This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt Harry McCown (Mac)
to remember
Barber, Rex Theodore, Col USAF(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Culver, Oregon
Last Address Terrebonne, Oregon
Date of Passing Jul 26, 2001
Location of Interment Redmond Memorial Cemetery - Redmond, Oregon
Participated in Operation Vengeance, the mission to shoot down Admiral Yamamoto, and credited with his shoot down, however controversial... (See http://b-29s-over-korea.com/rexbarber/barber.html)
Barber was born and raised in Culver, Oregon. He was a student at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon for a period of time, before being drafted. [edit]Military service
Barber received his commission as a U.S. Army officer and his pilot's wings on October 31, 1941. He joined the 70th Pursuit Squadron, which arrived at Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, in December 1942. Flying a Bell P-39, he scored his first victory by downing a Japanese bomber on the 28th. Upon transfer to the 339th Squadron, he began flying P-38 Lightnings and claimed two Zero fighters on April 7.
On April 18, Lieutenant Barber figured prominently in the Yamamoto interception. Intelligence sources had learned that Yamamoto would be flying in a "Betty" bomber on an inspection tour of Japanese bases in the northern Solomon Islands. Most military historians credit Barber with the sole kill of Yamamoto's aircraft. Previously, Barber and Captain Thomas George Lanphier, Jr. were officially credited with half a kill each in Yamamoto's bomber. Barber also shared a second Betty destroyed on the same mission. In 2003, he was officially credited with the sole kill after an inspection analyzed the crash site and determined the path of the bullet impacts, thereby validating Barber's account and invalidating Lanphier's claim.
After his tour of duty ended in June 1943, then-Captain Barber requested a return to combat. Late that year, he joined the 449th Fighter Squadron in China, still flying P-38s. He claimed three further Japanese planes probably destroyed and damaged, but he was shot down on his 139th mission, bailing out near Kiukiang on April 29. He was rescued by Chinese civilians, who treated his injuries and escorted him to safety five weeks later. At the end of the war, Barber attained the rank of major and commanded one of America's first jet squadrons. He retired as a colonel in 1961.
Barber was awarded the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, a Purple Heart,an Air Medal and numerous other awards over his military career, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars Gold Medal of Merit.
Detailed histories, all copywritten, can be found in the Notes/Links section
Other Comments:
Notes/Links:
http://bluebook.state.or.us/notable/notbarber.htm http://b-29s-over-korea.com/rexbarber/barber.html http://home.att.net/~jbaugher1/p38_18.html http://www.madraspioneer.com/News.html#barber (info on assign) http://www.oregon.com/history/biography/rex_barber.cfm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_T._Barber http://www.syma.org/oct99.pdf (correction of records regarding shoot down) http://www.sprucegoose.org/aircraft_artifacts/Exhibits/Hall%20of%20Honor/col_rex_barber.html http://www.southernoregonwarbirds.us/fa0.html http://www.legionofvalor.com/citation_parse.php?uid=1060201966 http://www.crownpointchalet.com/pdf/admiral.isoroku.yamamoto.pdf http://ussslcca25.com/who-shot.htm http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMKQ9 http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/st/~doniloharmon/page18.html (Barber in China where he became squadron commander until he was injured from his bail out after being shot down in April 1944)
Description The Korean War; 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea. China came to the aid of North Korea, and the Soviet Union gave some assistance.
Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the closing days of World War II. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as a result of an agreement with the United States, and liberated Korea north of the 38th parallel. U.S. forces subsequently moved into the south. By 1948, as a product of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea was split into two regions, with separate governments. Both governments claimed to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither side accepted the border as permanent. The conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces—supported by the Soviet Union and China—moved into the south on 25 June 1950. On that day, the United Nations Security Council recognized this North Korean act as invasion and called for an immediate ceasefire. On 27 June, the Security Council adopted S/RES/83: Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea and decided the formation and dispatch of the UN Forces in Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force, with the United States providing 88% of the UN's military personnel.
After the first two months of the conflict, South Korean forces were on the point of defeat, forced back to the Pusan Perimeter. In September 1950, an amphibious UN counter-offensive was launched at Inchon, and cut off many of the North Korean troops. Those that escaped envelopment and capture were rapidly forced back north all the way to the border with China at the Yalu River, or into the mountainous interior. At this point, in October 1950, Chinese forces crossed the Yalu and entered the war. Chinese intervention triggered a retreat of UN forces which continued until mid-1951.
After these reversals of fortune, which saw Seoul change hands four times, the last two years of conflict became a war of attrition, with the front line close to the 38th parallel. The war in the air, however, was never a stalemate. North Korea was subject to a massive bombing campaign. Jet fighters confronted each other in air-to-air combat for the first time in history, and Soviet pilots covertly flew in defense of their communist allies.
The fighting ended on 27 July 1953, when an armistice was signed. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. However, no peace treaty has been signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war. Periodic clashes, many of which are deadly, have continued to the present.
