A Joint Project of the Sam Rayburn House Historic Site and the Fannin County Historical Commission

Celebrating America 250 with Spotlights of Fannin County Citizens Who Participated In or Witnessed Historical Events

Wilbur Dean Chambers was born on May 31, 1915, in Stamford, TX, to Lizzi Cumalia Hitchcock and Walter Chauncey Chambers. At the age of 20, in 1935, he joined the Army and became a radio operator. He was also active ham radio operator.

Three weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, in 1941, Dean volunteered to go with General Joseph W. Stilwell to Southeast Asia. On March 12, 1942 they were ordered to Burma where he was assigned to the aircraft’s radio. In Burma he received a homemade, two-tube transmitter and used it to establish communications with the Chinese government.

Japanese forces had begun invading Burma, now known as Myanmar, soon after the attack at Pearl Harbor. Japanese military groups managed to slowly take control of Burma away from the British, American and Chinese groups in 1942. To escape the Japanese, General Joseph W. Stilwell and 112 other people consisting of Stilwell’s army staff, British commandos, mechanics, nurses, civilians, a newspaper reporter, and a Chinese general and his personal bodyguards began walking 250 miles from central Burma to India. This event was later known as the Walkout.

Dean was in charge of the radio. It soon became clear that the 100-pound radio could not be carried, and so it was destroyed, but not before Dean had sent out critical enciphered messages.

The group walked from about May 6, 1942, to May 15, 1942, going over rivers, streams, and mountains to get to India.

Of the hundreds of thousands of people who tried to get out of the country, General Stilwell’s group was the only one which got out intact. Brigadier General Frank Dorn, who was among the Walkout group as Stilwell’s aide, told Chambers in a letter dated Nov. 11, 1971: “If you hadn’t
got those last radio messages through – and God knows how you did – there’d probably be no you, or me, or any of the others on that walkout.”

Dean described his experience with the Walkout during the early 1970s in a master’s thesis titled, “Walk a Little Faster: Escape from Burma with General Stilwell in 1942,” by Henrietta Thompson.

After the Walkout, Dean eventually entered Italy as a Battalion Sgt. Major with the 536th Field Artillery, 5th Army. He received a Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, and the Order of the Yun Hui from the Chinese government.

Living in Dallas, Dean kept up his interest in amateur radio, and while talking to a man in Bonham, he was invited to come to Bonham and meet the man’s niece. Dean married Mary Lena Foster on August 6, 1947, in Bonham.

Dean joined his wife’s father and brother and became a plumber at Anderson Plumbing Co. in Bonham, eventually owning the business. He was a member of the First United Methodist Church, an amateur radio club, and the North Texas Travel Trailer Club. Dean died at Northeast Medical Center on December 5, 2001. He is buried at Willow Wild Cemetery, Plot H239, 6 NW.

This information was obtained from an article in the Bonham Daily Favorite, August 27, 1995 by Jacqueline White, the Fannin Co., Texas GenWeb (txfannin.org) and other online sources. The Sam Rayburn House SHS presented this information at their 2025 Cemetery Walking Tour.

For a copy of the 2025 Cemetery Walking Tour guide or for other information, contact the Sam Rayburn House at (903) 583-5558 or email Margo.McCutcheon@thc.texas.gov.