***Click here to download video. Click here for audio.***
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, delivered remarks on the Senate floor today honoring the life and service of Douglas Burtell, the last known World War II veteran residing in North Dakota from the 164th Infantry Regiment of the North Dakota National Guard who passed away on April 3.
“On behalf of all North Dakotans and a grateful nation, I offer my deepest condolences to Douglas Burtell’s family and friends, including his daughter and son-in-law Barb and Steve Conley, his two granddaughters and five great granddaughters,” said Senator Cramer. “God bless the memory of Douglas Burtell and the brave soldiers of World War II who were ‘always ready.’”
Burtell joined the National Guard in Fargo at the age of 16. In February 1942, two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, this Casselton native was among the 1,723 young men to mobilize in the 164th Infantry Regiment. Ten months later, the regiment sailed into history as the first U.S. Army unit to offensively engage the enemy in the Pacific when they landed at Guadalcanal on October 13, 1942. There they reinforced the 1st Marine Division, and spent more than 600 days in the combat zone until August 1945. The 164th Infantry Regiment’s motto in French, “Je Suis Pret,” translates to “I am ready,” and inspired today’s North Dakota National Guard motto of “Always Ready, Always There.”
Returning to North Dakota after the war, Mr. Burtell earned his high school GED, attended art school in Minneapolis and spent much of his life in lumber, millwork and camper sales in Fargo. He spent his last years living near his daughter in the western North Dakota city of Bowman.
