Recital presented at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Richard Burdrick. Burdrick joined the Navy in December 1942 through the V-12 program at UCLA. He was then assigned to midshipmen’s school at Columbia University. Upon completion, he was sent aboard the USS Dickens (APA-161), his battle station at a 40-millimeter gun. Burdrick and his crew set a record for embarking troops, capable of getting 26 boats into the water and ready to go ashore in just 22 minutes. At Iwo Jima, by the time he had returned to the ship after embarking the first wave of Marines, casualties were already returning to the Dickens. Particularly disheartening was the loss of a doctor from their beach party. Throughout his interview, Burdrick reads from his detailed and reflective diary, which includes his eyewitness account of the signing of the surrender. He returned home and was discharged in 1946, resuming his studies at UCLA.