'BE ALL-IN' J E F F A N D C H A R N B U RTO N'S WO R D S TO T H E R I S I N G G E N E R AT I O N by Hank McIntire fo r va lo r m aga z i n e
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n November 2019, Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton completed seven years of service as adjutant general of the Utah National Guard and nearly 38 years in an Army uniform. Brigadier Gen. Michael J. Turley took the reins from Burton and assumed command of the 7,000 soldiers and airmen who serve the citizens of Utah and the nation. The timing of the change was Burton’s decision. He had spent much of his career training and preparing the next generation of soldiers and leaders to carry on after him. “I felt it was time for somebody else,” said Burton, “and I felt good about the bench we had built. We worked many years to build a culture we could be proud of and the quality of leaders you want your children to go to war with.” Burton recommended Turley and a few others to Utah Gov. Gary Herbert as possible candidates to replace him as adjutant general. Burton explained that each was interviewed by Herbert and Turley came out on top. “I watched over Mike as he came up through the ranks,” said Burton. “He was one of my operations officers when I commanded the 1457th Engineers in Iraq. He is someone who will take good care of our troops and their families, and that’s what mattered to me.” Over the years, Turley and dozens of others—including this writer—were on the receiving end of Burton’s mentoring as they received increasing responsibility in the Utah National Guard. “I always did the best I could to train people so that they could be the right kind of person in a difficult environment,” said Burton of his efforts to groom the leaders under his influence during his military career.
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va l o r : a s a l u t e t o u ta h ’ s v e t e r a n s a n d m i l i ta r y
'THAT’S THE KIND OF GUY YOU WANT TO BE' Burton is quick to recognize that he himself was also a product of others’ examples from his earliest years. “All give us pleasure— some by coming and some by going,” he mused. While he had many role models worth emulating, he also “had many who were the antithesis of mentoring.” As a boy, Jeff Burton stood, transfixed, as he watched the same gray-haired soldier in Army green march smartly past him, carrying the American flag in the Payson, Utah, parade each Fourth of July. He learned later that the perennial flag bearer was John Arthur Davis, a World War II veteran and prisoner of war. “He was so engaging with kids—and one of the nicest, kindest men I have ever known,” recalled Burton. “Most adults are too busy; he was not.” Davis was a survivor of the Bataan Death March, where Japanese captors forced American and Filipino prisoners to walk more than 70 miles over six days to the nearest POW camp. Captives were given only one meal of rice during the entire trek, and tens of thousands died from exposure and atrocities. “When I got older and learned more about him, I was blown away at what he had been through,” said Burton. “His wife told me he would wake up screaming many nights. You never saw that in his interactions. He had tremendous personal capacity.” “At a young age, I thought to myself—” Burton’s voice trailed off, as emotion took the place of words. “’That’s the kind of guy you want to be.’”
EARLY INFLUENCES AND EXPERIENCES Others in Burton’s early years also instilled in him a love of country and the obligation to give back. His father, Joseph Burton, august
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