Charles D Burks

Military

Shot down 22 April 1944 in B-17 #42-39807 'Nero' Prisoner of War (POW). Escaped in February 1945 along with two other pilots. It took them 37 days to get back to the American lines.



Charles Burks later became a US Marshal. He was one of the Deputy US Marshals who protected school girl Ruby Bridges, who desegregated William Frantz Public School in New Orleans on November 14, 1960. This act was immortalized in the Norman Rockwell painting, 'The Problem We All Live With': http://collections.nrm.org/search.do?id=520936&db=object&page=1&view=de…

Connections

See how this entry relates to other items in the archive by exploring the connections below.

Units served with

Official emblem of the 303rd Bomb Group approved 7 November 1942.

303rd Bomb Group

  • Unit Hierarchy: Group
  • Air Force: Eighth Air Force
  • Type Category: Bombardment

Aircraft

42-39807

  • Aircraft Type: B-17 Flying Fortress
  • Nicknames: Nero
  • Unit: 303rd Bomb Group 358th Bomb Squadron

Places

Stalag Luft III

  • Site type: Prisoner of war camp
  • Known as: Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany

Events

Event Location Date Description

Born

Logansport, Indiana, USA 19 January 1922

Enlisted

Indianapolis, Indiana , USA 13 December 1940 At Fort Benjamin Harrison

Other

Prisoner of War (POW)

Zagan, Poland 22 April 1944 Stalag Luft 3 Sagan-Silesia Bavaria (Moved to Nuremberg-Langwasser) 49-11

Died

19 June 2017 Aged 95

Buried

Logansport, Indiana, USA 23 June 2017 Ever Rest Memorial Park

Revisions

Date
Contributorjmoore43
Changes
Sources

Updated Born event and Added a Buried event per Find-a-grave Memorial ID 180580103.

Date
Contributorjmoore43
Changes
Sources

Added POW camp info to the POW event and a S/N from WW2 POW records at the National Archives (NARA).

Date
Contributorjmoore43
Changes
Sources

Updated POW event per info in the "Summary biography".
Added a "-" to the A/C serial number in the "Summary biography" to aid clarity & consistency.

Date
ContributorLucy May
Changes
Sources

Correspondence with Michael P Davenport of the US Marshals Service.

Date
ContributorAAM
Changes
Sources

Drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia / MACR 4273 / Paul Andrews, Project Bits and Pieces, 8th Air Force Roll of Honor database