Gary Burbach was 19 when he was drafted and decided to serve in the Navy. The Waterloo man began his service on what was called a “Kiddie Cruise,” with two years of active service that he began in 1968 followed by four years of inactive duty.
Prior to reporting for duty, Burbach had been working for his father at the feed mill then began hauling milk. His time in the Navy took him away from that and showed him his future.
After being stationed in Whidbey Island in Washington, he spent six months training on fire fighting before going to Alameda, California.
There he served on a carrier, with Squadron VAQ 135 C3, a larger plane used for refueling jets in the air, mainly fighter jets in Vietnam.
“That’s what we did – that’s what my squadron did,” he said. “Jets would refuel from our jet in the air and then they could go back into Vietnam and fight some more and drop some more bombs or whatever they had to do.”
He recalled some jets being shot up, leaking fuel, and having to refuel into another tank.
While he served in Vietnam, he never saw the country.
“I had a chance to go into ‘Nam one night because they needed a maintenance guy to work on a plane,” he said, but added the opportunity didn’t materialize.
Aboard the USS Coral Sea (CV-43), Burbach and his fellow Navy men traveled to ports at Hong Kong, Nagasaki and the Philippines, he said, getting a chance to visit the memorial erected at the site the atomic bomb was dropped.
Asked what it was like to live aboard a carrier, Burbach, who was 6 foot, 4 inches tall, said, “You had to duck a lot.”
Burbach was accustomed to hard work. He began working as a kid, delivering papers. He said appreciated that the Navy got him away from his father and allowed him to travel.
“It was a lesson,” he said. “You don’t see this stuff at home.”
It also allowed him to meet a woman who would become his wife.
He recalled being at the base in Alameda, talking to some people behind him at the bar, and when he turned to take a drink, four women were sitting close by.
“I turned around and got my beer, and she says, ‘Boy, you sure are stuck up,’” or something like that.
“And I says, Well, you’re better looking than the guy I was talking to,” Burbach recounted.
That exchange marked the beginning of their courtship.
On their first date, July 4, they attended an outdoor movie, and while in the car, they kissed. When they sat up, the fireworks show had begun. Pat became his wife, and the two were married 43 years before she died in 2013.
Burbach moved to California and worked four jobs, including one at the Army base loading trucks. He worked part-time jobs on Saturdays unloading trucks in the morning and Sundays at a full-service gas station, filling tanks, checking oil and cleaning windshields. Pat would bring him lunch.
Eventually, the couple would move to Waterloo, and Burbach began driving a truck before he took a job at Perry Printing in Waterloo. The couple had four children, two boys and two girls, and the military would be a common theme in their extended family. His brothers were in the service and so were his nieces and nephews.
Gary’s son Clint also joined the Marines, attended college, and served as an officer in Iraq and Iran, completing a career that spanned over 20 years, he said. His family members have served in all five branches of the military,
Altogether, five nephews and two grandchildren served. When his granddaughter wondered about her future, Burbach encouraged her to join, pointing out the many benefits, saying she should ask his son Clint about his experience.
“Uncle Sam pays for your school, and after you get out, he pays for any medical,” Burbach said, “You can’t get that from any job.”
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story stated that Gary Burbach was from Marshall. He is from Waterloo.
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