Veteran from Boardman lost legs, not passion for life

By Alison Kemp

BOARDMAN — Dan Burlon always tells the story of the day he lost his legs.

This isn’t a hazy, just-remembers-the-general-gist-of-things day.

This is a vivid, he-remembers-what-people-said day.

It was March 22, 1945. He was near Mainz, Germany, serving with the 10th Armored Division of Patton’s Third Army. He was on a half-track, a lightly armored vehicle traveling behind a tank.

Suddenly, Burlon said, the tank in front of him “took a hit.”

He could see the three men who did it, so he fired his .50-caliber machine gun at them.

The first man went down with a shot in the chest; the second with shots in the neck and back; and the third with a shot to the chest.

Burlon called to three fellow soldiers with him in the back of the half-track, telling them they should get off the vehicle.

“I put one foot on the edge of that [the back of the half-track] to jump off. Instead of jumping, I went straight up in the air” as the half-track exploded, Burlon said.

Burlon, who turns 90 on Thursday, tells this story from a chair in his Boardman living room, quite content and ready to have a new listener.

His daughter, Patti Harmon, said her father loves to talk about the day that won him a Purple Heart, and will tell anyone who will listen about his time in World War II. Her father’s doctors said the best therapy for him is to talk about the battle he was in and how he lost his legs.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com