Louis Barra in Saipan
It would be an understatement to say that Louis Barra launched my genealogy obsession. At some point, probably some fifteen years ago, I was handed a paper book, the Barra family history. You'll have to forgive me if this post is not as descriptive as I'd prefer it to be, I've recently moved and said book is buried in a stack of unpacked boxes.
It wasn't the most comprehensive of family histories, but considering that Louis had built it in an age before ancestry.com, familysearch, or even the internet, it's a pretty impressive piece of work. He did what I can't do, went to the source and talked to the older generations of relatives.
I bring this up not just to reminisce on my own introduction to the time suck that is family history research, but because I received a rather random email from a Jerry Olivera at the beginning of January about Louis;
"I have a photo taken in early 1940s of a Louis (Lou) Barra. My father had the photo from his Army days in WWII. Likely taken in Hawaii on Oahu where my father trained prior to going to battle on Saipan. Can email photo to you to see if it is your Louis Barra. My email is jerryolivera@gmail.com If you don't think it is your guy or not interested in the photo, just disregard this message. Jerry O."
Well of course I was interested! I knew Louis, but I didn't KNOW Louis. I remember him well from those long ago family reunions, where the entire Italian side would come together in Staunton and gorge on pastas and desserts, where everyone talked so loud and animatedly you couldn't decipher one conversation form another....but I digress. We all miss the good old days.
That one email led to several, we talked of "the Greatest Generation," how Jerry's father had served in the Army with Louis in WWII, both being stationed in Oahu and then travelling to Saipan together. Jerry says " It would be interesting to see exactly what military unit that Louis was in during WWII, if any of his relatives have that information. My dad made four trips back to the island of Saipan for celebrations relating to the liberation of the people of Saipan beginning in the 1990s. My brother and I took him back for the last time in 2009 for the 65th celebration. Returning veterans were treated like celebrities by the people of Saipan. In 2009 there were only nine veterans that made the trip back, as many had already passed away. He was the only returning Army guy, as the rest were all Marines. We wanted to take him back in 2014 for the 70th, but his health was frail and his Alzheimers was too far advanced." I told him that Louis had passed in 2009, but he had four children, and while I don't know any of them personally I would try and find one of them to send the picture to, as it is now in my possession.
Jerry also had another photo, of a Phillip Rey, noting he was from Kentucky. Finding my family was probably pretty easy, I'm proficient enough on Ancestry he found my tree after a probably fairly simple search and reached out. Phillip, it seems, will be another story. He passed in Saipan, along with almost the entire rest of their platoon. "Dad would always go to the memorial where the names of ten of his Army buddies killed in battle were etched in stone. Among the hundreds of names at the memorial, he would spend over an hour finding each of the ten names and crying as he went from name to name. I would guess that Philip Rey was one of those names. He had dozens of photos of the war and his Army buddies, but only a few had identifying names written on them. In his last few years, I tried to see if he could remember some of the names, but unfortunately it was too late for his memory to bring them back. It is one of those things I now wish I had done years ago. Those names are now lost to history, at least as far as these photos are concerned." Jerry does not facebook, but I do, so I've taken Phillips picture to the web and reached out a plea for his family. So far it hasnt returned anything, but you never know. I've found more with less.
If I had access to Louis' book, I could tell you so much more about him, but I do know some, as I've saved things here and there to my family tree. February 8th, 1943 Louis Eugene Barra joined the Army, at just 19 years old. WWII had already started, and I'm sure he was keen to serve the country that his Italian born parents had risked everything to have him in. The photo from above was taken in 1944, on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu, in what I can only assume was Fort Shafter/Schofield Barracks, built in 1907. What happened during the war I do not know, but he said in his book that I had made a notation of, that "Part of my military release was like many others, we'd been shipped off to Seattle, given a shot of whisky worth .20 cents and promptly charged a dollar. Welcome back, son." Louis was honorably discharged December 22, 1945 out of Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.
**Update** As I've found my book that Luis himself made, I'll enter this new info below the original article.**
Louis married Myrtle O'Russa in Roanoke IL June 28th, 1947, and they had four children, one of whom, John, went on to become in Illinois States Attorney and Circuit Judge. He's given many interviews over the years and spoken of his father. I gleaned a lot of information from several of these. When asked if Louis ever spoke of the war, John said "Very little to me, very, very little. I think my middle brother probably talked more about it later on I think my middle brother, Mike, drew more out. He didn’t like to talk about the War at all, period, although he’d write about it and he’d take records of it, especially once the computer age and he could get on the internet, even though he wasn’t real computer savvy, he figured out how to search things and he would search a whole
bunch of stuff on the War, he’d get books on the War, he’d get films off of TV and
movies about the War. He had, we called it his War Room, he had several maps, you’d
have books, you’d have a stack of VCRs or videotapes of War movies and he was big in
the American Legion and he’d write things about the War but he would never ever talk
about it." This was seconded by Jerry, his father never spoke of the war, and even in my own experience, my husbands father had been in Vietnam and my husband Kevin says he would never answer questions or talk about it, if a war movie came on TV it was immediately turned off. Those boys went through Hell and decided never to dwell on it again.
I said grandpa whats this picture here
Its all black and white
It ain't real clear is that you there?
He said yeah I was eleven
Times were tough back in '35
That's me and uncle Joe just tryin' to survive
A cotton farm, in a great depression.
If it looks like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
You should've seen it in color.
Oh and this one here was taken over seas
In the middle of hell in 1943
In the winter time, you can almost see my breath
That was my tail gunner ole Johnny McGee
He was a high school teacher from New Orleans
And he had my back right through the day we left.
If it looks like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
You should've seen it in color.
A pictures worth a thousand words
But you cant see what those shades of gray keep covered
You should've seen it in color
This one is my favorite one.
This is me and grandma in the summer sun
All dressed up the day we said our vows.
You can't tell it here but it was hot that June
And that rose was red and her eyes were blue
And just look at that smile I was so proud.
That's the story of my life right there in black and white
If it looks like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
You should've seen it in color.
A pictures worth a thousand words
But you cant see what those shades of gray keep covered
You should have seen it in color.
It wasn't the most comprehensive of family histories, but considering that Louis had built it in an age before ancestry.com, familysearch, or even the internet, it's a pretty impressive piece of work. He did what I can't do, went to the source and talked to the older generations of relatives.
I bring this up not just to reminisce on my own introduction to the time suck that is family history research, but because I received a rather random email from a Jerry Olivera at the beginning of January about Louis;
"I have a photo taken in early 1940s of a Louis (Lou) Barra. My father had the photo from his Army days in WWII. Likely taken in Hawaii on Oahu where my father trained prior to going to battle on Saipan. Can email photo to you to see if it is your Louis Barra. My email is jerryolivera@gmail.com If you don't think it is your guy or not interested in the photo, just disregard this message. Jerry O."
Well of course I was interested! I knew Louis, but I didn't KNOW Louis. I remember him well from those long ago family reunions, where the entire Italian side would come together in Staunton and gorge on pastas and desserts, where everyone talked so loud and animatedly you couldn't decipher one conversation form another....but I digress. We all miss the good old days.
That one email led to several, we talked of "the Greatest Generation," how Jerry's father had served in the Army with Louis in WWII, both being stationed in Oahu and then travelling to Saipan together. Jerry says " It would be interesting to see exactly what military unit that Louis was in during WWII, if any of his relatives have that information. My dad made four trips back to the island of Saipan for celebrations relating to the liberation of the people of Saipan beginning in the 1990s. My brother and I took him back for the last time in 2009 for the 65th celebration. Returning veterans were treated like celebrities by the people of Saipan. In 2009 there were only nine veterans that made the trip back, as many had already passed away. He was the only returning Army guy, as the rest were all Marines. We wanted to take him back in 2014 for the 70th, but his health was frail and his Alzheimers was too far advanced." I told him that Louis had passed in 2009, but he had four children, and while I don't know any of them personally I would try and find one of them to send the picture to, as it is now in my possession.
Jerry also had another photo, of a Phillip Rey, noting he was from Kentucky. Finding my family was probably pretty easy, I'm proficient enough on Ancestry he found my tree after a probably fairly simple search and reached out. Phillip, it seems, will be another story. He passed in Saipan, along with almost the entire rest of their platoon. "Dad would always go to the memorial where the names of ten of his Army buddies killed in battle were etched in stone. Among the hundreds of names at the memorial, he would spend over an hour finding each of the ten names and crying as he went from name to name. I would guess that Philip Rey was one of those names. He had dozens of photos of the war and his Army buddies, but only a few had identifying names written on them. In his last few years, I tried to see if he could remember some of the names, but unfortunately it was too late for his memory to bring them back. It is one of those things I now wish I had done years ago. Those names are now lost to history, at least as far as these photos are concerned." Jerry does not facebook, but I do, so I've taken Phillips picture to the web and reached out a plea for his family. So far it hasnt returned anything, but you never know. I've found more with less.
If I had access to Louis' book, I could tell you so much more about him, but I do know some, as I've saved things here and there to my family tree. February 8th, 1943 Louis Eugene Barra joined the Army, at just 19 years old. WWII had already started, and I'm sure he was keen to serve the country that his Italian born parents had risked everything to have him in. The photo from above was taken in 1944, on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu, in what I can only assume was Fort Shafter/Schofield Barracks, built in 1907. What happened during the war I do not know, but he said in his book that I had made a notation of, that "Part of my military release was like many others, we'd been shipped off to Seattle, given a shot of whisky worth .20 cents and promptly charged a dollar. Welcome back, son." Louis was honorably discharged December 22, 1945 out of Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.
**Update** As I've found my book that Luis himself made, I'll enter this new info below the original article.**
Louis married Myrtle O'Russa in Roanoke IL June 28th, 1947, and they had four children, one of whom, John, went on to become in Illinois States Attorney and Circuit Judge. He's given many interviews over the years and spoken of his father. I gleaned a lot of information from several of these. When asked if Louis ever spoke of the war, John said "Very little to me, very, very little. I think my middle brother probably talked more about it later on I think my middle brother, Mike, drew more out. He didn’t like to talk about the War at all, period, although he’d write about it and he’d take records of it, especially once the computer age and he could get on the internet, even though he wasn’t real computer savvy, he figured out how to search things and he would search a whole
bunch of stuff on the War, he’d get books on the War, he’d get films off of TV and
movies about the War. He had, we called it his War Room, he had several maps, you’d
have books, you’d have a stack of VCRs or videotapes of War movies and he was big in
the American Legion and he’d write things about the War but he would never ever talk
about it." This was seconded by Jerry, his father never spoke of the war, and even in my own experience, my husbands father had been in Vietnam and my husband Kevin says he would never answer questions or talk about it, if a war movie came on TV it was immediately turned off. Those boys went through Hell and decided never to dwell on it again.
Louis and June's Wedding (couple on the Right)
**Updated info on Louis:
"I entered the Army on February 15, 1943, inducted at Peoria IL and left for Scott Field in Belleville on February 22 with about 20 other Woodford county boys. Next we went to Camp Wolters Infantry Training in Mineral Wells. Texas, arriving on Feb 26, 1943 for twelve weeks of training. The Pacific War with Japan was escalating.
I, with many others, was rushed off to a port of embarkation, Camp Stoneman in San Francisco Bay. On May 20th we left San Francisco and arrived at Schofield Barracks north of Pearl Harbor Hawaii June 1, 1943. I, along with many others, were replacements for the 27th Infantry Division, a NY National Guard outfit. I was placed in Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment, Anti-Tank Platoon as an ammo-bearer. Our gun was a .37 mil jeep towed anti-tank.
We went through a year of anti-tank, jungle, and amphibious training first in Oahu, then Wainaie, Waimanillo, and Kahuku. At the time we still wore gas masks because of Japanese threats.
On June 1, 1944 the 27th Division left Oahu for combat on Saipan, arriving June 15th, and making an amphibious landing June 17th at Charan Kanoa. We took Asilito Airfield on Nafutan Point, took central Saipan Mountains, then went West and advanced North up the Tanapag Plain. Just 1200 yards into the Tanapang the Japanese launched a huge banzai counterattack on July 7th, 1944 (Louis calls it his Day of Inafmy. It's also my, the authors, birthday.) The 1st and 2nd battalions took a beating, with the attack starting about 1 am, both battalions being surrounded. Sgt. Milton Arnold, from Glen Falls, NY was severely wounded. At 2 am pfc Whitey King from Tennessee was positioned in a foxhole next to me. It was raining, and he and I were having our two-hour off guard duty. He stood up and was killed; it could have been me. Later, about 5 am when the banzai reached it's high point, 1st gunner Euylalie Wrye from KY was killed, then loader Bob Kuntz form St Louis, and later jeep driver Curly Jacobsen from Wisconsin. Sgt Arnold, who was wounded at the time but I did not know it then, told me to withdraw, but I slammed home 15 anti-tank shells, pulled out the gun breech and threw it away in nearby bushes. My best buddy George Auld from San Fransisco, 1st gunner on another gun and I helped form a line about 1400 yards in a little village near the water. George was firing his M1 when he took a bullet in his left arm. I tore up my fatigue shirt and bandaged him, and never saw him again until we left our Okinawa Campaign, when he became 1st sergeant of Headquarters, and I anti-tank Tech Sergeant and Platoon leader. Also wounded that day was my friend Harry Kloosterman, from Kalamazoo Michigan. he was seriously wounded then left for dead for two days in a ditch, then spent two years in hospitals.
In the early moring of July 7th we were surrounded on the beach and there was utter confusion. another Regiment on high ground mistook us for Japanese and fired on us. My buddy Bernie from MA and I took off for the water, he swam past the low tide reef one mile to a destroyer and while injured, was saved. He swam right past a japanese soldier and neither paid any attention to the other. I was turned back by mortars but by the grace of God they were all duds when they washed up on the beach with me. We were rescued by water around 10pm by an Alligator from the 737 Amphibious Tractor Battalion.
Saipan was declared secure July 9th, and I ended up in a field hospital with dysentery. My 1st battalion, the 105th Infantry Regiment had 208 KIA, 291 WIA, and 47 MIA. Our battalion commander Lt Col. William O'Brien was killed and received the Congressional Medal of Honor, our anti-tank platoon was guarding his command post. Sgt Tom Baker of Company A also received the CMO, while my headquarters company received as a unit the Bronze Star.
**
There's a song I've always loved by Jamey Johnson, and I never realized until now how perfectly it sums up Louis' life. It's like it could have been written for him. I'll leave it here, for you all to enjoy as I do.
"I entered the Army on February 15, 1943, inducted at Peoria IL and left for Scott Field in Belleville on February 22 with about 20 other Woodford county boys. Next we went to Camp Wolters Infantry Training in Mineral Wells. Texas, arriving on Feb 26, 1943 for twelve weeks of training. The Pacific War with Japan was escalating.
I, with many others, was rushed off to a port of embarkation, Camp Stoneman in San Francisco Bay. On May 20th we left San Francisco and arrived at Schofield Barracks north of Pearl Harbor Hawaii June 1, 1943. I, along with many others, were replacements for the 27th Infantry Division, a NY National Guard outfit. I was placed in Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment, Anti-Tank Platoon as an ammo-bearer. Our gun was a .37 mil jeep towed anti-tank.
We went through a year of anti-tank, jungle, and amphibious training first in Oahu, then Wainaie, Waimanillo, and Kahuku. At the time we still wore gas masks because of Japanese threats.
On June 1, 1944 the 27th Division left Oahu for combat on Saipan, arriving June 15th, and making an amphibious landing June 17th at Charan Kanoa. We took Asilito Airfield on Nafutan Point, took central Saipan Mountains, then went West and advanced North up the Tanapag Plain. Just 1200 yards into the Tanapang the Japanese launched a huge banzai counterattack on July 7th, 1944 (Louis calls it his Day of Inafmy. It's also my, the authors, birthday.) The 1st and 2nd battalions took a beating, with the attack starting about 1 am, both battalions being surrounded. Sgt. Milton Arnold, from Glen Falls, NY was severely wounded. At 2 am pfc Whitey King from Tennessee was positioned in a foxhole next to me. It was raining, and he and I were having our two-hour off guard duty. He stood up and was killed; it could have been me. Later, about 5 am when the banzai reached it's high point, 1st gunner Euylalie Wrye from KY was killed, then loader Bob Kuntz form St Louis, and later jeep driver Curly Jacobsen from Wisconsin. Sgt Arnold, who was wounded at the time but I did not know it then, told me to withdraw, but I slammed home 15 anti-tank shells, pulled out the gun breech and threw it away in nearby bushes. My best buddy George Auld from San Fransisco, 1st gunner on another gun and I helped form a line about 1400 yards in a little village near the water. George was firing his M1 when he took a bullet in his left arm. I tore up my fatigue shirt and bandaged him, and never saw him again until we left our Okinawa Campaign, when he became 1st sergeant of Headquarters, and I anti-tank Tech Sergeant and Platoon leader. Also wounded that day was my friend Harry Kloosterman, from Kalamazoo Michigan. he was seriously wounded then left for dead for two days in a ditch, then spent two years in hospitals.
In the early moring of July 7th we were surrounded on the beach and there was utter confusion. another Regiment on high ground mistook us for Japanese and fired on us. My buddy Bernie from MA and I took off for the water, he swam past the low tide reef one mile to a destroyer and while injured, was saved. He swam right past a japanese soldier and neither paid any attention to the other. I was turned back by mortars but by the grace of God they were all duds when they washed up on the beach with me. We were rescued by water around 10pm by an Alligator from the 737 Amphibious Tractor Battalion.
Saipan was declared secure July 9th, and I ended up in a field hospital with dysentery. My 1st battalion, the 105th Infantry Regiment had 208 KIA, 291 WIA, and 47 MIA. Our battalion commander Lt Col. William O'Brien was killed and received the Congressional Medal of Honor, our anti-tank platoon was guarding his command post. Sgt Tom Baker of Company A also received the CMO, while my headquarters company received as a unit the Bronze Star.
**
There's a song I've always loved by Jamey Johnson, and I never realized until now how perfectly it sums up Louis' life. It's like it could have been written for him. I'll leave it here, for you all to enjoy as I do.
Jamey Johnson - In Color
Its all black and white
It ain't real clear is that you there?
He said yeah I was eleven
Times were tough back in '35
That's me and uncle Joe just tryin' to survive
A cotton farm, in a great depression.
If it looks like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
You should've seen it in color.
Oh and this one here was taken over seas
In the middle of hell in 1943
In the winter time, you can almost see my breath
That was my tail gunner ole Johnny McGee
He was a high school teacher from New Orleans
And he had my back right through the day we left.
If it looks like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
You should've seen it in color.
A pictures worth a thousand words
But you cant see what those shades of gray keep covered
You should've seen it in color
This one is my favorite one.
This is me and grandma in the summer sun
All dressed up the day we said our vows.
You can't tell it here but it was hot that June
And that rose was red and her eyes were blue
And just look at that smile I was so proud.
That's the story of my life right there in black and white
If it looks like we were scared to death
Like a couple of kids just trying to save each other
You should've seen it in color.
A pictures worth a thousand words
But you cant see what those shades of gray keep covered
You should have seen it in color.
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