Hearts Turned To: Thomas Burgess Slade a Bushmaster in World War II

Thomas Burgess Slade served his country during World War II. He gives an account in his personal history of this service and what it meant to him .


First Sergeant Thomas Burgess Slade

“On January 16, 1941 I was drafted into the Army. … I was 26 years old at the time. Uncle Sam drafted fifty of us from Navajo County that day and all fifty of us were accepted and sent to Fort Sill Oklahoma. …quite a few of us were ‘Latter day Saints’. I will never forget the heartaches and the laughs we had that first year. We were put into an infantry company. Company ‘L’ of the 158th regiment of the Arizona National Guard. This unit later on in the war became famous as the Arizona ‘Bushmasters’.

Arizona Bushmaster Unit Patch

I was drafted for one year prior to the war and although I didn’t like it I told myself I could stand most anything for one year, however, I only had three weeks to go when Pearl Harbor was attacked so I was held in for the duration of the war. … We were alerted the same day pearl Harbor was bombed and moved to the canal zone of the Panama Canal. I served at panama for one year. We were sent to Panama to guard the canal and we spent half of the time on the canal itself and the other half out in the jungle operations outposts and patrols to watch for any activity from foreign countries. … I was promoted to Staff Sergeant and for a while acted as First Sergeant while we were at Panama. After spending one year at panama we were again alerted and loaded on the ship ‘Hermitage’… Ten thousand army troops and four thousand Navy personal sailed on this ship, we were part of a convoy and for twenty seven days and nights we never saw land… We landed at Brisbane Australia. We stayed at Brisbane for five weeks while we were getting ready to go up to New Guinea where the action was taking place. After five weeks we left Brisbane on a liberty ship. We landed at Port Moresby on the west side of New Guinea and spent a few days going through some more rough training to get us in shape after our boat trip. We then again sailed around the south end to the east side into the action. My outfit was in a great deal of action on various islands and a great many dear friend were killed and wounded and sent home. During this time I was promoted to the rank of First Sergeant… My Regiment was sent on several missions on different islands yet all the time we were slowly moving in the direction of the Philippines. I spent three years oversees and with the exception of my Panama time and the five weeks in Australia I was in a combat zone and under combat conditions most of the time. I was never wounded although I was in a great deal of bombing and had men killed all around me. It would seem that I was protected at all times by someone who considered me worth saving. I came back to the states on rotation the last of 1944 and … I received an honorable discharge … in July 1945. A great deal could be said regarding the war but in order to forget some of the awful memory’s and tragic things that happened I will merely say, I did my duty to my country and I think I did a good job. I feel as though I was well protected at all times and I was surely glad to leave that kind of life behind.”

[i] Personal History of Thomas Burgess Slade (the early years 1914-1960)