Chad Miles Burns, Wounded, Saipan, 1944

At age 21, one of seven children, a single good looking young man, my 5th cousin, named Chad Miles Burns, enlisted.

The American war machine had new B-29 Superfortress bombers. A critical objective for American forces during World War II was to place the Japanese home islands within the flight range of these bombers. Chad Miles Burns, was named for his uncle Miles Miller (the Mormon War veteran who marched from Iowa to California and back to Utah), his grandfather, (the baby born in a wagon during the expulsion of the Mormons from Iowa after the mother made the decision to stay with family rather than husband.) Thus, his great grandmother was Harriet Miller, daughter of Josiah H. and Amanda Miller.

The Battle for Saipan began with a naval bombardment on June 13, 1944. 37 warships fired 180,000 shells at…