BURT, Richard M. (Pirate)

The Payson Roundup, Payson, Arizona, Tuesday, April 01, 2014 Richard “Pirate” M. Burt May 30, 1944 - March 18, 2014 SFC Richard M. (Pirate) Burt passed away on March 18, 2014 at the Banner Desert Hospital in Mesa at the age of 69. He was born in San Angelo, Texas May 30, 1944. In the late ’70s, Richard lost his wife and two little boys in a car accident on Christmas Eve, which devastated him. He has no known living relatives, but hundreds of good friends who always enjoyed his character, pranks and great sense of humor. He loved to make people laugh and to teach them. He was a very giving man who would give you the shirt off his back or his last dollar. He cared not for money; friendship was the most important value to him, friendship, was everything to him. Richard enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1962 and rose to the rank of Field First Sergeant. He served in all of the Vietnam War from beginning to end and was awarded numerous decorations, medals, badges and campaign ribbons including but not limited to: the Distinguished Service Cross and Service Medal, Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal, Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm, Vietnam Service Medal, various awards too numerous to mention. Two years ago he received a letter from the Department of Defense notifying him that he was a candidate for the Congressional Medal of Honor. Richard was a true American, an American Soldier. He believed that it was his duty to his country to love it; to support its Constitution; to obey its laws, to respect its flag; and to defend it against all enemies be they foreign or domestic. He fulfilled that belief throughout his entire life. After his medical and honorable discharge from the U.S. Army in 1984, Richard remained in Alaska where he purchased a fishing vessel, the Heather Susanne, mustered a crew and fished the waters off the Alaskan coast for crab and shrimp. About 1994, Richard relocated to Payson where he met with the owner of the Houston Mesa General Store. They became best of friends and business partners in that small endeavor. There is so much more that could be written about this man, this Human Being, this brother, it would take up many a more page than this newspaper has to offer. To carry out his last wishes, to celebrate his life and not his death and to assure his burial at sea with full military honors we, his friends established the “Richard M. Burt Memorial Fund” at the National Bank of Arizona, Payson branch. The fund is established to cover the costs of his cremation, funeral and other expenses associated therewith. A local memorial service, where the VFW will provide an Honor Guard, will be held at the Veterans Memorial at Green Valley Park at 5 p.m., Saturday, April 5, 2014. All of his friends, and indeed all who knew him in any capacity whatsoever, will be most welcomed and encouraged to attend. As he requested, it will be a celebration of his life and not his death. For further information or to donate to the “Richard M. Burt Memorial Fund” please contact National Bank of Arizona (Payson branch) (928) 474-1696.