BETHEL — Natalie Philip, an eighth grader at Telstar Middle School, was the second place winner in the Memorial Day Essay Contest sponsored by Jackson-Silver American Legion Auxiliary Unit No. 68 in Greenwood.

Here is her essay:

The word Veteran has many different meanings but the one that is most used is: a former member of the armed forces. When thinking about that, the word brave pops into my mind. The definition of brave is being ready to face and endure pain or danger. One brave veteran I know is my grandfather, Byron Burns. 

When my grandfather was 21 years old, he got out of college and decided to enroll in the army in 1969. He enrolled because he didn’t want to be on the front line. Enrolling gave him some choice. He ended up joining the Army Medical Corps, where he served for one year in active duty and five  in the Army Reserve. His official job title was a Corpsman in the General Hospital Unit.

My grandfather and a line of many smart and devoted people worked behind the lines. The Mobile Army Surgical Hospital tended to really bad injuries on the war front. Their job was to patch them up and send them back to the war front or to the General Hospital for more care. He saw some really bad injuries that have stuck with him for over 50 years. 

After his service, he went to work for IBM in Cambridge, Massachusetts as an engineer. He had originally worked there before his military service as a part time co-op student. Looking back on this Burns said “I was very lucky that they wanted me to come back to them full time after my service. It was one of the biggest strokes of luck in my life and I am grateful.”

He now lives in West Harwich, Massachusetts. When asked about how he feels about the new generation joining the military service he said  “I would never discourage anyone from joining the military to defend our country. That is a choice that everyone should be able to make.”