Sergeant Burns was a member of the 24th Signal Company, 24th Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy in South Korea on 20 July 1950, forced to march to North Korea on the "Tiger Death March", and died while a prisoner at Pyongyang, North Korea, on 31 August 1950.

Sergeant Burns was awarded the Prisoner of War Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation and the Republic of Korea War Service Medal.