Windom Joseph Burton was born in Brittany, Louisiana in February 1921 . He had six brothers and two sisters. His father was a farmer who raised strawberries. There was not enough land to grow cane or cotton. His father went to work in a factory that manufactured storage tanks during the war. Burton went to school and graduated in 1940. He obtained a job in a mental institution. He had one day off every two weeks. He worked in the epileptic [Annotator's Note: epilepsy is a disorder in the brain that causes seizures] and tuberculosis [Annotator's Note: bacterial disease of the lungs] wards. There were occasional dances for the patients that they enjoyed. Jobs were few in his part of the country. Those hired during the war kept the work opportunities that the veterans might have gotten upon their discharge. Burton took advantage of the 52-20 that paid him 20 dollars a week for a year program [Annotator's Note: a government-funded program that paid unemployed veterans 20 dollars per week for 52 weeks]. Burton's mother was a housewife. She was deaf but could read her children's lips and talk with them. Burton was in Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Florida going to school when he heard of Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. All leaves [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] were cancelled. Rumors were rife of potential enemy invasion at that time.

Windom Joseph Burton went into Navy boot camp in Norfolk [Annotator's Note: Norfolk, Virginia] and was then sent for advance training at Jacksonville [Annotator's Note: Jacksonville, Florida]. Pearl Harbor was bombed [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] while he was in Jacksonville. He returned to Norfolk after Jacksonville. He worked in an A-and-R shop [Annotator's Note: unable to identify]. His next assignment was to be on an aircraft carrier, but he was sent to North Island near San Diego [Annotator's Note: San Diego, California] for a month before shipping off to Bremerton [Annotator's Note: Bremerton, Washington]. He was at Naval Air Station Sand Point [Annotator's Note: Naval Station Puget Sound on Sand Point in Seattle, Washington] in November [Annotator's Note: 1942] for five months. During that time, he was married to his fiancée. They had a fine honeymoon there. That was followed by duty aboard the Enterprise [Annotator's Note: USS Enterprise (CV-6)]. He joined the Navy to avoid the draft and being assigned to the Army where he could be killed. He did not realize that he would be put on a carrier. He refused submarine duty because of the confinement and risk of depth charges [Annotator's Note: also called a depth bomb; an anti-submarine explosive munition resembling a metal barrel or drum]. Burton had experience with CCC – Civilian Conservation Corps camps for six months before joining the Navy. Just like the Navy, he had a bed to sleep on at night. The CCC was established by Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] to help people with jobs. Most of his wages went home to help his folks with their living expenses. The Navy sent Burton to aviation and metalsmith school in Jacksonville. He learned to work on shot up aircraft and install plexiglass canopies and tailhooks. He worked on SBDs [Annotator's Note: Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers], fighters and torpedo aircraft. Torpedo planes were the most dangerous to fly because they had to come in slow and drop their fish. The Enterprise sent out 16 of them at the Battle of Midway [Annotator's Note: Battle of Midway, 4 to 7 June 1942, Midway Atoll] and they were all shot down. The torpedo had a little motor in it. When Enterprise was deployed, Burton was not allowed to tell his wife. After the CV-6 shakedown cruise [Annotator's Note: a cruise to evaluate the performance of a naval vessel and its crew], his wife had already left for home. It made Burton want to sit down and cry. He first saw the Enterprise at Bremerton. That was where carriers were repaired. He shipped out about a week later.

Windom Joseph Burton went to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, aboard the USS Enterprise (CV-6)]. Five carriers met outside Pearl Harbor. It was recognized that the Enterprise was back in the fight. The first action was the taking of Tarawa [Annotator's Note: Battle of Tarawa, 20 to 23 November 1943, Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands] then there were the Marshall Islands [Annotator's Note: Marshall Islands Campaign was two separate invasions of the Kwajalein and Eniwetok Atoll groups, 31 January to 22 February 1944] and the Caroline Islands [Annotator's Note: Operation Hailstone, Truk (Chuuk Lagoon), Micronesia and Caroline Islands, Micronesia, 17 to 18 February 1944]. The next amphibious invasion was against Saipan [Annotator's Note: Battle of Saipan, 15 June to 9 July 1944, Saipan, Mariana Islands]. That enabled the bombing of the Japanese home islands with the B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber]. The Enterprise next covered MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area]. Next for the Enterprise was Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan]. The kamikaze attacks [Annotator's Note: Japanese Special Attack Units, also called shimbu-tai, who flew suicide missions in aircraft] started there and followed at Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. Days were quiet on the carrier until the typhoons came or battle started. After a typhoon hit Japan, the Enterprise would follow up with a bombing raid. To Burton and many of his shipmates, the only good Jap was a dead Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese]. When shot up planes returned to the carrier, they were either pushed overboard or repaired. An invasion of Japan would have been difficult. Burton's brother had fought with the Army on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands] and Bougainville [Annotator's Note: Bougainville, Papua New Guinea]. He had been drafted before Burton joined the Navy. Although Burton saw the CV-6 pilots, they did not mingle but instead received a different treatment compared to him. The pilot's food and conditions were better. Tom Hamilton was the executive officer [Annotator's Note: US Navy Rear Admiral Thomas James Hamilton]. He put Burton down below loading groceries. Oxygen was so limited that he had to wear a breather and could only perform the work for 30 minutes. Hamilton went on to postwar sports fame. Burton worked on the hanger deck of the carrier. The ship used elevators to raise and lower the planes. A lieutenant on a 5-inch gun [Annotator's Note: five-inch, .38 caliber naval gun] told Burton that he shot down an attacking enemy plane on the 58th round he fired at him. Burton did not see it because he was on the hanger deck. Burton had to decide if a damaged airplane could be repaired. One plane hung off the side of the flight deck after landing. The pilot was retrieved, but he was white as a ghost. Burton did not want to be a pilot on a carrier. They flew into antiaircraft fire. When his ship fired tracers at night at incoming enemy aircraft, it was quite a show. Burton saw Butch O'Hare take off when he flew his final mission [Annotator's Note: US Navy Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry "Butch" O'Hare]. Burton's friend Paul Floyd [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] as on his last mission prior to returning home when he was lost in action. Burton was stirred from his sleep late at night to be told that his friend was missing. [Annotator's Note: Burton pauses recollecting the moment.] Burton never left the Enterprise except for leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii] where he had brief vacation in the mountains.

Windom Joseph Burton was aboard the Enterprise [Annotator's Note: USS Enterprise (CV-6)] when it was hit by enemy aircraft and had to be repaired at Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. The carrier had been hit five or six times prior to the kamikaze attack [Annotator's Note: Japanese Special Attack Units, also called shimbu-tai, who flew suicide missions in aircraft] on her after that repair. The repairs had to be performed in the United States. The crew was excited but skeptical about returning to Bremerton [Annotator's Note: Bremerton, Washington]. Bets were made that CV-6 would be repaired again at Pearl Harbor. Burton won some money when he bet the ship was bound for stateside. Kamikazes had been attacking other American ships prior to the strike on the Enterprise. The Enterprise had previously shot some of the attackers down. Burton witnessed the Franklin [Annotator's Note: USS Franklin (CV-13)] when it was struck by two suicide planes. The Enterprise was lucky. It had previously been converted at Pearl Harbor to a night operations carrier through the use of radar. During the day it was hit, its planes had not been fueled up for flight. He felt the ship rise when it was struck. The attacker went down three decks and blew the elevator 400 feet in the air. That precluded flight operations after that. The planes could not takeoff or land. A landing officer directed pilots on their landing approach to the carrier. Burton observed the operations. He saw Butch O'Hare when he took off [[Annotator's Note: US Navy Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry "Butch" O'Hare]. At the war's end, Burton was in Baton Rouge [Annotator's Note: Baton Rouge, Louisiana] when he heard the news and read the newspapers about the dropping of the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. He did not pay too much attention to the news but knew the war would soon be over. An attack on mainland Japan might have cost 300,000 to 400,000 invasion troops. One bombing raid on Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan] with its wooden houses killed 60,000 to 70,000 people. The atomic bombs killed that same amount in the two cities but had Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] not done that, Burton's brother and many other American boys would not have returned home. Burton left the Navy in September 1945. He wanted to return home. Some stayed in the service. He could have stayed in the Navy and been based at the Naval Air Station by the Lakefront in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. The military soon closed that base and relocated operations to another site.

After discharge, Windom Joseph Burton briefly used the G.I Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] to attend college but decided to go into business for himself in 1951. He retired after about 62 years with his business. His son now runs the business. Burton had two girls and a boy. He had a good life. His most memorable experience in the service was when he got married. What he remembers as the worse day was when the Franklin [Annotator's Note: USS Franklin (CV-13)] got hit and lost a lot of people. When he heard that a bogey [Annotator's Note: enemy aircraft] was 30 miles out, he paid attention. As the attacker closed, the 5-inch guns [Annotator's Note: five-inch, 38 caliber naval gun] opened up. Then it was the 20s [Annotator's Note: Oerlikon 20mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] and 40s [Annotator's Note: Bofors 40mm antiaircraft automatic cannon] that fired at the closing enemy planes. Crewman not at battle stations were told to get under the beds. That would not have done much good. Crew had to wear helmets and flash-proof clothes [Annotator's Note: fire retardant clothing]. The enemy bombs caused fires. Some men were burned to death. There was no break for the crewmen when they got to Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. The kamikaze [Annotator's Note: Japanese Special Attack Units, also called shimbu-tai, who flew suicide missions in aircraft] pilots were crazy people. The enemy started the whole thing. The war was terrible. Fighting two fronts, it was uncertain the United States would win the war. The Japanese made the mistake of attacking Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Otherwise, the US might not have gotten into the war. Prior to the attack, civilians were reluctant to join the war. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] in Germany along with Italy declared war on the United States. Winston Churchill [Annotator's Note: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill; Prime Minister, United Kingdom, 1940 to 1945] was proud. The British held on by themselves for quite a long time. War ended in May [Annotator's Note: May 1945] in Europe and three months later against Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. Burton joined the Navy because he did not want to get drafted. Burton has received public recognition for his service. His military service means nothing to him today. He has visited with another veteran of the Enterprise, Joe Vallory [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. The Enterprise [Annotator's Note: USS Enterprise (CV-6)] was used to carry veterans back from Europe after the war. Burton has read stories of the Enterprise and appreciates that it was the most decorated ship of the war. He has had encounters with a crewman from a jeep carrier [Annotator's Note: escort aircraft carriers (CVE)]. The jeep carriers could not keep up with larger carriers like the Enterprise, so they seldom convoyed together. Burton looks forward to another trip to The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana].

Windom Joseph Burton was an aviation metalsmith 1st class when he was discharged. He might have received a promotion to chief petty officer had he stayed in the Navy. He might have even been promoted as a highly respected warrant officer who had risen through the ranks. Young college educated pilots who were ensigns were jokingly termed 90-day wonders. Burton is satisfied with his life. He was not injured. He feels for the wounded. He never looked down on the veterans of the Vietnam War [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975]. It was not their fault that the troops did not win that war. Only someone not a true American would feel otherwise. People today thank military personnel and veterans for their service. If the American veterans had not won the war, Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and the Japanese would have split our country between them. One of Burton's fellow recruits at boot camp made the statement that he approved of Hitler and his fellow troops almost hung him. An officer stepped in and prevented the lynching.