Born: unknown
Died:
Campaigns Served: Namur, Saipan (wounded), Tinian, Iwo Jima (wounded)
Highest Rank Attained: Gunnery Sergeant
Decorations: Purple Heart with Gold Star
Elmo Burns, a pre-war regular Marine, was one of the original NCOs of Charlie Company. He served as the second in command of the First Rifle Platoon.
Burns served on Namur and Saipan, where he had a close call. BAR gunner Johana Parrish remembered:
They had a patrol going out with this platoon sergeant with the 1st Platoon. I was in the 3rd Platoon, he's picking a bunch of people to go on patrol and he chooses me. We always wondered why he didn't get his own BAR man out of his own platoon instead of coming to the 3rd Platoon to get me.... We went out on the patrol and we were standing there talking. He had his back to this side of the cliff over there, and out came a Nip and I gave him twenty rounds. So Elmo, he's always talking about that.
- Sergeant Major Joe Parrish, quoted in Gail Chatfield's "By Dammit, We're Marines!"
Burns was slightly wounded later in the campaign, as his company mopped up on July 12. He was not evacuated, and went on to make the landing on Tinian.
In the fall of 1944, Burns was promoted to gunnery sergeant. He was badly wounded on February 24, 1945, during the battle of Iwo Jima. Burns was transferred to Naval Hospital #10 on March 12, and did not return to combat.
Burns stayed with the Marines after the war, and retired as a sergeant major.