Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the 164th Infantry Regiment was mobilized and Burtell and more than 1,700 others in the regiment began service in the South Pacific.
Burtell fought at Guadalcanal, Bougainville and the Philippine Islands.
He was wounded in action and received the Purple Heart.
Douglas Burtell photo from World War II
This past Saturday, April 3, 2021, Burtell died at the Southwest Healthcare Long Term Center in Bowman, N.D., just shy of his 97th birthday.
Burtell is remembered as the last WWII veteran of the 164th Infantry Regiment who was still residing in North Dakota.
Vern Fetch, president of the 164th Infantry Association, said of Burtell: "He will be greatly missed by our few remaining members, most of whom joined the 164th later in WWII, or served during the Korean War.”
The 164th Infantry Regiment was highly decorated for its actions in World War II.
Douglas Burtell captured moments of daily life in artwork he created in between fighting battles in the South Pacific. Image courtesy of the 164th Infantry Association.
Unit honors included the Navy Presidential Unit Citation for the regiment's actions during the battle for Guadalcanal. When the regiment landed at Guadalcanal on Oct. 13, 1942, to reinforce the 1st Marine Division it was the first U.S. Army unit to offensively engage the enemy in any theater of World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor ten months before.
The 164th also earned four bronze "battle" stars on the Asiatic Pacific Campaign ribbon and its soldiers served more than 600 days in contact with the enemy.
Just before hostilities with Japan ceased, the regiment had been slated to spearhead the invasion of Japan as part of Operation Olympic.
Assigned to the intelligence and reconnaissance section of the 164th, Burtell was trained to interpret aerial photographs, draw maps based on reconnaissance patrols and analyze captured materials.
His drawings helped to show what daily life was like for soldiers during the war and North Dakota adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Al Dohrmann, recently announced that one of Burtell's sketches was used in the design of a coin Dohrmann hands out to soldiers as a form of recognition.
Burtell's artwork is also etched in stone on the 164th Infantry Regiment Memorial at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery in Mandan, where Burtell will be buried at 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 8.
The public is invited to the burial.
This original artwork by Douglas Burtell was used to create North Dakota adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Al Dohrmann's new recognition coin. Image courtesy the North Dakota National Guard.
Born in Casselton, N.D., Burtell attended elementary school and started high school there before joining the National Guard at age 16, something many young men did during the late Depression years.
North Dakota adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Al Dohrmann's new recognition coin, which uses an image created by Douglas Burtell, who captured in drawings what life was like for the 164th Infantry Regiment during World War II. Image courtesy North Dakota National Guard.
After the war, Burtell returned to North Dakota, where he obtained his GED from what is now North Dakota State University.
After that, he attended art school at the Minneapolis Art Institute, but after deciding art wasn't the job field for him Burtell made a switch to the lumber industry. Among other jobs, he worked for many years selling wholesale millwork for Dakota Sash and Door in Fargo.
He later sold campers in Fargo before moving to Bowman to be closer to family.
Douglas Burtell drew this sketch of morning formation outside the J.C. Penney store in Fargo in early 1941. Burtell would later say members of the 164th Infantry marched to the spot every morning because there was a flagpole at that location. Image courtesy of the 164th Infantry Association.
After returning from the war, Burtell wasn't one to talk much about what he had done and witnessed, but that wasn't uncommon among those who served, said Burtell's daughter, Barb Conley, of Bowman.
"He didn't talk much about it until his later years," Conley said.
"A lot of the guys were like that," she added. "They came home. They got jobs. Got married. And had families."
Conley said her father's pastimes included hunting, fishing, being with friends and creating art.
"His art was very important to him," she said, adding that examples of her father's work can be seen in a number of locations, including a highway rest stop on Highway 2 near Minot, N.D.
Conley said her father didn't fall ill until just before he died and she said she is grateful he was able to see many family members over Easter.
This sketch was drawn by Douglas Burtell during his service with the highly decorated 164th Infantry Regiment in the Pacific theater during World War II. Image courtesy the North Dakota National Guard.
"All the kids got to spend time with him, that was a great comfort to him," Conley said, adding that the recent holiday was something of a last hurrah for her father and she believes he understood that.
"Dad was ready to go," she said.
During the three years the 164th Infantry saw combat during World War II, about 2,000 replacement soldiers from every state in the country came and went from the unit.
A number of those veterans now reside in other states.
With Burtell's death, only one other original North Dakota National Guard member of the 164th Infantry — Charles Bell, formerly of Enderlin — is thought to still be alive.
It is believed he lives somewhere in California, though efforts to contact him or his family in recent years have not been successful, according to the 164th Infantry Association.
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