HomeMy WebLinkAboutGene Barber Radio Transcription #1City of College Station
Heritage Programs Oral History
Interviewee: Gene Barber
Interviewer: Tom Turbiville
Place: College Station, Texas
Project: Veterans of the Valley
Transcriber: Brooke Linsenbardt
00:00: Tom Turbiville (TT): Gene Barber has lived in Caldwell since the early fifties. Used to the sheriff in those parts. But before that, he served in World War II on the Corregidor.
It’s quite a story. A story that started when he was quite young. Too young according to his parents.
00:18: Gene Barber (GB): That’s true. I went to Dallas, Texas and sent the papers back home to mom and dad and asked ‘em if they wouldn’t sign ‘em and send ‘em up there. My dad thought
I was too young. Thought I oughta wait till I was 18, you know like the other guys. Well then they sent ‘em back and, my first troop train trip was from Dallas, Texas to San Diego.
TT: Yeah 17 years old on that troop train. He was a little bit wide-eyed. It was a long way from his hometown of Bremond.
00:44: GB: It really, really is and no one went in with me from my home town. That was the thing. I was by myself and only person that I really got acquainted with was Kill Roy. Every
place I went he done been there.
TT: Now because he did sign up, Gene Barber his choice, somewhat, of where he wanted to go. Did not want to go to Europe, the Battle of the Bulge was raging there. Instead he went to
the Pacific.
01:06: GB: That’s true. My, my best friend was a little bit older than I. And he joined, he, he was, waited till he was drafted. And then he was in the Battle of the Bulge and lost his
life there. Dan Scott (McCaw?)Jr was one of the best friends that I had in high school. Played football together and then, uh, you know to Europe. I went to the Navy. I chose the Navy
because I thought I’d learn something in the Navy. And I did.
TT: Gene Barber had served some eight years in the Air Force reserve. But he learned his trade, a machinist, in the Navy.
01:37: GB: Well in November of 1942, the war had been goin’ on since December ’41. And I was lucky in boot camp. The four camps in San Diego are right together. There’s (Camp Dakeito,
and Camp Loose, and Camp Mayhan, and Camp Ferr-, Camp Ferret?). And, you go to (Dakeito?) for the, for the boot camp. And when you get out of boot camp then if you get a school, you
may stay in the same area. And I was lucky, I got in group three school in San Diego, California. And they taught me how to use a, a hammer and a, a hack saw and a file.
And hand tools. And they also gave us some time on the (lay machine shafer?). And I applied myself. I, I finally decided that maybe I needed to, you know, bear down and do things like
you oughta do. And, they gave me a (fireman?) first rate, out of the group three schools. And assigned me, my first assignment at new construction out of Astoria, Oregon. And that’s
where we picked up the Corregidor.
TT: The Corregidor, also called a baby flat top. Could hold 18 bombers and 18 fighters. The reason why I, I give ‘em credit for teaching me discipline. When I first went aboard the,
the, the carrier. I was a member of the original crew. Which they, they call you plank-owner. P-, plank-owner and the flat deck of the ship that you’re assigned to. Well I am a plank-owner
in the U.S.S. Corregidor. I, picked up the ship. They brought it down from Vancouver. Down, down the river to Astoria. And I, and seaside. Two little places there on, in Oregon. And
we, came aboard the first day and you always muster on the flight day. Well I muster on the flight deck in my blues and I went down to the engine room in my blues. And an old chief
that was there was sittin’ on a neck of, valves. And he called me over because he saw I was different from the others and I had my blues on. And he gave me my first assignment.
TT: Yeah Gene Barber calls him a tough old (bird?). You’ll find out about that first assignment and more of the service of Gene Barber from Caldwell. I’m Tom Turbiville, this is Bravo
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