When Andy returns home from Africa, he will have added to an already impressive resume in the public health field. He will also have earned the necessary tuition for graduate school to the college of his dreams, Emory University in Atlanta, a top-notch research school that is close to the headquarters of the CDC, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is there Andy hopes to land one day.
Andy Burns will be working with local health agency personnel in Niger, compiling vital statistics in the field that will help in the fight against infectious disease
David Kolb: Veterans Day a bittersweet one for father, son
Published: Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 7:09 AM
David Kolb | The Muskegon Chronicle By David Kolb | The Muskegon Chronicle
This Veterans Day will be a bittersweet one for U.S. Navy veteran Robert Burns and his tight-knit Glenside family. Burns' son Andy has gone abroad in the service of his country.
Andy will, however, be putting in his time in quite a different manner than his dad almost a half-century previously.
As an enlisted man who rose to the rank of petty officer second class in the "War Corps" of the U.S. military, the senior Burns worked below deck as a fire control officer aboard a Navy destroyer, helping to direct accurate and deadly gunfire onto the right targets.
Andy will be doing his bit for America not at sea but on land - and out of uniform.
Moreover, his mission will be peace, not war.
The tall, handsome 23-year-old Mona Shores graduate will be making his mark upon the world through the Peace Corps, which next year will be commemorating its 50th anniversary.
"It's exciting work," Andy told me a few weeks ago, sitting side by side with his dad at a local restaurant. "I'm really looking forward to it. "
Before him was a giant plate of omelet, bacon and toast. Understandably, Andy was stoking up as best he could in preparation for a long stay in Niger in northern central Africa. Niger is in the grip of a dire famine, and is one of the poorest nations in the world.
There, Andy will be working with local health agency personnel, compiling vital statistics in the field that will help in the fight against infectious disease.
The Peace Corps, an independent agency of the federal government, was established by an executive order of the late President John F. Kennedy in 1961 as a way to direct the energies of young Americans toward helping the neediest people in the world to better their lives through education, technology and improvements in agriculture and health services.
For both father and son, the incentives of service played a role in their decisions to give up part of their youth for their country.
Robert Burns, in 1963, was fresh out of high school in St. Joseph. The lure of a four-year active-duty stint, capped by financial tuition help from the GI Bill, convinced him to visit the local recruiter.
"I also wanted to get away from home and see the world," Burns recalls. Every morning before dawn on his way to his bakery job, he passed a little reserve destroyer escort based in St. Joseph harbor that wetted his imagination for a life on board ship.
The Navy took him to about half the world through two long Mediterranean cruises, shore leave in exotic ports and a potentially violent excursion into the Caribbean in 1965, where his ship, the USS DuPont, stood by for action.
There, elements of the U.S. Marines (whose "235th birthday" is today, Nov. 10) and later several airborne units were sent into the Dominican Republic to restore order. The sailors aboard the DuPont, including Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert Burns, received the American Expeditionary Medal for their efforts.
Andy graduated from Mona Shores 40 years later, in 2005, and went right into Michigan State University. He struggled early on finding a suitable major but then the field of social work beckoned, and with it Andy's particular focus on public health.
Armed with his degree in 2009, Andy understood that his future career path required time in the field and also, most importantly, a master's degree. So he embarked on the path that would ultimately lead him into the Peace Corps.
He joined AmeriCorps, a service organization authorized by the National and Community Service Trust Act, signed into law by former President Bill Clinton in 1993. This took Andy into the poorest neighborhoods of the city of Pittsburgh for a year of public health work and research, which contributed to the study of epidemiology, or patterns of illness.
"It gave me a taste of what public health services is like," Andy said.
In the meantime, the younger Burns had applied for a more rigorous assignment overseas with the Peace Corps. During his tenure in Pittsburgh, his application was approved and he was assigned to Niger, which is now his home for the next 27 months.
Late last month, after training and briefing in Philadelphia with fellow volunteers, Andy's plane took off for Africa.
His dad, his mom Beth, a probation agent for the state Department of Corrections, and his sister Emily, a student at MSU, wished him all the best as left the United States and Michigan for his service abroad.
"We're going to miss him very much. It's going to be a fair amount of deprivation, especially for someone who eats as much as he does! " father Robert joked. "It'll be hard work at times and the living conditions where he's going will not be the greatest."
When Robert Burns left the Navy in 1967, he earned his way into MSU with the help of the GI Bill and graduated as a full-fledged Spartan. In 1971, he joined The Muskegon Chronicle and there launched a distinguished 38-year-career that saw him earn praise and awards for his reporting and commentary. Even now, in retirement, the occasional "Robert Burns" byline still appears in The Chronicle when the editors need a trusted veteran to assist on deadline.
When Andy returns home from Africa, he will have added to an already impressive resume in the public health field. He will also have earned the necessary tuition for graduate school to the college of his dreams, Emory University in Atlanta, a top-notch research school that is close to the headquarters of the CDC, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is there Andy hopes to land one day.
Service to their country has made, and is making, the dreams of both father and son - one a Navy veteran, the other a future veteran of a different stripe - possible.
David Kolb is former editorial page editor of The Muskegon Chronicle. E-mail: [email protected]
