- Details
- Written by: Pim van Wijngaarden
- Category: Barry
- Hits: 517
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| Dick in Bermuda 1945 | Dick in 1988 |
Richard Andrew 'Dick' Barry was born on June 10th 1919 in Bay Ridge Sanatorium, Brooklyn, NY. He attended Blessed Sacrament, P.S. 87 and St. Gregory's grammar schools, as well as De La Salle Institute, from which he graduated in 1937. After highschool he went to Manhattan College in September 1937, from which he graduated on June 10th 1941. While at Manhattan he worked as a page at the New York library at 25 cents per hour, the mimimum wage at the time.
While at Manhattan, one of his extra curricular activities was attending "Tea dances" at the College of New Rochelle, never realizing that his future bride Josephine Sheehan would graduate from there in 1949.
Dick registered for the draft in October 1940 at 149th Street and Convent Ave. He was deferred until graduation in 1941. Then he was further deferred to "1B" because of his eyesight.
After college his uncle Jim Crane got him a job at he Mergenthaler Linotype Company. After several months, he left this "boring" job, and started working for the Borden Milk Company, soliciting grocery stores.
In January of 1942 he got wind of a job in Trinidad (British West Indies) as a paymaster for the Walsh Driscoll Construction Company, which was constructing a huge base because the West Indies were in danger of an invasion.
One of the early starters among the overseas contractors was the Walsh Construction Co. of Davenport IA, who opened headquarters at 41 E. 42nd Street for the recruiting of its Trinidad army base, with the George F. Driscoll Co. of Brooklyn. The estimated cost of building the Trinidad base was $51 million and approximately 2500 men were hired. The plans for the Trinidad Army base included an airfield, quarters for troops and dock.The Navy base in Trinidad, estimated at $11 million, and 1000 men, was handled by other contractors. The British required the hiring of natives as unskilled labor, and the contractors and their employees had to comply with all local laws and conditions.
Courtesy of Alison Wallner
Dick's ID's while working for Walsh Driscoll
It wasn't until May that he sailed on the Robert E. Lee - an Alcoa Transport - with stops at Puerto Rico, St. Lucia and Antigua, finally landing at Port of Spain, Trinidad, 9 days later. His draft board had given him a deferment to take this job.
SS Robert E. Lee - © Uboat.net
The Robert E. Lee was torpedoed by U 166 on the return trip and sunk in the Gulf of Mexco
on 30 July 1942.
SS Robert E. Lee boarding pass (front and back)
He only stayed in Trinidad 7 months, then decided to join the Armed Forces. Dick's brother Bob had meanwhile graduated in June 1942, then enlisted in the Coast Guard and was commissioned an ensign in November 1942. Dick had resigned from the construction job and arrived just in time for the graduation.
- Details
- Written by: Pim van Wijngaarden
- Category: Barry
- Hits: 481
"In January of 1943 I was drafted and sent first to Fort Dix, New Jersey, an enlistment center, than a few days later we where on a train to Miami Beach, Florida, basic training for the Army Air Corps.
I spent 21 days in basic, then entrained for Scott Field Illinois, a radio school for training operators for bombers."
Dick Barry and Goode at Scott Field
Around this time Dick also earned his left sleeve 'communications badge'
Scott Field Army Air Corps review 1942 (20Mb pdf)
"But being two inches too tall for that position, I was shipped again to Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin. I spent about 3 or 4 months learning the intricacies of radio repair, then on to Boca Raton, Florida for RADAR instruction.
I was promoted to Corporal, and sent to Will Rogers Field in Oklahoma City."
Dick as corporal, winter '43 - '44
Dick's pictures from Will Rogers Field. In the jeep (and in several other photos): Frank Thielen (CA), front passenger. Ted Preston
(Syracuse, NY) behind the wheel, Jim Smith (Boston) rear right ans Dick Barry (New York, NY) rear left.
Will Rogers Field class A pass
"I was there for a period of a few months and was then transferred to Grenier Field, Manchester, New Hampshire"
Dick's "Technician badge and bars"
For those who had at least six months of service, demonstrated ability and were
skilled in their specialization.
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- Written by: Pim van Wijngaarden
- Category: Barry
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"Several weeks later I was sent to Kindley Field, Bermuda, where I spent the rest of the war maintaining radio equipment for transatlantic transport planes shuttling supplies and men to Europe and bringing wounded from Europe to hospitals in the USA."
Dick in Bermuda in 1944
It was a pleasant assignment. I received several promotions and achieved the rank of Staff Sergeant.
I saw many notables in Bermuda, including Eisenhower, Admiral King and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt had a C-54 transport with an elevator in the belly of the plane to lift him in, because he was disabled with polio as a young man.
Dick's photo's of General Eisenhower about to board his plane, the "Sunflower II"
The Sunflower II was a U.S. Army-C-54E with AAF SER.NO. 44-9146. Withdrawn from use
and stored on Jul 11, 1972 at Davis Monthan AFB, AZ.
Bought by Dross Metals, Inc Nov 6, 1975 and broken up.
As shown above, he had a permit to shoot.
Dick standing 2nd row underneath port side nose landinggear door. On the back he mentions 2 names; Stanley Pajak and Eddie Simon. No indication as to who they are.
The Douglas C-54D-5-DC Skymaster serial number 42-72607, shown above, was part of the 1389th AAF Base Unit (Foreign Transport Station), organized at Kindley Fld under the North Atlantic Division, Air Transport Command (later the Atlantic Division, ATC) on 1 Aug 1944 to replace Station 17, North Atlantic Wing, ATC.
When the war ended I flew home on New Years Eve and was home a few days, then reported to Fort Dix, New Jersey for discharge.
Dick's WWII Honorable Discharge papers
It was a fascinating encampment with soldiers from all branches of the Army being readied for release into civilian life. There were ski-troops, paratroopers, hardened battle veterans from Europe and Asia and the Pacific, all yearning to go home. Many had never been home since induction and were really impatient.
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- Category: Barry
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After reaching home, our first thoughts were for seeking employment, but he government eased the path a little by granting "membership" in the 52-20 club, part of the famous G.I. bill. This gave us 52 weeks of $ 20 per week until employed. I only had to use 4 weeks of this largesse when my father, the doorman, knew an official of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, who gave me a job as a mechanical goods order salesman in their offices at 58th street and 11 Avenue in Manhattan at the princely rate of $ 50.00 per week, the going rate for those days.
I started law school at Fordham Law School, then located at Duane Street and Broadway. The class was large, mostly male veterans with about 2 or 3 women students. That was par for those days. My brother Bob had already started, but later switched to New York Law School, because they had an accelerated program.
I did miserably and did not finish, completing only one year. One reason was that it was night school, 4 nights a week and I could not complete the assignments. In other words, I failed out.
Bob completed his course and became a lawyer, thus guaranteeing a career. My mother was dissapointed in me because she regarded the law profession as the acme of careers.
I almost got married in 1947. In short the wedding got cancelled only two days before it was to be held in Visitation Church on 238 Street in the Bronx. Although a wrench at the time, I came to realize that it was for the best.
I quit my job at Goodyear because it seemed to be a dead end. I began to look for another job and finally landed a management training position at Grand Union Company. It was for the route sales division and meant that I had to go to Parkersburg West Virginia for the initial phase, which meant selling door to door. The primary products were coffee and tea and other staples but also included pots and pans and appliances. We would install a premium in a household and the buyer would work of the premium by buying groceries whcih would eventually be replaced by another premium.......ad nauseum!"
I put in my time in Petersburg, made a lot of friends, joined the Elks Club, lived in a rooming house and ate out every night. Although I had friends, it was a lonely excistende. I called it quits after about a year or so and came back home for another job search.
Through the help of brother A. Lewis of Manhattan College I took a training position in Real Estate at William A. White and Sons on West 42nd Street. However, after two years of experience I was called back into the Air Force because I had joined the Reserves at Floyd Bennett Field. I was sent to MacDill Field, Tampa, FL, for a period of 13 months. A pleasant life.
Some of Dick's Korean War related paperwork
Dick in October 1951
As the Army Air Corps became Air Force in 1947, the uniforms and chevrons changed
Above: Dick's Air Force Staff Sergeant chevrons
My mother came in the winter of '51 and stayed near Nora Maguire in St. Petersburg. When I came back after discharge I felt left out of Wm. A. White so they got me a position at Harry Thoens, another Real Estate Company in the Woolworth Building. I called rents for the agent at the Woolworth Bldg and several other buildings in Manhattan.
Meanwhile I studied for the Insurance Brokers license at the Knights of Columbus Business School and passed the licence exam, which was quite a feat because it had a 50 % failure rate. If I had studied law as avidly I would have been a lawyer.
I associated myself with a broker named Ferguson and tried selling life insurance but met with unrelenting failure. Selling insurance was not for me.
Here I was at 33 at a dead end, and no source of income. My brother suggested that I rent a gas station from Shell Oil Company, his employer at the time. So I worked at a station at 42nd Street and 12 Ave. for several months, nights, to learn to repair tires and pump gas before I got a station on Long Island, Huntington Station on Jericho Turnpike. My father loaned me the money. I lived at first with my sister and brother-in-law in Wantagh in a Leavitt (sic) house. The Wilson girls and boys were young at the time. I left early each morning to open at 0600.
This is where Dick's notes end. Dick's future wasn't as gloomy as the above paragraph leads you to believe. In 1957 he married the lovely Josephine Sheehan and had a great family with six children.
Not only was Dick a veteran, he was also a great father in law. He passed away in 2001.
RIP