The trip this week also brought back memories from a day during the Korean War, that Burks said could have been his last on this earth.

“We were well into the northern reaches of South Korea,” Burks said. “We were trying to reach the northern rim.”

From his position in the valley, Burks saw hundreds upon hundreds of enemy troops moving south down the ridge lines.

The attack soon began.

Burks and his driver left their vehicle and “dashed into a rice paddy on the west side of the evacuation route to the south.”

“Running toward the incoming rifle fire from the flank, I was attempting to reach the base of the ridge line high ground. Not many battles are won, or survived, in a valley,” he said. “Halfway to my objective, a concussion mortar round landed to my immediate right front. The blast cart-wheeled me into a hole created by an earlier mortar burst. I was upside down, deafened by the blast and held but a single thought.”

Burks and wife Rose Marie were expecting their first child. Burks wasn’t giving up. He regrouped and along the way “picked up a score of enlisted battlefield stragglers.”

Several different forces came to help and Burks and the others reached safety.

“It took a lot of teamwork on everybody’s part,” he said. “I wouldn’t be here today if it hadn’t been for that.”