Berton H. Burns

Controller of Maintenance, Pilot Tinian Island

Marshall Islands

509th Composite GroupManhattan Project VeteranMilitary VeteranPacific Nuclear TestsPostwar Nuclear Program

Col. Berton H. Burns’ distinguished career with the Air Force began in the China, Burma, Indian theater with the 40th Bomb Group. His work with the Manhattan Project started with an assignment with the 58th Bomb Wing on Tinian Island, and as a senior pilot with the 509th Composite Group. Following the war, Burns participated in Operation Crossroads, the name given to the first testing of nuclear weapons in history, before being named commander of the 813th Strategic Aerospace Division.

B-25 Crash Land China Bay

B-25 in China-Burma-India Theater

Burns at the 58th bomb wing Tinian

Burns gets an award from General Roger Ramey

The Burns Family in Australia

Burns' Military Medals

Burns During Operation Crossroads, 1946

Berton H. Burns

Pease Air Force Base Monument

Burns' wife, Phyllis Burns, in 1946

Citation for Bronze Star Medal for Berton Burns

Letter certifying completion of the Atomic Bombs Commander course at Sandia

Related Profiles

Martin G. Murray

Nagasaki Mission

Martin G. Murray served as a corporal in the 393rd Bombardment Squadron. He was regularly assigned to the Necessary Evil as a tail gunner, but flew in the Big Stink in the Nagasaki Mission.

T. H. Lackey

Oak Ridge, TN

T. H. Lackey worked for the Edenfield Electric Company.

Samuel R. Macaione

Los Alamos, NM

Samuel R. Macaione was a member of the Special Engineering Detachment at Los Alamos. He was known primarily not for his work, but for his membership in the thirteen-member swing band at Los Alamos, "The Keynotes.

Ercole E. Motta

Chicago, IL

Ercole E. Motta was a research assistant at the University of Chicago Met Lab. He studied ways to determine the boron content of uranium oxide.