WWII Veteran Leads Parade

At 95, Bella Vistan Don Burri can now reflect on the fact that he darn near didn’t get to celebrate any Independence Days, let alone this year’s.

A Marine Corps aviator during World War II, Burri was a spanking new fighter pilot flying one of the Marines’ hottest planes — a brand new FG1 Corsair made by Goodyear, noted for its gull-shaped wings and 16-foot-long nose — when he had to ditch his burning plane southwest of an airfield in Palatka, Fla.

By the time he jumped, he was at 300 feet. He pulled the cord on his parachute, made one turn and hit the ground. He later learned from a rescuer that he formed a crater three and a half feet long and 18 inches deep.

“It knocked me silly and then some,” Burri says.

Burri, who spent years recovering from his injuries, remembers a time when World War II veterans weren’t honored. He came to appreciate his time in the service when he made a trip on an Honor Flight in 2011 to Washington, D.C. The one-day trip involved touring the memorials in the area.

Upon landing back at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, “we got to the head of the escalator, and the entrance foyer (below) was packed with people waiting to welcome us home,” he says.

The crowd cleared a path for them, he says.

“I was absolutely pooped,” Burri recalls. “But we got walking down that path, and the kids were reaching out and thanking us for saving the United States of America for our kids. I cried.

“I’ll never forget that as long as I live.” Burri will be parade marshal for the Patriot Parade starting at 10 a.m. July 4 at the Sugar Creek Center in Bella Vista. Music starts at 9 a.m.

Don Burri