Buck Knight USMC
and Curtis Burchfield USAAF
Curtis
Burchfield was born to James (Jim) Edward Burchfield and Eula Spears
Burchfield in the Hurricane Community of western Pontotoc County Mississippi.
Jim was a veteran of World War I having survived going over the top
with the 30th Inf. Division. He was severely wounded and returned home
with shrapnel from a German shell above his left eye, his leg and back.
Curtis was born in Jan of 1923 and later two brothers, Burnell and James
were born. He also had three sisters, Earlene, Jimmie and Martha known
as (Mott).
Burnell served in World War II on the Destroyer Escort Alvin C. Cockrell,
involved in the search for the survivors of the USS Indianapolis. Uncle
Burnell was a radar man on this ship and later helped in weighting the
bodies of the deceased.
Burnell said, "Before the boat shoved off from the Alvin C. Cockrell
(DE-366) I was given a cigar and told to light it." He did not smoke
as his father found Curtis and Burnell attempting to learn how to smoke
as boys, Jim said "boys if your going to smoke I need to teach you how
to smoke like men." Both of them turned green and lost their stomachs.
Burnell found out why the cigar was issued when the decomposing bodies
were weighted to sink/burial while still in the Pacific. http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/escorts/de366.htm
USS Alvin C. Cockrell (DE 366) report:
On 5 August, however while operating in the Peleliu-Angaur antisubmarine
screen, Alvin C. Cockrell received orders to proceed at full speed to
the scene of the sinking of the heavy cruiser Indianapolis (CA-35).
She arrived in the area at 0600, and commenced a search in company with
the destroyers Madison (DD-425), Helm (DD-388), and Ralph Talbot (DD-390),
and the destroyer escort Dufilho (DE-423). One flying boat orbited overhead.
With each ship proceeding to cover an assigned sector, Alvin C. Cockrell
began finding grim evidence of the tragedy that had befallen the cruiser.
She sighted two empty rubber rafts at 1007 and recovered an unidentified
body at 1115, quickly burying it at sea. A half-hour later, at 1145,
the ship spotted several other corpses-six of which were given a burial
soon thereafter. Only one of the six was identifiable, and the advanced
state of decomposition in all indicated that they had been dead for
several days.
Many had life jackets, and a few had clothing. The destroyer escort
sighted very little debris or wreckage by that point, and "no signs
of any live survivors." Eventually ordered to break off the search and
return to her regular operating base, Alvin C. Cockrell departed the
area at 0622 on 6 August to return to Peleliu.
Curtis grew up helping farm his father's 300-acre farm and once made
a parachute out of fabric. He tried this chute out by jumping off the
top of a barn, the cute did not open and Curtis received two badly sprained
ankles. His brothers and sisters witnessed Dean Faulkner's plane crash;
Dean was the brother of the writer William Faulkner. As the plane flew
over Curtis remembers saying "I wish that plane would fall so we can
see it up close," just after saying that the plane began to weave and
a wing pulled off causing the plane to spin into the ground. Jim rushed
to his car and the kids piled in, upon reaching the scene of the crash
Curtis and his siblings ignored their fathers warning to stay away from
the crash. Curtis said, "We wished we did not see what we did, bodies
with bones protruding out of broken limbs, and worse."
In July 1942 Curtis arrived at Groton Connecticut for work at the
Electric Boat Company with L. D. Sneed both having received training
for working with sheet metal and pipe fitting in the (NYA) National
Youth Administration. This was the best job Curtis ever had; he helped
build submarines for the U.S. Navy. The way he remembers the date is
the battle for Stalingrad, U.S.S.R. was going on. L.D. Sneed was later
drafted into the Navy and onboard the American ship that was the first
to capture of the German u-boat 550.
After a few months both men quit due to being homesick. Curtis went
to work in Mobile, Alabama as a ship fitter, working for Gulf shipbuilding.
This was a very dangerous job and Curtis saw numerous accidents. Curtis
was using tools that he had not been trained to use and his primary
job was putting ribs in the frame of what would be a destroyer. Due
to the important war industry Curtis had received a deferment and was
not drafted, but gave the company his notice saying, "I had rather be
in the army than work here."
June 26th 1943 having returned home to Pontotoc Co. Curtis received
his Greetings from the U.S. Government draft notice.
July 1943 Curtis was inducted into the U.S. Army at Camp Shelby
Mississippi. Having been examined Curtis and some underweight sickly
looking men were separated from some of the best examples of physically
fit men, Curtis remembers thinking that he flunked the physical and
would be sent home, but he would find out these strong looking men had
defects and he and the others had passed the physical. Curtis weighed
120 lbs at this time and was sent to Miami Beach Florida for basic training,
the barracks were hotels.
October 1943 Arrived Camp Barkley Texas where he received advanced
Military Police Training.
December 1943 Arrived Daniel Field in Savannah Georgia, he was
unassigned at the time and was recommended to attend mechanics school
but asked to continue Military Police Training.
January 1944 Tinker Field Oklahoma City Oklahoma unassigned as
a Military Police.
January 1944 Smokey Hill, Salina Kansas assigned to security
section.
May 1944 Tinker Field Oklahoma City Oklahoma, prepped for overseas
shipment 330th Service Group, 500th Bomb Group, 73rd Bomb Wing 20th
AAF.
