This is a story about a missing hat, but forget about that for now.

When President Franklin Roosevelt went on the radio after the attack on Pearl Harbor and called America's men to defend her, 12-year-old Cecil Burner was listening to every word.

"I thought the president was talking to me. I really did. I was one of the men he needed," the 88-year-old Navy veteran laughed, sitting in his Pueblo West home.

At the time, Burner was a paperboy for The Pueblo Chieftain.

Good training for outrunning dogs but not much for fighting the Japanese.

"But it got me thinking about exactly when I could enlist," the man said, and meant it.

Cecil Burner waited until he was 15.

Then he begged his father to sign enlistment papers saying he was two years older. Clyde Burner had served in the Navy in World War I and didn't think young Cecil was ready to go off to war. But his two older brothers, Russell and Francis, already were in uniform and fighting by 1944.

"So he signed for me," Burner nodded.

If you look at the photos, Burner looked like the very young man he was. It's doubtful he fooled anyone, let alone a Navy recruiter. But many underage young men were joining up. That's the way it was in World War II.

And Burner still is youthful and clear-headed today. He's just seven decades older.

"Well, I promised my mother I wouldn't drink, or smoke, or hang around wild women," he said, ticking off those nasty vices on his fingers.

When a reporter suggested that just keeping any two of those promises would have been an accomplishment for a young sailor, Burner looked surprised and said he kept them all.

Oh.

The Navy made a submariner out of Burner. A radioman. And assigned him to the USS Segundo. He has a T-shirt emblazoned with the ship's name with 18 Japanese flags -- count 'em -- on the perimeter. That's for 18 Japanese ships torpedoed and sunk, including two warships.

Burner is proud of that. He needs to be. He's the only living survivor of the crew.

"Being in a sub never bothered me," he shrugged. "But it wasn't for everybody."

On the topic of not-for-everybody, he also spent five days on Iwo Jima during the savage battle for that island in February 1945. So many Marine radio operators were being killed on shore that Burner was "loaned" to the Marines for a harrowing week on the black-sand island.

That a 16-year-old boy would be sent into the horror of Iwo Jima might seem terrible today. But there were Marines just as young fighting for the island.

"One sergeant told me nearly every Marine in his platoon was underage," Burner said.

When the Japanese surrendered in September 1945, the Segundo sailed up to Tsintao, China. There is a wonderful photo of 17-year-old Burner guarding the gangplank, looking like a kid playing sailor with a .45-caliber pistol on his belt.

"One old boy on the pier said he'd always wanted to come aboard a submarine and wanted me to get out of the way," Burner laughed. "I took out my pistol, pulled back the slide, and told him to come ahead. He changed his mind."

After Burner was discharged from the Navy -- at the ripe age of 18 -- he eventually made his way home to Pueblo. His mother Julia was lucky. All three of her boys came home from war, although the oldest, Russell, had been seriously wounded in North Africa.

"He died young at 55," Burner said soberly. "The war did that."

Burner spent a career at the CF&I steel mill and then retired. He does things like build street rods today.

Now here's the part about the hat.

Burner had a Navy ball cap (courtesy of wife Lori) and he attached little pins to it, miniatures of his Navy medals. There is one pin, though, that can't be replaced.

It was a little Silver Star button that was his father's from World War I.

A few weeks ago, one of those dirt-blowing western winds snatched the cap off Burner's head while he was in his backyard and sent it flying across the prairie. He's looked for it on foot and even by car. He'd love to have it back.

But he also knows it could be in Garden City. But if you find it, call The Chieftain. There's a spry 88-year-old veteran who wants it back. How spry?

"You know, I've thought about writing President Trump and telling him that if he needs people to fight ISIS -- well, I'm still in pretty good shape," Burner said with some vigor.

But he'd probably have to lie about his age. Again.

proper@chieftain.com