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| Hershel Covart Burd, my grandfather, started working for a commercial dish-washing equipment company a short time after serving in both the United States Army and Marine Corps. After being honorably discharged from the service, he began his civilian career as a route salesman in Atlanta, Georgia, transferred to Los Angeles for four years, then went to Saint Louis, Missouri, to take over as branch manager. He retired from that company in May 1992 after being with them for thirty-nine years. He worked part-time after his retirement, selling restaurant equipment and serving as an election judge on election days. Hershel Covart Burd died of cancer on September 30, 2001, at the age of 71. The story of his military service, in his own words, is excerpted below from the book, America's Youngest Warriors: Stories about men and women who served in the armed forces of America before attaining legal age. |
| "My first twelve years were spent on a farm
in Hart County, Kentucky, where I was born on 17 November 1929. I
was the youngest of five sons. My mother died when I was 8 years
old, but my father kept the family together, and we continued to
live on the farm until 1941. By that time, my oldest brother was in
the Navy, two brothers were in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), a brother just
older than I went to live with an uncle, and I went to live with a
second cousin in Louisville. When my cousin was drafted in 1942, I
went to live with my grandparents in Hodgenville, Kentucky. My oldest brother Aubrey was aboard the USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. His ship was hit, but he was not wounded. In August 1942, my brother Daymon joined the Marines and served on Guadalcanal and in the Marshall Islands. My brother Les joined the Navy and served in the Aleutians and later in the Philippines. My brother Bill was drafted into the Army in 1944 and was wounded on Okinawa in April 1945. I was 14 years old by this time, and I wanted to follow my brothers into the service. I went to the Navy recruiting office and claimed that I was 17. During the physical examination, when the doctor checked out my teeth, he told me to go back to school and come back when I was 18. Not being one to take no for an answer, I tried again when I was 16. I changed my birth certificate to show that I was born in 1928, and with a lot of arm twisting and pleading, I was able to get my dad to let me join. I was sworn into the Army on 4 April 1946 and went to Camp Polk, Louisiana, for basic training. I was sent to the Philippines after basic and was stationed in San Fernando, about eighty miles north of Manila. I worked in the post exchange and on the docks checking the loading of equipment for shipment back to the States. A number of Japanese prisoners of war were there awaiting shipment back to Japan. We were allowed to have one of the prisoners as a houseboy to take care of our huts. My houseboy was a big Japanese marine, and he was very good with the work assigned to him. He thought it was rather funny that I was so young and in the service. He was 32 years old and had not seen his folks since 1934, when he left for China. The Japanese POWs were shipped home in May 1947. I returned to the States in June 1947 and went to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, for discharge. I was one of the soldiers who helped prepare a retirement party for General Jonathan Wainwright given in Freeport, Texas. I was discharged from the Army on 18 September 1947 and returned to Louisville, Kentucky. On 15 November 1947, I enlisted in the Marines and was sent to Parris Island, South Carolina, for boot camp. Marine boot camp was much tougher than the Army basic training I had gone through the year before. After boot camp, I went to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, for motor-transport school, followed by twelve weeks of automotive-mechanics school. From Lejeune, I went to the Marines' West Coast Repair Depot at Barstow, California. I arrived there in August 1948 and was one of only four PFCs on the base. This meant mess duty (KP) for eighty-four days, until a replacement came in. When the Korean War started, all enlistments were extended one year by President Truman. There was a need for tank mechanics, so I was one of the Marines chosen to become a tank mechanic. I had volunteered to go to Korea, but I was informed that I would go to Korea when the Marine Corps wanted me to go. So, for the next two years I helped rebuild tanks and amphibious tractors. From the last part of June 1950 until early September, we rebuilt enough Sherman tanks to meet the requirements of the 1st Marine Division before they sailed for the Inchon landing on 15 September 1950. We all worked around the clock to accomplish this feat. In April 1952, I volunteered to take a Sherman tank and some equipment to Camp Desert Rock, Nevada, for the atomic tests. The equipment was part of a simulated battalion arranged in battle formation on the desert floor. We Marines were placed in a trench about seven miles from ground zero and told to lie face down and to put our goggles over our eyes at a given signal. The bomb was detonated at an altitude of about 2000 feet. This was an experience that I will never forget. The aftershock and the mushroom cloud that rose over the desert floor were awesome. Some years later, I learned from the National Association of Atomic Veterans that this test was know as "Tumbler Snapper". My participation in this event does not appear in my service records. Although I don't seem to have suffered any adverse effects from the atomic tests, many military and civilian personnel have. I was discharged from the Marines on 15 November 1952." |
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