Allegiance United States Role Author Name Romus Burgin | Rank Sergeant Years of service 1942 - 1945 | |
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Born August 13, 1922 (age 101)
Jewett, Texas, U.S.A. ( 1922-08-13 ) Battles/wars World War II
*Battle of Cape Gloucester
*Battle of Peleliu
*Battle of Okinawa Service/branch United States Marine Corps Unit 3rd Battalion 5th Marines, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division Similar People Eugene Sledge, Sidney Phillips, Andrew Haldane, Chuck Tatum, Martin McCann | ||
Romus Valton Burgin (born August 13, 1922) is a retired U.S. Marine and American author.
Burgin was born to Joseph Harmon Burgin and Beulah May (née Perry) Burgin in Jewett, Texas. During World War II he joined the United States Marine Corps on November 13, 1942 and was assigned to the 9th Replacement Battalion. He soon became a mortarman in K-Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division (K-3-5), and fought in the Pacific War at Cape Gloucester, then alongside his friend, Eugene Sledge, on Peleliu, and Okinawa. Burgin was promoted to the rank of sergeant upon reaching Okinawa.
Burgin is the author of the memoir Islands of the Damned (with William Marvel). He was awarded a Bronze Star for his actions in the Battle of Okinawa on 2 May 1945, when he destroyed a Japanese Machine Gun emplacement that had his company pinned down. He also was going to be awarded a Silver Star by Captain Haldane (Ack-Ack) for taking out a pillbox on Peleliu, but Haldane was killed by sniper fire before he could submit it. Burgin was wounded on 20 May and received a Purple Heart. He returned to his company after spending 20 days in a field hospital and remained with them for the duration of the battle.
While in Melbourne he met and then later married an Australian girl named Florence Risely in Dallas on January 29, 1947. After the war he went to work for the United States Post Office. Burgin and his wife had four daughters. As of 2010 he lives in Lancaster, Texas.
Burgin's younger brother Joseph Delton ("Joe" or "J.D.") (March 24, 1926 – February 17, 1945) joined the United States Army, changing his year of birth from 1926 to 1925, and was sent to Europe, as a member of Company "C", 274th Infantry Regiment, 70th Infantry Division ("Trailblazers"). Joseph died in Alsace-Lorraine on February 17, 1945 when he was killed by artillery fire near the river Saar and the town of Forbach, as they moved east toward Saarbrücken on the other side of the river, as part of a push against the Siegfried Line. He is buried at the Sardis Cemetery next to his parents.
Romus is portrayed in the HBO miniseries The Pacific by Martin McCann. Burgin himself appears in documentary footage during the miniseries.