Biography
Born in Binghamton, New York, Burnes joined the Marine Corps in 1904. Shortly before World War I, he was appointed machine gunner, and commissioned June 1917. He was sent to France, where his gallant service in battle was recognized by the Distinguished Service Cross. "In the attack on the Bois de Belleau June 12, 1918 he was badly wounded but completed disposition of his platoon under violent fire. The injuries which he sustained in the performance of this self-sacrificing duty later caused his death."
Read more about this topic: John Francis Burnes
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West [Cicily Isabel Fairfield] (1892–1983)
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
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“Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.”
—James Boswell (1740–95)