Private 1st Class James F. Burns 38370231 US Army 146th Engineer Combat Battalion was a participant in the D-Day invasion on Omaha Beach, Normandy, France on 6 June 1944. He was killed in action on D-Day.

The 146th Engineer Combat Battalion was attached to the 1171st Engineer Combat Group, V Corps in England prior to D-Day. They were tapped, along with the 299th Engineer Combat Battalion to provide personnel for the Special Engineer Task Force, formed in March-April 1944 to deal with the shoreline obstacle belt created by the German in early 1944. On OMAHA they formed joint Army-Navy demolition teams with twenty-one Naval Combat Demolition Units. Those teams suffered probably the heaviest casualties of any units on D-Day.