 I'm joined by George Barr, a Marine Corps veteran who served during the Korean War era. So thanks for being here, George. I appreciate you coming in and your willingness to share your story. So you served in the Marine Corps. What made you choose the Marine Corps? Well, during the war, I grew up during the World War II, of course, and I saw all that was happening with the Marines in the Pacific and what they were up against. And it looked to me like one of the best fighting units from what I read and saw the pictures of what they accomplished. So when I was about, that was about 13 or 14, at that point I was trying to decide what branch of the military was going to serve it because I wanted to serve my country. And I wanted to get it, you know, obviously it didn't last until I was old enough. But I thought it wasn't the uniform either that attracted me, it was the spirit, the way they were depicted in the news and in the magazines that they got that encouraged me to decide to join the Marine Corps. So tell me a little bit about your basic training. Oh, that was fun. I had no idea what I was getting into. I joined in the summer of 1948, June. And I spent 12 or 13 weeks down a kind of sand, which was very hot down there, and of course we had to contend with all the sand fleas and the bugs. And in the training you weren't allowed to kill those animals. We were told directly, those insects have family, you can't do that. But I spent June till August in training. And after training they said, we don't have orders for you to go home. So they gave me a 10 day leave to go home and come back, which I wasn't too happy about. I didn't want to go back down there. But the training was tough. And some of the stories you hear are not exaggerated at all of what happens at the training down there at Parris Island. They give you a pretty good run for your money. But I felt good after getting all of you. So after your basic training, what was your MOS or your? 0311, which is infantrymen. Yep. And as you probably, I don't know if you've ever heard of this or not, but all Marines are trained to be riflemen, basically. That's one of the big factors that I think helps in the Marine Corps. We go through two weeks of rifle training. One week without firing a bullet, and the second week is when you do your firing qualifier. So I don't know if they still do now, but the Army, I think, was seven or eight weeks out of the shooting. Seven days, not when they train for the rifle. Again, I don't know if they've changed that enough, but that's one of the factors that the Marines really focus on is using the rifle and being accurate. Also did your, I know you served as a military police. Most of my career was security or MPs. My first duty station was, they sent me to what they call C-School to get trained to be part of a detachment on a large Navy ship, a carrier or a battleship, and that was a month of training down at Horseman Naval Shipyard in Virginia. After that they assigned me to a carrier that was permanently docked at Coinsett Point Rhode Island. The carrier was a Philippine Sea, CV-47, and that duty on the ship was security also. We manned the brig, we were executive on the ship, or captains orderly, and we also had a battle station. So the first battle station I had was one of the 40 millimeter weapons. And I spent almost two years on the side of the permanent detachment on the ship, which I enjoyed. That was probably one of the best parts of my duties in the Marine Corps the four years I was serving. So what made it special for you? Well, I liked being, one of the things before I signed up for the Marine Corps, I said I'd like to be on a ship, and what, and travel, as it turned out, I got assigned to a, but they didn't want to join the Navy. I won't hold it against you. Not that I had any guests on there, because my brother was a Navy Corpsman. But, and I got both choices that I was looking for, not that they gave me those choices. It just happened that way. So, plus I liked doing honor guides, which we did that whenever we had people on the dignitaries coming on to the ship, we'd have to fall out for honor guide inspection by the world. Okay. And I'll tell you a little story about when we were in, the ship operated in the Mediterranean, but we went over there for about four months, and we pulled into France and who comes aboard, or gets invited on a ship by a captain, was Rita Hayward. So, everybody wanted to have the Hiduli that night. But she came aboard with a full length, a big fur coat on, and it was beautiful as ever. And of course, the captain rushed her off to his quarters up over the hangar deck, so we never got to see much more of her. I enjoyed the travel, but that was one of the things I was looking for. Okay. Very good. I didn't want to be in one place for any length of time if I could help it. Sure. So, you know, you always thought about serving your country. I did. And you wanted to serve your country. It was in my mind, you know, throughout World War II. What really prompted that feeling in you? Well, I felt it was part of my duty, you know, for what we have to offer here in this country and the freedom we have. And I said, I want to do something for the war effort. And I guess the only thing to do is join one of the branches of the military. So that was my goal during World War II, to serve my country and pay back for all the good things we have here in this country. Sure. So how about your family? You know, you mentioned your brother. Any other family members that served in the military? Yes. My younger brother, he served in the Army. He was about six years younger than me. So growing up, I never really got to know him because when I came out of the Marine Corps, he had just signed up for the Army. So he was going through it. So it was about an eight-year period there that we had very, very little contact with. Okay. But, yes, he's the only, I had just two brothers and a sister. Okay. And they both served in the military, my boys, my brothers. Okay. But that was the toughest part, I think. We were faced with sandstorms and a lot of the... And I think this is a picture of you serving at China Lake. That's me at China Lake, at the main gate, yeah. You're a very sharp-looking guy. There's a booth there that I'm in front of. And I stood many main gate duty on there. But also keeping the sailors in line was not easy. They can be a tough crowd. But it's funny because a few years ago, I went back out to California to visit the base. They were going to dedicate a drill instructor's statue at San Diego. Okay. And a buddy of mine in the Marine Corps, he designed it and had it all set up to be installed. So I went out for the installation. I said, I'll go and check my old base out at China Lake, see what it looks like today. And believe it or not, they had security police at that point. So no military people doing security on the base was all military. I mean all private. So the guy at the main gate, I went over to him and I said, do you mind if I check out the God booth? And that God booth hadn't changed a bit. From 1950 to, I think it was like 2008 or something like that. I said, it's just exactly the same as when I was an MP here on the gate. So you fit right in. I said, nothing's changed except that now the security is on them. They had, we had a, that base was, I don't know if you realized it or anybody realized it, but I never heard of it. The second atomic bomb, Fat Boy, Fat Man, was built, part of it was built on that base at China Lake. Everybody thinks of New Mexico is where the bombs were all built, but I didn't find out until I went out to visit that base many, many years later. As you know, sometimes you don't, we've gotten stuff that we had no idea what was going on. Sure. Because we had to be interviewed and documented by the FBI to get top, not top secret, but secret security for what we were doing. But this, China Lake is still a naval weapons test station. It's grown. But the sandstorms out there were horrendous. We had open barracks, so we wound up shoveling sand out of the hallways. Every day. Every afterbury storm. Like snow when it was all sand. So what was probably the most, what would you say would be the most rewarding part of your military service? I have to say probably being assigned to sea going because at that point in time there was a select position. You had to be six feet tall and you had to meet the qualifications to be part of the ship company detachment. So the fact that I fell into the fact that I was going to be traveling a lot, and I liked the ocean, so being on the ocean, I got a lot of the things I was hoping I could get. So that kind of made me happy. Oh, good, good. So when you look at your life prior to the military and then once you were released from your military duties, how would you say your personal life changed? Obviously it taught me a lot of discipline and how to manage your life and how to help others too. But I think the discipline part of it was the best for me because it helped me in my work and it helped me in my private life in dealing with people. Okay, tell me a little bit more about that. So your interactions with others and your military service, I thoroughly understand the discipline part. Yeah. But were there other things that kind of helped you along the way or other people that influenced you along the way? There was a gunnery sergeant on the ship who really had nothing to do with him personally. He didn't do anything with, he was like a god. After I got out of the military I joined the Philippine Sea Association, which was the ship I was on. Okay. And he had belonged to it too. And we kind of got together and became very good friends. And we used to go to the reunions together. Something I thought I'd never see, you know, being friendly with the previous gunnery sergeant. Sure. Because he was a fair guy, but he was tough. And he taught me a few things. Very good. So you had family that served in World War II and you served in Korea. So the Korean War has always been referred to as the Forgotten War. Right. So did you experience that when you came home? Or how was your military service perceived by others when you returned home? Well, it's interesting you asked that because I went in in 1948 and of course there was nothing going on at that point in time. And I have to say the general public, the people I ran into, kind of looked down on the military. Not just the Marines, but all military. You couldn't get a job or something like that, so you joined the service. But that wasn't the case. When the Korean War broke out, a totally different attitude. In my perception anyway, I don't know if anybody else proceeded the same. I never talked to anybody about it, but people couldn't do enough for you. Okay. Wherever you went, if you went to a restaurant or a bar or a coffee shop, they wanted to buy, pay for your meal or pay for whatever. Before that, they kind of ignored you and made no attempt to be friends with you or talk to you. Which I thought very strange, you know. Just because there's no war around, there's no reason to look down on the military. Sure. But that was my perception of the general public that I had encountered. And how about your transition from the military to civilian life? How was that? It worked out well. When I first came out of the military, I had two or three, not big jobs. I transitioned into a good job with Polaroid. I went to work for Polaroid for a couple of years. But my intention, before I went to Polaroid, I went to training at mass radio and TV for electronics. And the job I took at Polaroid had nothing to do with what I went to school for. Okay. But it was a job and it paid well. So I stayed with them for a couple of years with the intent of getting something in the field of electronics. So I decided to try the telephone company. So that's what I did. I got hired with the telephone company at a very good low salary to begin with. The ultimate salary would be very good later on after about two or three years. Okay. Automatic raises. So that's why I spent the next 40 or 50 years with the telephone company. Very good. And that electronic school I went to helped me in the job I was in. Very good. So you really didn't face a lot of challenges coming back, would you say? Not really. No. Okay. No. And how would you, what would you relay to the younger generation? I guess, not to put an age range on people, but the younger generation. Right. What would you have to say to them about serving in the military? Well, I'm glad you asked me that because it's, anybody I've talked to, I encouraged to put two or three years into the military after you graduated from high school. And a firm believer in we should have this country should have universal military training for every, every youngster coming out of school. They don't have to, they don't have to go into the military, but at least put in two to three years doing service to the community or the country. Like the, I tried to encourage any kids I talked to where I tried to, you know, tell them what the best thing to happen to you would be to get military training. I said, and even if you're only going for two or three years, I think three years is really what you should do because two isn't really not enough to get the full treatment of the feeling in the military, but the, you know. So what would they be receiving if they did that? What would be some of the benefits? Well, give them training and discipline, how to get along with people, how to work definitely how to work as a team. You're not going to be able to do it all by yourself. Your best bet is work with somebody. There's nothing better than, you know, working with the team and to reach an objective. And. There are also overcoming differences. Yes, yes. Unfortunately, when I first went in there, there was a lot of discrimination. But that changed, I think in 1949, just before the Korean War. I think the training and the, how to get along with people, how to work as a team is the best benefit. And even if you don't plan to stay in the military, that training will be with you forever. And you still have the rest of your life ahead to go to college or any other kind of training you wish to go into. Sure. So two or three years out of your life is not going to hurt you. But unfortunately, I think they try to put in universal training many years ago, but somehow it's just no work. I don't know why. I think that's the best thing that could happen to all of our youngsters. And they don't, like I said, they don't have to go into the military, into an organization that is doing like charity work or whatever. And give back something to the community or the country. Sure. That's nice. What would you like people to know about George Barr and your service in the Marine Corps? About my service? Yep. Well, I just wanted to know that I felt that it's really everyone's duty to give back to this company for all that we get and all the freedoms we enjoy. And we're free to, we have freedom of choices, what we want to do, where we want to go. And that was my belief. I felt I couldn't get into World War II because I wasn't old enough, obviously. But that training, I would do it again. I would do it again. Very good. Well, George, I want to thank you for your time today. It's been great. I appreciate you sharing your stories with us. That was my, I was happy to do it. Sure. And, you know, just your service, I thank you. You know, it's tough for those Korean and Vietnam vets, too. Right. Because I think you missed out on a lot. That, you know, sometimes your service isn't recognized or valued as much as it should be. Right. But I want to thank you for being here today. Thank you. Thank you, Jeff. All right.