Burnis Leroy Bond (1919 - 1941)

Born 26 Jun 1919 in Wiggins, Stone, Mississippi, United States

Ancestors

Died 7 Dec 1941 at age 22 in Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

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Biography

Burnis Bond served in the United States Marine Corps in World War II
Service started: 1941
Unit(s): USS Arizona (BB-39)
Service ended: 7 Dec 1941 KIA

Burnis Bond was Killed in Action at Pearl Harbor aboard the USS Arizona during World War II.

Burnis Bond was awarded the Purple Heart.

Burnis Leroy Bond was born in 1919. He was the son of John Bond and Ellen Sinclair. He died in 1941 at Pearl Harbor, at his gun station on the [1] U.S.S. Arizona.

On December 7, 1941, Americans woke up to the news that our country had been attacked by a foreign power.

Japanese military aircraft had pulled off one of the most daring attacks in world history, striking the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor and six other military bases on the island of Oahu, Hawaii and heralding the country's entry into World War II.

Stone County would lose it's first son in that war when Burnis Leroy Bond suffered mortal injuries as he oversaw several fellow Marines who were manning a 5-inch gun used to defend against destroyer-launched torpedos.

The men were assigned to the USS Arizona.

A book by Dick Camp, "Battleship Arizona's Marines at War: Making the Ultimate Sacrifice" described Bond as, ". . . a typical gun captain. He was a squared-away, slow-talking Mississippian, with a drawl so pronounced that boys from north of the Mason-Dixon had trouble understanding him."

As officers and men scrambled around the deck of the Arizona, Bond was seen and described as, "burned nearly black."

His remains were repatriated from Nuuanu Oahu in 1947 and, on Oct. 24 of that year, a funeral service was conducted at First Baptist Church.

Bond was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Pearl Harbor endures as as a symbol of American resilience and resolve and this year's annual commemoration in Hawaii is meant to foster reflection, remembrance and understanding of the events of that day.

A family may elect to leave the body of an identified dead serviceman in a national cemetery in a foreign country or have the body returned home. The decision is irreversible. The American national cemeteries in other countries belong to the United States. The ground that the bodies are buried in is American soil. Many of the Pacific dead of WWII are buried in Hawaii which was a territory at the time and is now a state (since 1960). The battleship Arizona is a national cemetery. The men who died on the upper decks were buried in the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. Those that the families wished to reclaim were sent back on ships in 1947 and thereafter. The 429 men killed aboard the Battleship Oklahoma were buried in the National Cemetery of the Pacific with over 400 of them buried under unknown stones. They knew who was on the ship, they just did not know which name belonged to which body.

The articles abstracted below pertain to Burnis Leroy Bond.

Daily Herald, Monday, March 11, 1946

The Burnis L. Bond VFW Post 4814, Stone County, was chartered on February 18, 1946. Since Bond was the first man from Stone County to die in WWII, the post was named for him.

Daily Herald, Friday, October 10, 1947

The transport Honda Knot arrived in San Francisco from Honolulu carrying the bodies of 3,028 servicemen killed in the war—the first to fall and the first to come home. These were men killed in the bombing of Pearl Harbor and in later battles in the Pacific. Among them was “Burnis L. Bond, USMC, CPL2, next of kin Mrs. Ellen S. Bond, Wiggins.

The bodies were shipped by rail to Memphis where servicemen accompanied each body to its final destination.

Daily Herald, Tuesday, October 21, 1947

The body of Burnis L. Bond left Memphis under military escort yesterday.

[Please check the Stone County Enterprise for several days following October 21, 1947, and I expect you will find that the Burnis L. Bond VFW Post held military services for Burnis L. Bond when he was buried in the Woodlawn Park Cemetery in Wiggins.]

Daily Herald, Monday, August 2, 1948

Military services will be conducted for PFC Jack Daughdrill by the Burnis L. Bond VFW Post on this coming Thursday. Daughdrill was KIA in France November 8, 1944.

Daily Herald Monday, August 9, 1948

Burnis L. Bond VFW Post held services for Daughdrill last Thursday at church near Carnes.

Daily Herald, Saturday, August 21, 1948

Burnis L. Bond VFW Post will hold a military service on this coming Wednesday for PFC Hulbert Ray Parker killed in action on Luzon on May 7, 1945.

Daily Herald, Monday, November 29, 1948

Burnis L. Bond VFW Post will conduct a military service for PFC Johnny Miller KIA in North Italy on October 21, 1944.

Three Pearl Harbor Deaths from Mississippi

By Charles L. Sullivan

United States Marine Corps Corporal Burnis Leroy Bond of Wiggins was killed in the Japanese attack on the Battleship Arizona on December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands. Bond was identified and buried temporarily in the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. He was shipped home in October 1947. Seaman first class Cecil Roy Ruddock of Pass Christian also died in the bombing of the Arizona, and apparently is entombed in the Arizona which is a national cemetery. Both men were the first from their respective hometowns to die in the war, and each had a Veteran of Foreign War (VFW) Post named for him.

Bond is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Wiggins. Ruddock has a memorial marker in the Live Oak Cemetery in Pass Christian, but his body remains in Hawaii. His name appears on the Battleship Arizona list of missing. Oddly enough Burnis Bond’s name appears on the list of the missing of the Battleship Arizona, but he was killed when a Japanese bomb struck his gun turret on the upper deck. ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Stone County Enterprise

• "United States Census, 1920", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MNTF-DRP : 2 February 2021), Berssis Bond in entry for John L Bond, 1920.

• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9MS-Q49 : accessed 4 May 2022), Burnis Bond in household of John Bond, Beat 1, Stone, Mississippi, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 2, sheet 12B, line 81, family 267, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1161; FHL microfilm 2,340,896.

• "United States Census, 1940," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/K98Q-NTN : accessed 01 Jan 2013), Burnis L Bond, Councilmanic District 1, San Diego, San Diego Judicial Township, San Diego, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 62-11, sheet 31A, family , NARA digital publication T627, roll 447.

• "United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPC1-YM2K : 3 September 2021), Burnis Leroy Bond, ; citing Military Service, NARA microfilm publication 76193916 (St. Louis: National Archives and Records Administration, 1985), various roll numbers.

• Veterans Administration Master Index

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11143022/burnis-leroy-bond : accessed 04 May 2022), memorial page for CPL Burnis Leroy Bond (26 Jul 1919–7 Dec 1941), Find a Grave Memorial ID 11143022, citing USS Arizona Memorial, Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii, USA ; Maintained by Hazel and Elizabeth (contributor 46530237) .

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13279097/burnis-leroy-bond : accessed 04 May 2022), memorial page for CPL Burnis Leroy Bond (26 Jul 1919–7 Dec 1941), Find a Grave Memorial ID 13279097, citing Woodlawn Park Cemetery, Wiggins, Stone County, Mississippi, USA ; Maintained by RFTynes (contributor 47298797) .

• Pearl Harbor.org

• Honor States