dropping of the bomb in Hiroshima. And they surrendered in August of 1945. I left the service the following fall to end my career. ROBERT GARDNER: Do you remember the day your service ended, and where you were? JOSEPH BURTON: I do not. When I left the ship, first I was sent to teach at the Harvard Business School, Navy, where I had originally started off my career, the beginning of this narration. Before I got there the orders were changed because the war was being closer to an end than previously expected, and I was sent to the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville. And I got there just in time to see, or hear about, VJ Day , and from there I left the service in that fall, I'm not positive of the exact date. The surrender was in August, and I think I got out about October. ROBERT GARDNER: Did you work or go back to school after you left the service? JOSEPH BURTON: I worked. ROBERT GARDNER: Did you make any close friendships while in the service, sir? JOSEPH BURTON: Yes, I made several, people that were on the ship. But most of them were from the west coast. Somehow the people on the ship were more from that part, and I never had much occasion to develop that friendship, except for one officer, a gunnery officer, George Mole [PHONETIC] and he actually came east and we had a long visit in Atlanta, Georgia. He was from Lodi [?], California, but I didn't make any, Frankie Albert, the well-known Stanford First “T” formation quarterback, and later pro-player and pro-coach, was a shipmate of mine on the Cisco Bay. And I made a good friend of him, but I never saw him much. We had Christmas card exchange correspondence with a number of them. One, Chief Petty Officer came by my house in Atlanta which was very touching to me, and I enjoyed seeing him. That was some years after I had left the ship. We had exchanges that you could keep track of people with. Other than that I didn't make any permanent ones. ROBERT GARDNER: Did you join any kind of a veterans organization? JOSEPH BURTON: No, I did not. ROBERT GARDNER: Do you attend any reunions, sir? JOSEPH BURTON: No, we didn't have, you mean any ships, and I didn't have any. ROBERT GARDNER: What did you go to do as a career after the war? JOSEPH BURTON: I went in eventually in the grocery business at first with a grocery chain, and I became the general advertising manager for the chain of stores, and then opened my own advertising agency in Atlanta, which I maintained for eight or ten years and then sold. And I've been retired or I've consulted for four or five years and then I retired. ROBERT GARDNER: How did your service and experiences affect your life, sir? JOSEPH BURTON: It was a very memorable thing and I'm very proud of it, and I'm very glad that I was able to do it. I don't think war is a wonderful thing as such, but it was responsible for me meeting my wife as I said at the beginning of this narration. And I think I learned a lot about humanity and it was a very important thing to me. ROBERT GARDNER: Is there anything that you would like to add that we have not covered in this interview? JOSEPH BURTON: I don't really believe there is. I think that pretty much sums up what—I feel very good about my service. I'm glad to have this opportunity to tell a little about the actual things that happened to people in the service, and I'm thankful for the opportunity. ROBERT GARDNER: I'd like to thank you for sharing your experiences with us. It's definitely been my pleasure, and I really appreciate you taking the time to come here and do this interview for us. JOSEPH BURTON: Thank you. [END INTERVIEW]
Metadata URL:: http://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/cdm/ref/collection/VHPohr/id/358
Additional Rights Information:: This material is protected by copyright law. (Title 17, U.S. Code) Permission for use must be cleared through the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. Licensing agreement may be required.
Extent:: 55:44
Original Collection:: Veterans History Project oral history recordings
Veterans History Project collection, MSS 1010, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center
Holding Institution:: Atlanta History Center
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