BURAK, WALTER J.

Sergeant Walter J. Burak, son of Anthony Burak, of Crow’s Nest, has been killed in action [October 8, 1942] in the Pacific, the War Department notified his father yesterday.

A member of the U.S. Marine Corps for the past two years, he had been fighting with the Marines in Guadalcanal. While a corporal he was mentioned in newspaper dispatches from the Solomons telling of his heroic conduct under fire during action on September 16. It is presumed that on account of his efforts in this engagement that he was promoted to sergeant.

On that occasion the news dispatches said of him:

“Corporal Walter J. Burak crawled under heavy fire back along the ridge, stringing a telephone line which restored communication with the rear. Edson (Col. Merritt Edson, the commander) had a wireless transmitter but the Japanese could read everything he sent on it.”

Sergeant Burak, in addition to his father, is survived by a brother, Frank Burak, of South Greensburg, and a sister, Mrs. Leona Butz, of Crabtree.

He was 22-years-old and was graduated from the Greensburg High School in 1939. He was a member of the high school football and track teams.

No details of the fighting in which the Bovard young man lost his life have been received from the War Department but fighting has been almost continuous in the Solomons since the Marines first captured Guadalcanal and other islands there.