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Fallen hero remembered as model of faith, service to others
By Andrew Junker, ajunker@catholicsun.org
November 6, 2008
It was never difficult to get Dustin Burnett to go to Mass as a child.
While some children might resist their Sunday obligation, Burnett would be the one hurrying everyone out the door.
He was an altar boy at his parish in California and showed an interest and fervor in his Catholic faith that was hard to miss.
“He had a very mature belief,” said Debbie Nuchols, his mother. “Most people that knew him were really impressed by how confident and mature he was in his faith.”
When Nuchols and Burnett moved to Bullhead City, he enrolled in the confirmation class at St. Margaret Mary Parish. He chose St. Michael the Archangel as his confirmation name, and was known to defend and debate the faith with his non-Catholic friends.
Burnett was killed June 20 when his armored vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan. He was two months shy of his 20th birthday.
“Moms always think their kids are great,” Nuchols said, “but Dustin was phenomenal.”
Deacon John DelQuadro taught the confirmation class Dustin attended. He said Dustin was consistently engaged in the class, and often pushed it to explore new directions.
“He always wanted to know more than the lesson and would engage his high school peers in different tangents,” Deacon DelQuadro said.
“I used to tell Dustin that this class was becoming an apologetics class, and he would laugh. His comment was, ‘I want to be able to defend my faith.’ And then he would just grin at me,” the deacon said.
Fr. Peter Dobrowski, pastor of St. Mary Margaret, saw Dustin’s interest in the faith shine through during Mass.
“There was no rowdiness from Dustin during any liturgy,” he said. “Mass was not an obligation for him.”
His faith also spilled into his actions.
“Dustin was so giving,” Nuchols said. “He would volunteer at bingo for all the old people. He had to make sandwiches and ice cream sandwiches and coffee for them.”
She said that it was his sense of service that drew him to enlist in the armed forces. Dustin was only 17 when he joined the Navy, so Nuchols had to sign a waiver for him.
“We discussed how he was going to see some horrible stuff over there, but he said he’d thought of that and he still wanted to go,” she said.
A servant’s heart
At boot camp, Nuchols said Burnett felt responsible for his comrades’ spiritual as well as physical well being.
Maybe that’s why he passed up a stint on a Naval ship and volunteered instead to be a combat medic for the Marines, Nuchols said. He was assigned to the First Marine Division Detachment based in Twentynine Palms, Calif.
“He wanted to go over there and save as many Marines as he could,” she said. “He had a servant’s heart.”
The Navy Hospitalman was sent to southern Afghanistan in early April. He rarely told his mother much about his assignment — he didn’t want to worry her. But Nuchols has since heard from his superiors that Burnett performed his duties exceptionally.
And through it all, Nuchols said, he managed to keep his faith in God.
“He just had a natural faith,” she said. “He had a natural faith to him, thank God. I’d probably have a tougher time with all of this if he hadn’t.”
Deacon DelQuadro gave the homily at Burnett’s funeral. In it he told the story about an assignment he gave as Burnett’s confirmation teacher that helped them understand the communion of saints.
Each student was supposed to imagine him or herself as a saint. They would design a prayer card for themselves complete with symbols and an explanation as to what each person did to become a saint.
Burnett imagined himself as a patron saint of the armed forces and imagined an intercessory prayer ending, “May you give us safe passage to the gates of heaven.”
“This was the cream of the crop,” Deacon DelQuadro said. “Dustin represented our best and brightest.”
Barbara Starbeck in Bullhead City contributed to this story.
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