Daniel Burress: Proud to be a Marine

Daniel Burress still remembers the icy snow and the sting of the gusty wind. He was among hundreds of Marine recruits stuck high on a mountain in Southern California. Their two-week, cold weather war games were over but they weren’t going anywhere. Hazardous conditions delayed the trucks sent to ferry them back to base. Daniel’s outfit—Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines—had been in the snow longer than any unit. They had performed beyond expectations—real can-do guys. It was time to do it again. 

“Sir, to hell with waiting,” retired Marine Sgt. Burress, then a new Pfc., remembers hearing someone say. “Let’s march down this damn mountain.”

That’s what they did, despite the miserable weather, the forbidding height, and the treacherous terrain. Echo Company beat every truck down the mountain. The men felt strong and proud as they spotted, out in the distance, the commanders who had come to watch the final simulated battle. Suddenly, Echo Company stunned them all. The brass watched in surprise and listened in amazement as the cold, wet men burst loudly into song and marched resolutely in time to the Marines’ Hymn.

“From the Halls of Montezuma 

To the Shores of Tripoli;

We fight our country’s battles

In the air, on land, and sea;

First to fight for right and freedom

And to keep our honor clean;

We are proud to claim the title 

Of United States Marine.”

A Legendary Marine Corps Unit

Their courage and ingenuity impressed their superiors, including one officer who later became Commandant of the Marine Corps. After watching them, he assigned Echo Company to join the revival of the legendary U.S Marine Raiders from World War II. It was the opportunity that made Daniel Burress’ Marine career and changed his life forever. It’s what he was hoping for when he joined up in 1964.

“I was classified 1A and I didn’t have a job,” Daniel says. “I was wondering what am I going to do with my life? So I decided to make this the time when I get myself together, learn discipline and become a man.”

The Marine Raiders were elite light infantry and special operations units that carried out amphibious attacks, raids behind enemy lines and unconventional warfare against Japanese forces in World War II. Now the Marine Corps decided that new Raiders could help the war effort in Vietnam. Echo Company was one of the first rifle companies trained as Raiders.

Amphibious operations were new to these men, despite basic and advanced infantry training. They didn’t even have wet suits. The Marine Corps fixed that in short order, providing them with custom tailored wet suits. It took longer to master swimming, navigating rubber boats in heavy surf, and underwater operations, including rendezvous with submarines.

“I was Mr. Chicago. I hadn’t ever been in any swimming pools,” Daniel says. “But the Marines will take the fear out of you. Afraid of water? The Marines will take it out of you. Afraid of heights? The Marines will take it out of you. The Marines train like it’s going to be real tomorrow. We were ready for Vietnam.”

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The Marines will take the fear out of you.

Afraid of water? The Marines will take it out of you.

Afraid of heights? The Marines will take it out of you.

Sgt. Daniel Burress

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Echo Company used their new skills on their first day in Vietnam. They made an amphibious landing and secured the area around Qui Nhon in the Central Highlands so Army engineers could expand an airport runway. They were the assault wave in another major amphibious landing between Chu Lai and DaNang.

“After the landings we moved into the surrounding hills,” Daniel says. “We went on extensive combat patrols to free the areas of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese, and then we set up defense perimeters.”

Those patrols were dangerous. Shooting could erupt at any time from anywhere in the thick jungle. Shots could even come mistakenly from comrades, so Echo Company always built a safety system using sticks to mark off each Marine’s field of fire. 

“When you’re shooting and you hit a stick you didn’t go any further,” Daniel says. “You stopped because you could shoot your own man.”

Daniel lost buddies despite elaborate safety precautions and alerts. He still remembers them. There was Anderson. And Salinas. And his friend, Jose Chappell.

“He got killed one night,” says Daniel. “He had a flak jacket on, too. A direct hit with a bullet can penetrate there. He was shot several times. He had just made corporal that day.”

From the Vietnamese Bush to His Chicago ‘Hood

Daniel survived 13 months on the firing line in Vietnam. He was glad to make it out alive, but also felt survivor guilt.

“It’s bothering you. Why you?” Daniel asks. “Why did I make it and the other guys didn’t make it? And those guys, man, those guys were something else.”

Daniel’s confusion and uncertainty deepened when he returned home. The trip was dizzying. He flew in one day from Chu Lai to DaNang in Vietnam, to Okinawa, to El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Orange County, CA, to Los Angeles International Airport to Chicago.

“There was no de-briefing,” says Daniel. “Imagine that! From the bush in Vietnam to the hood in Chicago.”

Daniel tried to do what was expected of him, to pick up where he had left off, as if everything was back to normal. But things weren’t normal. He had seen and experienced and felt too much. He did not think people at home, who had not experienced “the cruelties and haunts of war” understood him.

“We were skillfully prepared for war,” says Daniel, “but not one iota of training on the difficult transitioning from the war jungle of Vietnam back to the civility of the United States of America. That was a huge void, full of uncertainty, guilt and doubt. It wasn’t right.”

There was additional stress for black veterans.

“I was fighting for someone else’s freedom,” he says, “and I felt I didn’t have my own. I don’t know who these people are. But at the same time, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gets killed while I’m gone.”

Semper Fi: A Way Of Life

One thing Daniel says has never wavered through the years is the loyalty of fellow Marines. He’s met many during his travels. Semper Fi (or Semper Fidelis for always faithful) is not just the Marine Corps’ official motto.

“If you can persuade them you’re a Marine they’ll do anything for you,” Daniel says. “If you need anything, well, they say, here’s my number. My wife can’t believe it.”

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“If you can persuade them you’re a Marine they’ll do anything for you.”

Daniel Burress

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A few years ago, Daniel realized just how much the Marine Corps ethos has become a part of who he is. One of his sons asked him what it means to be a man. Daniel thought long and hard before giving him a handwritten list of 16 aphorisms under the title of “Some of What It Takes to be a Man.”

“I was a man before I went to the Marines,” Daniel says. “But I needed a home. I needed more skills and tools to know how to function in society. How to be respectful, how to treat people. How to be an honorable person at all times.”

Daniel is a humble man. He says he doesn’t know why people think he deserves a thank you for his service, to say nothing of an Honor Flight Chicago Trip to Washington, D.C.  

“When the call came I cried,” he says. “My wife wondered what was I doing? I said I don’t want to go. She said you’re going. You’re going.”

That call has prompted more conversations with his wife, Hilda, about his experiences.

“I’m going though pictures,” Daniel says. “And I’m looking and thinking. Now I’m talking to her, telling her things I would never tell her before.”

But he still believes he’s the one who should be thankful.

“What I did I did for my own reasons,” he says. “I went because I was 1A, didn’t have a job, and I wanted things to be better when I got home.”

Something else comes to my mind as he says this. I think of that day long ago on a frigid, snow-covered mountain in California. I see Daniel and the men of Echo Company, strong and fast and proud, marching and singing:

“Our flag’s unfurled to every breeze

From dawn to setting sun;

We have fought in every clime and place

Where we could take a gun;

In the snow of far-off Northern lands

And in sunny tropic scenes;

You will find us always on the job

The United States Marines.”

The commander at the bottom of the mountain—the man who later became Commandant of the Marine Corps— knew a real Marine when he saw one. He chose Echo Company for a special assignment. Daniel and his comrades did not disappoint.

You did your duty, Daniel. You earned your Honor Flight Chicago trip to Washington.

You earned our thank you.