got married in September 1953, Burton — a young Air Force officer — learned he was being posted to Japan. At the time, a serviceman’s wife had to wait three years to join her husband there.
“Shortly before he was to leave, I had to have emergency surgery to have an ovary removed,” Norma wrote. “The doctors said that in about a year I would have to have the other ovary removed. That meant that we would never be able to have children as we would be separated for three years.” After Burton arrived in Japan, he was among five lieutenants randomly picked to go to Hawaii for two months to study tropical meteorology. When the commanding officer in Hawaii, a“He gave us an apartment in the bachelor officers’ quarters,” Norma wrote. “Since I was unauthorized to be there, I had to be sort of in hiding.”Meanwhile, Col. Duncan managed to get Burton assigned to the Philippines where spouses had to wait only four months to join their husbands.
Love this article. A famous name locally and in Baltimore - “Johns” Hopkins (not John Hopkins) worth a mention. “He was named for his great-grandmother, Margaret Johns” according to the website. JohnsHopkins HopkinsMedicine