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 The
pantheon of famous Coast Guard aviators includes such 20th
century luminaries as Elmer Stone, the world's first aviator
to pilot an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean; Frank
Erickson, pioneering aviator in the development of the
helicopter; and Donald MacDiarmid, considered the Coast
Guard's foremost authority on maritime aviation search,
rescue and survival.
One individual missing from the list of
famous aviators is Richard Leon Burke. In his day, military
leaders, prominent politicians and Coast Guard aviators,
including MacDiarmid, recognized Burke as the Service's most
skillful and experienced air-sea rescue pilot.
Born
in 1903, Burke heralded from San Antonio, Texas. In 1924, he
entered the Coast Guard Academy, where he held the nicknames
“Cowboy” and “Tex.” Burke's activities not only included
competitive sports, but also orchestra in which he played
the violin. His Southern gentility and “romantic ideals from
Texas” entertained his classmates who marveled at his
“strong will and determination” and his penchant for taking
a cold shower every morning at six o'clock.
In 1927,
Burke graduated from the Academy, received his commission
and assignment to the Cutter Modoc. After Modoc, Burke
received assignments on board a number of East Coast
cutters, but he also developed a passion for flying. In the
spring of 1930, Headquarters sent him to the Norfolk Naval
Air Station for “Flight Elimination Training.” The next
year, Burke received promotion to lieutenant and underwent
aviator training. At flight school, Burke earned his wings
and received orders to his first assignment, Coast Guard
Base Seven, near Gloucester, Massachusetts.
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Coast Guard Aviator Richard Burke ready to climb on board a waiting Grumman J2F “Duck,” one of
the service's smaller air-sea rescue aircraft in the 1930s and
1940s. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)
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In the early 1930s, Burke established a reputation as one of the
Service's great rescue pilots. Honing his skills in navigating
through rain, fog and heavy cloud cover, and landing amphibious
aircraft in treacherous seas, Burke participated in several
high-profile rescues. In 1933, he rescued a seriously ill sailor
from the fishing vessel Shawmut, off the Massachusetts coast. This
operation required Burke to fly through foul weather and locate the
trawler on the basis of radio direction. This rescue earned Burke
his first Distinguished Flying Cross medal, only the third issued to
a Coast Guard aviator.
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Coast Guard Lt. Burke receives his first Distinguished Flying Cross from
Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. On the left stands Coast
Guard Commandant Russell R. Waesche. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)
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The following year proved another eventful year for
Burke. He received command of Air Station Cape May, where he
flew numerous highly publicized search, rescue and
hospitalization cases. At the same time he took command of
the air base, the Treasury Department designated him
official pilot for Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau.
During the next six years, Burke flew the secretary on
official trips throughout North America and he flew the
First Family to travel destinations when necessary. Burke's
reputation would become well known not only to Coast Guard
commandant Russell Waesche, whose office wrote him several
commendation letters, but also with the heads of the
Treasury and Navy departments.
While serving at Cape
May, Burke had a variety of assignments and missions. He was
skilled at piloting all types of fixed-wing aircraft, from
the Treasury Secretary's Lockheed Electra to a variety of
Coast Guard amphibians. So it came as no surprise in 1935,
when he set speed and altitude records for the Hall PH-2
“flying boat,” a workhorse of Coast Guard aviation from the
1930s through World War II. In 1937, he was on hand during
the Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey, and
directed efforts to rescue survivors of the burning
zeppelin. And, Burke's support of military training
activities at Cape May earned him the personal thanks and
recognition of National Guard authorities, Marine Corps
general Thomas Holcomb and Navy Secretary Claude Swanson.
During Burke's command at Cape May, the Service lost its
first aviator in the line of duty. In January 1935, Chief
Gunner's Mate Charles Thrun served as one of Cape May's
enlisted pilots and, during test flights of the newly
introduced Grumman J2F “Duck” amphibian, Thrun crashed just
offshore. Burke sped to the scene of the accident in a base
crashboat to Thrun's overturned aircraft. Burke and his crew
extricated Thrun after repeated exposure to the icy water
and bone-chilling air, but not in time to resuscitate the
aviator. Burke and his men were hospitalized after
contracting hypothermia from the rescue attempt and they
each received the Silver Lifesaving Medal in recognition of
their efforts.
After six years as commander of Cape
May, assistant coordinator for Mid-Atlantic maritime
interdiction activities, and official pilot for the
Secretary of Treasury, Burke received promotion to
lieutenant commander and command of newly constructed Air
Station Elizabeth City in North Carolina. When he learned of
Burke's reassignment, Secretary Morgenthau wrote him “. . .
we have flown thousands of miles together over land and sea,
and often your responsibility was very great. There have
been occasions that required quick thinking and resolute,
clear-headed action. Your skill and sound judgment at such
times and in fact whenever you were piloting me have been a
source of great satisfaction to me.”
By the summer of
1940, Burke arrived at his new command so it came as a shock
late in 1941, when he received transfer orders to the air
station at Biloxi, Mississippi. Burke proved so popular with
the local community that Congressman Herbert Bonner
campaigned to keep Burke in command of Elizabeth City and
discussed the issue with Commandant Waesche. Bonner
convinced Headquarters to rescind Burke's transfer, so the
aviator remained in command of the air station for the next
three years.
By 1942, the U.S. had entered World War
II and German u-boats focused their efforts on the
commercial shipping lanes off the coast of North Carolina.
Termed the “Happy Times,” or “American Shooting Season” by
German submariners, that year proved the most active period
of the war for Navy and Coast Guard operations off the East
Coast. In the first half of 1942, Burke and his crews worked
closely with Army and Navy assets to combat u-boat
depredations against American shipping. At times braving
anti-aircraft fire from the submarines, Burke's aircraft
would spot the u-boats from the air and drop markers in the
water to direct attacks from air and sea. In January, Burke
and his pilots played an important role in an attack on the
u-boat that sank the tanker Frances E. Powell, and assisted
in the rescue of the Powell's survivors. Burke also made a
treacherous heavy weather rescue to save survivors of the
torpedoed Panamanian freighter Chenango. For the Chenango
rescue, Burke received letters of commendation from both
Commandant Waesche and Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval
Operations. A Chenango survivor later wrote about Burke's
air-sea rescue, “It was a dangerous sea to land upon. A
U-boat could have ‘given them the works' right away. Please
don't forget to tell them that we owe our lives entirely to
their risking their own lives for us.”
While his
aviation exploits remained his most visible accomplishments,
but he also demonstrated great leadership ability. In a 1942
rescue, Burke flew in heavy weather to evacuate a Navy
enlisted man suffering acute appendicitis. Burke had to make
a water landing near a destroyer patrolling off the North
Carolina coast, take on the suffering man and deliver him to
medical facilities in time to save his life. In a letter of
thanks, the man's wife wrote Burke “. . . even for the sake
of just one man, there was no risk too great for you and
your crew to take to save him.”
Burke circulated a
copy of the letter to his crew with the added comment: “Nice
work, men! It was a damn good job by plane-crew and
mechanics and overhaul crew; otherwise, we wouldn't have
gotten back.”
A rescue performed by Burke on July
9th, 1942, received the most attention of all. Two days
earlier, an Army Air Corps Hudson bomber had successfully
attacked the enemy submarine U-701. Some u-boat crewmembers
survived the sinking and floated for days 100 miles off the
North Carolina coast. By the time Burke spotted them, only
seven of the seventeen survivors remained alive. However,
the Germans were weak, delirious, and suffering from shock,
lack of food and water. Burke made a water landing near the
Germans, took them on board his amphibian and flew them to
the Norfolk Naval Air Station for medical attention.
The U-701 rescue and the others listed above were just a few
of the numerous anti-submarine patrol, rescue and
hospitalization flights Burke flew during the war. In 1944,
at the end of his North Carolina tour, he received a Gold
Star in lieu of a second Distinguished Flying Cross as well
as the Navy Commendation Ribbon in recognition of his
service and leadership as commanding officer of Air Station
Elizabeth City. The DFC citation commended Burke for “. . .
constantly exercising keen judgment, expert airmanship skill
and great initiative under extremely adverse conditions.”
After the war, Burke received promotion to captain and,
for the next ten years, served in senior leadership and
oversight positions for the Service's aviation branch.
During these assignments, he oversaw several high-profile
cases, including the response effort to the 1946 crash of a
Sabena Airlines DC-4 at Gander, Newfoundland. This mission
proved a success and served as the first test case for
evacuating crash victims by helicopter. He also oversaw the
1955 air-sea rescue effort of Pan American Airlines' Clipper
United States, which ditched in the ocean off the Oregon
coast.
Richard Leon Burke was a member of the long
blue line who served as a role model not only as a skilled
aviator, but also as an exemplary leader. In 1979, he passed
away in Connecticut at the age of seventy-five. During his
career, Burke took part in hundreds of search, rescue and
humanitarian flights, receiving numerous honors, awards and
recognitions for his heroic feats and daring aviation
exploits. The final sentence in the citation for the Gold
Star in lieu of his second Distinguished Flying Cross
reflected his successful leadership as a Coast Guard
aviator: “His cool courage and unswerving devotion to duty
at all times as pilot in charge of aircraft constituted an
inspiring example to the forces under his command.”
By William H. Thiesen, Atlantic Area Historian, USCG
Provided
through
Coast
Guard
Copyright 2016
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