Burton Huntley was born in Waterloo, Iowa on January 5, 1911. He served as CSk (Chief Storekeeper) in the U.S. Navy on the Bismarck Sea.
Excerpted from Downers Grove Reporter Thursday, April 19, 1945:
Burton Huntley was a member of the crew of the Bismarck Sea, one of the navy’s smaller airplane carriers. It was sunk off of Iwo Jima by a Japanese torpedo plane while the vessel and its personnel was supporting the invasion of that island by the marines. He is supposed to have been below decks and trapped in a part of the ship which was damaged by the explosion. Huntley graduated from Downers Grove Community High School in the class of 1932. Before entering the service he was employed by the Diamond T. Motor Car Co., of Chicago, although many people remember him as a high school boy and just afterward he delivered groceries and meats for the Klein Grocery Market. He was that tall, fair-haired youth with the pleasant smile, always agreeable, always eager to please.
George W. Goodlow reflections in Jan. 2010:
Burton C. Huntley was my mother’s (Alice D. Hogrewe) first husband. They lived in Downers Grove, IL from 1941 to 1945. I learned about him after discovering the Purple Heart he was awarded following his death, February 21, 1945, aboard the USS Bismarck Sea during the battle of Iwo Jima. Lost at sea
My mother never shared much information about him; but my uncle, George H. Hogrewe, was a Radioman, 1st Class, on the USS Detroit during the Iwo Jima invasion. He knew “Burt” was on the Bismarck Sea and relayed a coded message home following the sinking of the Bismarck Sea by 2 kamikaze planes crashing onto her deck.
Burt & my mother had no children; but after marrying my father, she raised my brother and I and lived in the same house until she died in 2001.
His name is engraved on the plaque at Memorial Park in Downers Grove honoring local servicemen who never returned home from World War II.
