EVERGREEN — More than 80 years after he was killed during the Normandy invasion, a Columbus County sailor is finally coming home.
U.S. Navy Carpenter’s Mate 2nd Class William Robert Burns, a native of Evergreen, will be buried with full military honors in May after federal officials confirmed his remains through modern DNA analysis. Burns was 25 years old when he died aboard the USS Glennon (DD‑620) during the Allied push into France in June 1944.
Burns is believed to be the first Columbus County service member from the Normandy landings to be formally identified and returned home since World War II.
A Columbus County native who never made it home
Burns grew up in the Evergreen community and was the son of Fannie Jane Burris, who lived her entire life never knowing what happened to her child. Local records show Burns enlisted in the Navy as a young man and trained as a carpenter’s mate — a job that placed him deep inside the ship’s structure during combat operations.
Family members say he was known for his quiet personality, strong work ethic, and devotion to his mother. He shipped out in 1943 and was assigned to the USS Glennon as Allied forces prepared for the invasion of Nazi‑occupied France.
Killed during the fight for Utah Beach
The Glennon supported the landings at Utah Beach, escorting troops and providing fire support. On June 8, 1944, the destroyer struck a German mine and became stranded in shallow water. Burns was among the sailors who stayed aboard to help keep the ship operational and protect the landing zone.
Two days later, on June 10, a German artillery battery near Quinéville opened fire on the immobilized ship. Multiple shells tore into the Glennon, forcing the order to abandon ship. Burns and 24 other sailors were killed as the destroyer rolled and sank.
His remains were never recovered, and in 1949 the Navy declared him non‑recoverable.
A discovery decades later
In 1957, salvagers working the wreck site recovered human remains from inside the ship’s forward section. With no way to identify them at the time, the remains were buried as an Unknown at Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium.
In 2022, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) exhumed several unknown burials for modern testing. Using DNA, dental records, and anthropological analysis, scientists matched the remains to Burns. He was officially accounted for in 2025.
A long‑awaited homecoming
Burns will be buried in Chadbourn Memorial Cemetery in May. The service will be open to the public, and local veterans’ groups are expected to participate.
Columbus County officials say the return of Burns’ remains is a rare and meaningful moment for the region.
“This is one of our own,” one local veteran said. “He left Evergreen to fight for the world’s freedom, and now he’s finally coming home.”
USS Glennon’s legacy
The USS Glennon lost 25 sailors during the Normandy campaign. Burns is one of only three crew members whose remains have been positively identified in the decades since the war.
The ship’s wreckage still lies off the coast of France, where divers and historians continue to document the site.
A final return to the soil he left behind
For the Evergreen community — and for the family that waited generations for answers — Burns’ burial marks the end of a story that began on the beaches of Normandy and concludes in the quiet red clay of Columbus County.
Surrounded by the community, Burns will be laid to rest with full honors, on Saturday, May 9, at 11 a.m. at Chadbourn Memorial Cemetery.
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