US PARAS Burnside, Don Nathaniel

[John Robertson]

• SURNAME

Burnside ​

• FORENAME

Don Nathaniel​

• UNIT

517 Parachute Infantry Regiment (HQ Company 2 Bn) ​

• RANK

Private First Class ​

• NUMBER

19153000 ​

• DATE OF DEATH

12th September 1944 ​

• AGE

20 ​

• GRAVESITE

Mount Pleasant City Cemetery, Mount Pleasant, Sanpete County, Utah Plot A_8_4_7 ​

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

from Sanpete County, Utah​

born 8.3.1924 Mount Pleasant, Sanpete County, Utah, USA​

father Nathaniel Mason Burnside (1894-1970)​

mother Fannie (nee Bills) Burnside (1899-1970)​

attended Wasatch Academy​

4 years high school​

graduated North Sanpete High School​

attended Brigham Young University​

civil occupation skilled occupations in manufacture of electrical machinery and accessories​

employed by Solar Aircraft Company, San Diego, California​

single without dependents upon enlistment​

30.06.1942 draft card Mount Pleasant, Utah​

24.10.1942 entered service Provo, Utah​

KIA South France ​

​

As told by fellow soldier Bill FRIEZE of the 517th HQ 2nd Bn, in the book, 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team By Turner Publishing:

"We were assembling in a wooded area near Col de Braus when concentrated German mortar barrage ensued. My assistant gunner, Don BURNSIDE, and 1 hit the ground into a natural depression and waited out the barrage. When it stopped, I got up and yelled to Don to do the same. There was no response from Don and as I knelt over him, I could see he had a terrible wound in the back of his head. One of those terrible tree bursts had gotten him and it was obvious to me me that for this 19 year-old, the war was over."