Robert C. Burke
Lieutenant Colonel · Field Artillery · Class 62 (1943)
Lieutenant Colonel (then First Lieutenant) Robert Charles Burke FA 62-1943 was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for actions on 4 October 1944 while serving with the 118th Field Artillery Battalion, 30th Infantry Division, in Germany. Voluntarily and in the face of seemingly certain death, he left his position and moved over a route which was being subjected to extremely heavy enemy fire, including direct fire from a German tank. Arriving at the observation post at which his fellow observer had been wounded, he discovered that it was now occupied by the enemy. Moving into the vicinity of the first company he had supported, he selected an observation post on the third floor of a building from which he directed effective artillery fires which turned the hostile attack into a decisive defeat. An estimated regiment of the foe was defeated in its attack on a single infantry company. Lieutenant Burke was also awarded two Silver Star medals for his actions in World War II.