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Tulsa WWII Veteran Dale Luton Dies
October 23rd
When we began our Oklahoma World War II Stories project last summer we were prompted to act by Ken Burns’ documentary, The War, and the realization that veterans of the war years are dying at an alarming rate. So, our ambitious and worthwhile project began. We were ready to interview Oklahoma veterans and produce stories about their experiences. What we weren’t ready for was losing one of the veterans we profiled quite so soon.
Sad to say, Dale Luton, USMC, died early Monday morning in his hometown of Tulsa after a short illness. He was 83. We learned about Mr. Luton in July when his daughter, Linda Luton Jackson, contacted us about a photograph that Ken Burns was using in the promotion of his documentary. Linda saw the picture of a solitary soldier in the promotional materials and realized she had seen it before. More accurately, she had seen the bigger picture that showed five Americans: one dead on a stretcher and four carrying his body. The person in the front of picture was her father. The photograph was in her father’s scrapbook and also in a frame at her parents’ home. 
(above) Dale Luton, left-foreground, carrying a stretcher with a dead American at Saipan in 1944. Luton died on October 22, 2007.
We arranged to meet Linda’s father, and interviewed him on August 10, 2007 at his home in south Tulsa. Photojournalist Boots Kennedye and I spent most of the day with Mr. Luton and his wife, Betty. He told us about his experiences at Tarawa, Guadalcanal, and Saipan, where the now-famous picture was taken. We visited over lunch and found out that Dale Luton was quite the star in the retirement village where he lived; even more so after word got out about his new fame.
(above) OETA photojournalist Boots Kennedye photographs Dale Luton looking through his scrapbook on August 10, 2007.
Mr. Luton explained that he was likely the only ambulance driver depicted in the picture who survived the war. The others, he believed, were killed in a Japanese attack soon after the picture was taken in Saipan in 1944. Mr. Luton returned to Tulsa by the fall of 1944, got married and launched his career with the Tulsa Fire Department early in 1946. He spent 32 years at the TFD before retiring in 1978.
We let Ken Burns know about discovering Mr. Luton and word got back to us that Burns wanted to talk to Mr. Luton sometime. Last week that happened. With Mr. Luton’s health failing, time was of the essence and we let Ken Burns know. Just a few days ago, Ken Burns reached Dale Luton, by telephone, and they visited for a few minutes. Linda tells us they visited about Mr. Luton’s service and sacrifice, and Ken expressed his appreciation. We were honored to get to know Mr. Luton, as well, and grateful for the opportunity to tell his story. We will miss him.
Mr. Luton’s death is another reminder that the men and women of the “greatest generation” will not be with us much longer. We invite persons with a World War II story to tell to share it through this website, by phone, by mail or by e-mail. 
Dale Luton (June 13, 1924-October 22, 2007)
A memorial service for Dale Luton will be held on Thursday, October 25, at 1:00 p.m. at the 10th and Rockford Church of Christ in Tulsa.
Until next time, Dick Pryor
War in the Pacific
September 24th
“You couldn’t go anywhere without stepping over a dead man.” That’s how Dale Luton of Tulsa remembers the battle at Tarawa (above), which is featured prominently in Ken Burns’ documentary, “The War,” airing tonight on OETA.
Luton joined the Marines late in 1941. He had planned on enlisting in the Navy, but his mother did not want him to be on the ocean, so he became a Marine. Luton was one week away from completing his 7 weeks of training in San Diego when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Luton never got that seventh week of training. He did not know much about Pearl Harbor before the attack, but he knew war was coming. By the third week of January, 1942 he was on a luxury liner, headed for Pacific with the 1st Marine Brigade. He was 17 years old.
Luton drove trucks and hauled gasoline in Samoa, where he sustained burns when, because of a mislabeled can, he poured gasoline on the sand (instead of kerosene) and hot metal underneath ignited the gasoline, causing a flash fire. He returned to his unit after 21 days in the hospital, and wound up on the front line at Guadalcanal. The conditions there were awful.
“Well, there’s mosquitoes that could lift a mosquito net off of you, and when you woke up your entire arm was a welt, so I had malaria,” said Luton. “We were glad when the Army relieved us, because they had stacks of food and supplies. Before then we were eating Japanese rice, C-rations, and didn’t have much of anything.”
On the atoll of Tarawa, Luton saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war. “Tarawa was a 72-hour battle,” he said. “Where the airstrip was, there was high places on this atoll, and it was two miles long and 800 yards wide, at the widest place. It was a 72-hour battle, and when we got back on board ship there were 1,026 Marines killed and 3,000 wounded, and we had killed over 3,000 Japanese. It was over the equivalent of one square mile, and there was that many people killed. ”
Luton was an ambulance driver in Saipan, where he was captured in a photograph that is featured prominently in the promotion of ”The War.” Normally, Luton carried the living to the hospital, but in that picture from 1944, he is the Marine in the foreground, carrying a dead American soldier to the cemetery. 
Luton’s daughter, Linda Luton Jackson, saw ”The War” promo and told us about the picture that also resides in her father’s scrapbook and in a frame on a shelf in her parent’s apartment in Tulsa. We have now learned that Ken Burns hopes to meet with Mr. Luton, to discuss the circumstances surrounding that now well-known photograph.
Dale Luton married Betty Ritter after he returned home to Tulsa from the south Pacific. They celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary on September 23, 2007. 
(above) Betty and Dale Luton in 1944. (below) Betty and Dale Luton today.
Dale Luton’s story is the second of our Oklahoma World War II Stories, airing Monday, September 24th at 6:30 p.m. on the Oklahoma News Report.
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(Dale Luton was profiled on the Oklahoma News Report on September 24, 2007. To see the story, click on “Videos” on this website and go to “OETA’s Dick Pryor interviews Oklahoma WWII veterans.)