War Tunes

By Sandy Morris

When local hero, William Edwin Dyess, was tragically lost in a plane crash in 1943, arrangements were made for a military trumpet player to play “Taps” at the service.

Fast forward 77 years and the lone trumpet player, along with his fellow World War II Army Air Force Band members, is about to have a posthumous album released of their original recordings. 

Richard Burt was the lead trumpet player of the 746th Army Air Force band stationed in the Philippines during WWII. 

Before Burt volunteered to go to the Pacific, he began his Army life at March Field in Riverside, California, learning from nationally known big band musicians and Hollywood recording artists.

While in the Pacific, Burt and his band could often be heard playing shows on the front line with fighting going on directly behind them. 

The band also played for the military formation when the Angels of Bataan nurses received their medals in the Philippines after being POWs at Santo Tomas.

It was while Burt was stationed in southern California that he was asked to play “Taps” at the funeral of Edwin Dyess after Dyess crashed his plane into a vacant lot during training exercises to avoid civilian casualties. 

Later, before the war ended, members of this 20-piece orchestra recorded themselves playing 10 chart-topping big band songs of the time period. 

Burt was permitted to have the recordings and brought them home. As the years passed, Burt lost track of the recordings and thought they were lost for good.

In 2016, after both Burt and his wife had passed away, their grandson, Jason Burt, was cleaning out his grandparents’ attic and found the five missing records.

“The recordings had been kept in perfect condition and possessed roughly 33 minutes of music,” said Burt. 

Burt, who is an avid historian, felt the recordings belonged where the public could hear the 746th Band just as soldiers in the Philippines did in 1944.

When he approached representatives of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Burt was told the museum was interested, but didn’t produce music and didn’t want the final product to sound amateurish.

“The amateur thing really stuck with me,” Burt said. “But I thought they were right because these guys weren’t going to get the attention they deserved just by throwing their album on the shelves,” Burt added. 

At that point, Burt came up with “Operation Platinum” and began reaching out to music industry professionals to digitally remaster the recordings.

Burt’s goal was to have the remastered album ready to release by Veterans Day 2020, despite a delay due to COVID-19 concerns.

In addition to the songs, the newly released album will include a 30-minute narration that Richard Burt made in the 1980s. 

The former soldier details his experience on the front lines with stories of hearing gunfire on the other side of a ravine during a show and stage lights hanging from blown out palm trees. 

Grandson Jason Burt not only hopes to sell enough copies of the album to make a donation to the United Services Organization (USO) and the World War II Foundation, he also hopes to make the band famous. 

“How cool would it be if these guys had a platinum album and there’s a resurgence of a band that made this music 75 years ago?” he quizzed. 

Burt sums up the special project by saying that the album is a chance to honor his grandfather and bring attention to the band’s contribution to the war.

To purchase the album, go to https://746thfeaf.com/music. 

From that link, purchasers can buy the album directly, or there are also bubble links that will take them to iTunes and Amazon, where the album and individual tunes can also be purchased.