Murphy Burke was born in Morgan City, Louisiana in February 1926. He and his only sibling, a sister, grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana where his father worked as a manager for a grocery store chain. Burke said life during the Great Depression was austere, but his family always had a place to stay and food on the table. They had an automobile that came out once a week for a wash, a ride to church on Sundays and to the dairy for an ice cream on Sunday afternoons. There was little else to do except for school sports and the movies. Burke was in high school when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and remembers he was on his way to meet friends when he got the news. He didn't know what to think, but was aware that things were fouled up in Europe. At the time, he didn't know where Pearl Harbor was located. Burke wasn't even too sure about Hawaii. He didn't want to be drafted, so his parents agreed for him to enlist in April 1944 at 17 years old. He was underweight for his first choice, the Marines, so chose the Navy to avoid the Army. Burke went to San Diego, California for boot camp, and although training was rigorous, he kept his mouth shut and did what he was supposed to do, and had no problems. He had never been away from home, and at first military life seemed a little strange, but he got used to it. Between test results and his admitted interest in Morse code and radios, it was determined that he would proceed to communications school in Los Angeles.

Murphy Burke continued his training while he waited for the ship [Annotator's Note: USS Yarnell (DD-541)] to be commissioned. At first glance, he considered the vessel small. It was a 2,100 ton, Fletcher class destroyer, about 400 feet long, maybe 30 feet wide, with a rather shallow draft. It was armed with five - five inch guns, five 40mm guns and eight 20mm guns. Burke was a signalman. His general quarters station was on the bridge. He remembers ensuring the commissioning pennant was properly prepared and run up on a dreary day in San Francisco, after which the Yarnell embarked on it shakedown cruise out of San Diego, up and down the west coast. He described his accommodations aboard ship as adequate and the chow was acceptable. Like many of the other sailors, Burke had a little trouble dealing with the big waves in the beginning, but he got his sea legs and overcame the seasickness. His daily routine, once he was rated, was to be on watch sunrise to sunset and on call. His duties included manning the signal light, the signal hoist, the semaphore, and the black light, and keeping the lookout. Once he made first class, he was in charge of the ten man signal gang.

The USS Yarnell (DD-541) first met the enemy, according to Murphy Burke, at Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands after it had been taken, but still needed defense against air raids. The ship moved on to Saipan and did a little gunnery on Garapan, then ran along the eastern side of the island. There were forward advances in the field, telling them where to shoot, and the Yarnell ran back and forth picking out targets. Burke said they got in pretty close a couple of times, and took return fire. Stationed on the bridge, Burke could see some of what was happening. Toward the end of the campaign, the ship came in so close that the crew witnessed Japanese women and children jumping off the cliff side. Burke found that devastating. [Annotator's Note: Burke is breathing audibly.] They then moved into the China Sea, and from there covered the Philippine landings. Burke said they could get the guns operating pretty fast, and did a lot of good. Burke believes they were credited with downing seven planes, and knocking out about 30 shore emplacements, as well as having come in close to do some strafing. As a kid of 18, Burke found it all very exciting and scary. He recalled the heavy air attack nicknamed the Marianas Turkey Shoot during the First Battle of the Philippine Sea. Burke said the Japanese lost hundreds of planes and pilots; the Yarnell was credited with three kills. They also rescued several pilots, happy occasions because after every rescue the crew was rewarded with ice cream. [Annotator's Note: This brings a smile and chuckle from Burke.] He notes that at the end of the Turkey Shoot, Admiral Mitscher [Annotator's Note: US Navy Admiral Marc Andrew Mitscher] got in a lot of trouble for what has become known as the Mission After Darkness. Burke remembers that it was scary to put on the search lights and flash "X E," which meant "aircraft landing," and have the whole world looking. Fortunately, Burke said, there were no Japanese submarines in the area. Planes began landing on any ship they saw. Burke agreed with the decision, and feels going after the task force and turning the lights on was the right thing to do. The mission saved a lot of planes and pilots.

Soon after the Battle of the Philippines, Murphy Burke remembers spending a week at one of the larger ports, Ulithi. The crew [Annotator's Note: of the USS Yarnall (DD-541)] was given shore leave and each sailor was issued three hot tin cans of beer that made them sick as a dog. After they recovered, they went back to work loading food and ammunition. The next big thing was carrier strikes in the China Sea off Formosa, which Burke described as scary, because the Japanese attacked mostly at night. The USS Yarnell (DD-541) shot down several air attackers. The ship's antiaircraft gunners were pretty good. He said there were no hits, but a lot of near misses. He remembers a bomb dropped very near the stern of the ship, and once being "bracketed," with bombs falling port and starboard. He also mentioned watching a couple of torpedoes passing about ten feet away. That, Burke said, could make you gulp. There wasn't a lot of down time at sea, and when there was, sailors told stories and played cards. The ship enjoyed good leadership, and Burke never wished he was on a bigger or better ship. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Yarnell was basically occupied with knocking out radio installations. Burke said the crew knew they were doing something important, but felt they were kept in the dark a lot. He said the officers told them what they could, but they didn't get that much information either. Burke brought back to mind the mid-December typhoon of 1944 when the ship was on its way to Japan. The Yarnell was running low on fuel, so it was riding high on the 50 foot waves, and tilting at serious angles, close to dumping everybody in for a swim. Burke said he was concerned; news ran quickly through the fleet that several destroyers were lost in that storm. But the Yarnell was able to ride it out. Burke and his crew spent the last week of 1944 back at Ulithi, celebrating Christmas day with turkey and trimmings, and a cigar. There were no facilities ashore, and nothing to do but walk along the beach and wish you could "get the hell out of there."

At 19 years of age, Murphy Burke witnessed the fight at Iwo Jima. He described the day as breaking grungy, with low visibility. When the sun came out around nine, the ugly island looked like it came straight from hell. The Marines went in, amidst shore bombardment, and Burke said he could smell sulfur. [Annotator's Note: There is a pensive pause.] The USS Yarnell (DD-541) was around Iwo Jima for a few weeks, enduring air raids every night. Burke had heard about the Kamikazes, but hadn't seen one before then. He said it was an eye-opener, because it only took one Kamikaze to sink a destroyer. Burke described the collision between the USS Ringgold (DD-500) and the USS Yarnell (DD-451) as happening a little before midnight, when was on the bridge. The admiral was calling the shots, and ordered the Ringgold to cross the Yarnell's path, but it didn't make it. The Yarnell lost 70 feet of its bow, seven sailors, and, Burke jokes, 150 cases of beer. The Ringgold suffered a little damage, but no casualties. Burke credits the watertight integrity of the Yarnell for keeping it afloat, while a tug towed it at three miles per hour to Ulithi, all the while being circled by an airplane watching out for any further trouble. At Ulithi the ship got a false bow, and it steamed back to the United States, stopping for a few days at Pearl Harbor. Burke remembers having cake and ice cream there, and receiving a "Dear Murphy" letter.

Murphy Burke had been gone for two years when he got his first leave in April 1945. While overseas he had stayed in touch, writing letters once a week, but the mail didn't get in or out on any regular basis. Still, he found slight changes in the life at home, including rationing. He was home when V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945] was proclaimed, and thought it would mean more people to help win the war in the Pacific. At the time, the Kamikaze attacks on the fleet off Okinawa were at their peak, and Burke thanked God he was not there. He was saddened at the news of the death of President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt], but knew the United States still had a war to fight. While the repairs to the USS Yarnell (DD-541) were ongoing, Burke got his signal gang together to make corrections in the signal books. Things had changed a lot over two years, and all the scratch-outs and add-ins had to be done manually. On 2 July 1945 the Yarnall headed back into the Pacific. Since it didn't seem like the war would last much longer, Burke wanted to go and get it over with. The next big invasion was going to be Japan, and Burke said he felt his chances of getting out alive were between nil and none. It was going to be the biggest, hardest operation ever; the Japanese would put men, women and children into the fight, and though they had few resources, they did have a will. Burke and his squadron were training for the invasion when the atomic bombs were dropped. He didn't know what an atomic bomb was, but thanked God neither the Japanese nor the Germans had one. Burke said he was all for it, or anything that would put a stop to the war, short of surrendering.

Murphy Burke had a lot of respect for the Japanese; he thought they were good soldiers, and did their job with the few resources they had. His ship [Annotator's Note: USS Yarnall (DD-541)] had just rejoined the task group when word came of the Japanese surrender. He knew he was taking part in something fantastic, and remarked that he hadn't realized the United States had as many airplanes as went over that day. Burk noted that because nobody trusted the Japanese, those planes were fully armed. But he felt the Allies had done their job, and pretty successfully. He went ashore on the third or fourth day and had chicken teriyaki and eagle beer. Burke said the Japanese didn't take a second look at them, and acted like they had always been there. Burke encountered prisoners when he went to Sagami Wan to help with the relief of the POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camp, and said there wasn't a dry eye that night. He said it was one of the saddest things he had ever witnessed. [Annotator's Note: Burke chokes up.] Burke described it as terrible, brutal and hard to explain. The sight made him angry. Burke said it was tough for the Americans to restrain themselves in the presence of the remaining Japanese guards. The USS Yarnall (DD-451) came home with its squadron, pennants flying, and Burke stayed in San Diego doing routine ship work until March 1946, when he was discharged from New Orleans as a Signalman 1st Class.

Murphy Burke made good, lasting friendships while in the Navy, and when he got out, he took advantage of the G.I. Bill. To supplement his income, in April 1950, he joined the Marine Reserves. Thirty days later, war broke out in Korea. As a Private First Class, Burke traveled through and trained in Japan on his way to Korea, and was amazed at how the country had been rebuilt through the auspices of the United States after the war. Burke participated in the Wonson Feint carried out on the northeastern seaboard of Korea in September or October 1950, operating an SCR300 radio for the 1st Marines Headquarters Battalion. He eventually became the commander's radio operator, and when he was not on the radio, he was a machine gunner. He saw his first combat right away, pursuing the Koreans, then fighting the Chinese. The weather was brutally cold, and Burke suffered frostbite during an operation, and in that way got to go home, serving his time out as a Corporal in the inactive reserves. His most memorable experience in Korea was leaving it.

Murphy Burke served in World War 2 because he thought it was the thing an American should do. He feels his experience in the war helped him to mature faster, and gave him experience with people of different backgrounds. Today his service is a source of pride, and sometimes the grounds for a free lunch. [Annotator's Note: Burke smiles wryly.] He thinks World War 2 means less to Americans today, and that there are many kids who don't know the war took place. Hence, he believes it very important that institutions like The National WWII Museum teach the lessons of the war.