O BILLY CRAYTON
P BioBus Operator
1950
T he Universal Military
Training and Ser
vice Act passed in 1951,
led to the induction of
more than 1.5 million
men into the military
during the Korean
War. But Billy Cray
ton was not one of
those men.
“1 went in on my
own accord,” Crayton
said. “I volunteered be
cause 1 wanted to go.”
As a corporal in
the U.S. Army, Crayton
served in the Korean War
in 1953 by driving an am
bulance for the 1st Caval
ry, 15th Medical Battalion.
He transported wounded
soldiers from the front
lines of the conflict to aid
stations where they would
receive vital medical at
tention.
“It was scary. You had a
big red cross on each side,
each end and one on top,”
Crayton said. “They weren’t
supposed to shoot at the
ambulance, but that was
the biggest target they had,
believe me. I was glad to get
out of there.”
Despite the fear of driv
ing from the frontline and
back, Crayton knew this job
is what his country needed
him to do most. Tlie expe-
Top: Billy
Crayton takes
a break from
driving the
BioBus' West
Line Loop Nov. 2.
Bill Burpitt lectures during his “Strategic Management” class Nov. 1.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BILLY CRAYTON
Left: Sitting
atop the
ambulance he
would later
drive in Korea,
Crayton poses
in Okada,
Japan, in 1953
before being
sent to war.
rience changed his life and
armed him with skills to be
later used in civilian life.
“There was a whole lot
you could learn,” Crayton
said. “And a whole lot you
didn’t want to remember.”
Crayton has translated
those driving skills and is
now a BioBus driver for
Elon University.
G rowing up in a military
family, Bill Burpitt enlist
ed in the army in 1966 at the
age of 20.
With the rest of the 1st Avi
ation Brigade, Burpitt served
in the Mekong Delta region
during the Vietnam War from
1967-1968. His service taught
him to be more aware of the
fragility of peace.
“I became very cautious
about assumptions regarding the
stability of this cocoon of peace
we live in,” Burpitt said. “We can
lull ourselves into thinking, T’m
fine, I’m safe,’ without realizing
that chaos is just on the other
side of the wire.”
During the Tet Offensive of
1968, one of Burpitt’s friends
was killed in action. When
brought home, Burpitt visited
the parents of his fallen comrade
and continued to do so through
out the years. Only then did he
realize the constant pain gold
star families carry with them.
“Their tours of duty went on
for years and years. Parents who
have lost children in the service
have also served their country.
They paid a much more pain
ful price and for much longer,”
Burpitt said. “When I go home
I can drop my gear in the clos
et and forget about the war, but
the parents of those soldiers
that never came home — they
can never forget.”
Serving in the military later
allowed Burpitt to continue his
higher education. This even
tually led him to Elon Univer
sity where he now works as a
professor of management and
as the head of the Veterans
Day Committee.
XL:#:-.
1953
1967 1969
ROBERT BUCHHOLZ
Dii'L'cliii of I'liysit mI I’l.int
(1915-1990)
P ost Vietnam, Robert
Buchholz knew the military
needed men to fill the ranks.
After graduating college, he
joined the Civil Engineering
Corps in 1976 planning to
serve for only three years,
but he ended up staying in
the Nav)' until 2002.
Twenty-six years of ser
vice took Buchholz all over
the world and into the
center of the Lebanon Cri
sis. Buchholz’s time in Bei
rut came less than three
weeks after the deadly
1983 Beirut barracks bomb
ings, The attacks were caused
by two suicide bombers driv
ing garbage trucks laden with
explosives that killed 241 U.S.
Marines and 58 French Peace
keepers. Buchholz and the
Civil Engineering Corps were
ordered to handle the after-
math of this attack.
“It was something to see, —
the destruction that a garbage
truck could do," Buchholz said.
“Our unit was redeployed to
build up defenses and restore
power to that part of the area.”
After Lebanon, Buchholz
was sent to the Philippines to
oversee construction of Clark
Air Base, which was the United
States’ largest overseas air force
base at the time.
“I’ve worked in all sorts of
situations and it’s amazing what
people do when they step up
and do what has to be done. 1
enjoy working with people like
that,” Buchholz said.
At Physical Plant, Buchholz
says he is surrounded by simi-
FH3I0 CFURltSY OF niBERT BuinHOlZ
larly hard-working indmduals,
“The people that I worked
with in the Navy are the same
type of people that I work with
now in the Physical Plant,”
Buchholz said. “They work
hard. These guys pull together
and do what needs to be done,
and I love working with peo
ple like that.”
Left: Buchholz
(third from
left) poses in
Ciark Air Base
in Maniia,
Philippines,
with other
memhers
of the Navy
Construction
Office.
ALL PHOTOS BY OLIVER FISCHER | CONTRIBUTOR