Burton Thomson - 1st Lieutenant

Biography

Captain Burton C. "Stretch" Thomson '37. of Swea City, Iowa, played basketball two years for lowa State before earning his degree in veterinary medicine. He was stationed with the Army on Corregidor in the Phillipines when the Japanese caplured it in early 1942. Thomson soon became one of the lead caretakers for injured American soldiers.

When he stood up to an American sergeant whose sympathies had shifted to the enemy, the sergeant reported Thomson as uncooperative. On May 15, 1942 he was bound, taken to a remote area and shot to death. His remains were recovered in 1946 and he is buried in the Keokuk National Cemetery in Keokuk.