Leland Burns

Leland Burns' military service from 1975 to 1979 included a two year tour of Germany with temporary assignments to Italy, Turkey, and Spain. Most of his enlistment was serving as a jet fighter crew chief on an active nuclear alert air-base. He also spent a brief period with an Air Force drum and bugle corp. While overseas he realized that the liberated citizens of Europe were still very thankful to US soldiers for their freedom and he was occasionally approached and thanked by those citizens. This experience gave him a new perspective about his father’s military action during WWII. Dwayne T. Burns had served as a communications man with the 508th Parachute Regiment attached to the 82 Airborne and had jump with that division on D-Day the invasion of Normandy. Dwayne also fought in Holland during Operation Market Garden and in the Battle of the Bulge. After his military duty Leland Burns spent 10 years on the technical side of the music industry and then another five years as a college instructor. Currently he has 10 years of service as an engineer for Verizon Telecommunications. His hobbies include sports car racing, sailing and the breeding and showing of South American Parrots. He is published in Watchbird Magazine, Bird Talk Magazine, and has he has lectured before the America Federation of Aviculture. His first book, co-written with his father, is a journal of his father's memories as a WWII Paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne.