thedrifter
01-23-06, 10:26 AM
Article published Jan 23, 2006
Prayers that auspicious day in 1945 saved his life
By Ron Simon
News Journal
MANSFIELD -- On Jan. 10, 1945, the congregation at Park Avenue West Baptist Church offered up daily prayers to one of their own, Navy Electrician's Mate Chuck Burton, who was serving somewhere in the vast Pacific Ocean.
That day, the USS DuPage, a ponderous attack transport, was at work in the Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines, unloading soldiers, receiving casualties and fueling Navy destroyers.
Chuck Burton was at his battle station in the electrical control house for the winches, located just forward of the bridge.
"I could hear all the firing going on, but I couldn't see what was happening," he said.
That's when a Japanese pilot in a twin-engine "Nick" crashed into the port wing of the ship's navigation bridge and continued aft on the port side, starting fires from the bridge to the fantail.
Instantly, 35 men were killed and another 136 injured. Five more crewmen were hurled into the sea by the impact.
"The 'Nick' was so close to the water it came in under our guns. When it got near the ship it raised up over the bow and hit the bridge. It went over the top of the control house where I was stationed. I could hear the explosion, and the ship felt like someone pulled it down in the water and it popped up again like a cork. I never got a scratch," Burton said.
To this day, Burton and his wife, Aileen, believe those prayers uttered on his behalf in Mansfield that day in 1945 were answered.
"I really think they are why he was spared," Aileen Burton said.
As for the DuPage, she was quickly repaired. The five men swept overboard were recovered. Before long, the huge attack transport was carrying loads of soldiers, sailors and airmen home as part of the "Magic Carpet" plan to bring the boys home.
"The DuPage was a good ship, I'll tell you," Burton said. "I was a plank owner, an original member of the crew when she was launched in Brooklyn (New York). We had our shakedown cruise in the Chesapeake and then went down through the Panama Canal and back up to San Diego."
Burton and the DuPage saw a lot of action in the Pacific War. The ship earned six battle stars, the most any attack transport ever had. Armed and filled with fuel, supplies, ammunition and Marines, the DuPage took part in assaults and beach landings at Emirau, Cape Gloucester, Guam, Peleliu, Leyte and Luzon.
She carried numerous small landing craft in her belly, and those winches Burton tended were the means used to put them over the side so they could be filled with shorebound Marines. Burton said there were doctors and dentists on board, so the DuPage could act as a floating field hospital during fighting.
"We took care of the casualties until those big hospital ships arrived," he said.
All those men had to be fed, and the DuPage was a giant chow hall.
"Maybe it was because we were close to Australia and New Zealand, but we sure had a lot of mutton in our diet. Spaghetti, liver and mutton. Sure got tired of them," Burton said.
The DuPage, named after a county in Illinois, dropped anchor in any number of famous places in the South Pacific, including Guadalcanal, Hollandia, Espritu Santo, Ulithi Atoll and home under the Golden Gate Bridge.
Burton said after the war the DuPage became a merchant ship, eventually finishing her days as a tramp steamer until she was scrapped in Taiwan in May 1973.
Burton, 83, still attends DuPage reunions.
A native of Mansfield, he grew up on the near east side near Sycamore and West Sixth streets. He graduated from Mansfield Senior High School in June 1940, and after working for the Ohio Public Service Co. for $25 a week, he was drafted in September 1942.
"A friend and I didn't want to be in the Army, so we went over to the post office and signed up for the Navy," he said.
Burton was already dating Aileen Turner of Ontario. After he completed basic training and electrical training at Purdue University in Indiana, he and Aileen were married in March 1943.
"We're getting close to 63 years together," he said.
After the war, Burton went back to work with the Ohio Public Service Co. and then with the company that bought it, Ohio Edison. His last few working years up to 1984 were with Shafer Valve Co. in Ontario.
Since the early 1960s, the Burtons have lived in a comfortable brick home they built in a woods off Millsboro Road in what had once been a farm owned by Aileen's family. They have two sons, Jon Burton of Mansfield and Don Burton of Columbia, Ill. There are five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
The one major change for the Burtons is that they are no longer members of the Park Avenue West Baptist Church. These days they attend Covenant Presbyterian Church.
But they will always be thankful that the Baptists remembered Chuck Burton in their prayers that auspicious day in 1945.
Ellie
Prayers that auspicious day in 1945 saved his life
By Ron Simon
News Journal
MANSFIELD -- On Jan. 10, 1945, the congregation at Park Avenue West Baptist Church offered up daily prayers to one of their own, Navy Electrician's Mate Chuck Burton, who was serving somewhere in the vast Pacific Ocean.
That day, the USS DuPage, a ponderous attack transport, was at work in the Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines, unloading soldiers, receiving casualties and fueling Navy destroyers.
Chuck Burton was at his battle station in the electrical control house for the winches, located just forward of the bridge.
"I could hear all the firing going on, but I couldn't see what was happening," he said.
That's when a Japanese pilot in a twin-engine "Nick" crashed into the port wing of the ship's navigation bridge and continued aft on the port side, starting fires from the bridge to the fantail.
Instantly, 35 men were killed and another 136 injured. Five more crewmen were hurled into the sea by the impact.
"The 'Nick' was so close to the water it came in under our guns. When it got near the ship it raised up over the bow and hit the bridge. It went over the top of the control house where I was stationed. I could hear the explosion, and the ship felt like someone pulled it down in the water and it popped up again like a cork. I never got a scratch," Burton said.
To this day, Burton and his wife, Aileen, believe those prayers uttered on his behalf in Mansfield that day in 1945 were answered.
"I really think they are why he was spared," Aileen Burton said.
As for the DuPage, she was quickly repaired. The five men swept overboard were recovered. Before long, the huge attack transport was carrying loads of soldiers, sailors and airmen home as part of the "Magic Carpet" plan to bring the boys home.
"The DuPage was a good ship, I'll tell you," Burton said. "I was a plank owner, an original member of the crew when she was launched in Brooklyn (New York). We had our shakedown cruise in the Chesapeake and then went down through the Panama Canal and back up to San Diego."
Burton and the DuPage saw a lot of action in the Pacific War. The ship earned six battle stars, the most any attack transport ever had. Armed and filled with fuel, supplies, ammunition and Marines, the DuPage took part in assaults and beach landings at Emirau, Cape Gloucester, Guam, Peleliu, Leyte and Luzon.
She carried numerous small landing craft in her belly, and those winches Burton tended were the means used to put them over the side so they could be filled with shorebound Marines. Burton said there were doctors and dentists on board, so the DuPage could act as a floating field hospital during fighting.
"We took care of the casualties until those big hospital ships arrived," he said.
All those men had to be fed, and the DuPage was a giant chow hall.
"Maybe it was because we were close to Australia and New Zealand, but we sure had a lot of mutton in our diet. Spaghetti, liver and mutton. Sure got tired of them," Burton said.
The DuPage, named after a county in Illinois, dropped anchor in any number of famous places in the South Pacific, including Guadalcanal, Hollandia, Espritu Santo, Ulithi Atoll and home under the Golden Gate Bridge.
Burton said after the war the DuPage became a merchant ship, eventually finishing her days as a tramp steamer until she was scrapped in Taiwan in May 1973.
Burton, 83, still attends DuPage reunions.
A native of Mansfield, he grew up on the near east side near Sycamore and West Sixth streets. He graduated from Mansfield Senior High School in June 1940, and after working for the Ohio Public Service Co. for $25 a week, he was drafted in September 1942.
"A friend and I didn't want to be in the Army, so we went over to the post office and signed up for the Navy," he said.
Burton was already dating Aileen Turner of Ontario. After he completed basic training and electrical training at Purdue University in Indiana, he and Aileen were married in March 1943.
"We're getting close to 63 years together," he said.
After the war, Burton went back to work with the Ohio Public Service Co. and then with the company that bought it, Ohio Edison. His last few working years up to 1984 were with Shafer Valve Co. in Ontario.
Since the early 1960s, the Burtons have lived in a comfortable brick home they built in a woods off Millsboro Road in what had once been a farm owned by Aileen's family. They have two sons, Jon Burton of Mansfield and Don Burton of Columbia, Ill. There are five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
The one major change for the Burtons is that they are no longer members of the Park Avenue West Baptist Church. These days they attend Covenant Presbyterian Church.
But they will always be thankful that the Baptists remembered Chuck Burton in their prayers that auspicious day in 1945.
Ellie