Military Monday

  Military Monday posts are made to honor those in my family tree who have served in the United States military.

Emerson Lanier Burns

U.S. Army, Korea, POW

August 4, 1950 - August 21, 1953

  I chose Emerson for Military Monday today because I found the most interesting blog post about him and other POWs from Laurens County. 

"Emerson Burns left Adrian, Georgia at the age of eighteen, when he joined the Army in 1949. Burns was sent to Korea on August 4, 1950. While in Korea, Sgt. Burns worked as a radio operator and truck driver. In November 1950, Burns and his unit barely escaped capture when the Chinese Army overran his division. A member of HQ Company, 38th Regiment, 2nd Division, Burns was in Wanju in January of 1951 when he and seven hundred fifty other soldiers were taken prisoner. Burns and his unit had gotten through the roadblock at Kunure, where many of the 2nd Division troops had been killed. Burns' six by six truck had its gas tank shot out. The men were forced to march for three months. On the seven hundred mile march the men were given twelve total days of rest. One in five of the men would live to see the end of the war. Burns and the others were taken to Camp Number 1 near Chonwon. When they first arrived, the prisoners were fed twice a day. Their diet mainly consisted of soy beans and millet. Later the meals were changed to dry fish and rotting eggs. They had to eat it. It was their only food.

Temperatures in the Korean winter often fellow to thirty degrees below zero. Burns recalled that the men were allowed to have a fire in a home-made furnace for about an hour a day. The men lived in mud huts with mud floors. Eventually Burns was stricken with beri-beri, a disease caused by vitamin deficiencies. When truce talks began in 1951, the prisoners were allowed to write letters home. In the long days in the mud huts, Burns dreamed of living in Dublin. He did not know that his parents, Mr. and Mrs. R.D. Burns, had already moved to Dublin. Burns wrote home several times, stating that he was doing as well as could be expected."

From: https://dublinlaurenscountygeorgia.blogspot.com/2013/07/korean-war-pows-will-never-be-forgotten.html

Go read the entire post.  It is very interesting!

Emerson was my 3rd cousin, 1x removed.  Our common ancestors are Francis Bryant Drake and Selina Henlee King Drake.