Oral History Interview with George Allen Barrett, May 11, 2001

Transcript of an oral interview with George Allen Barrett. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in January 1922, he enlisted in the Navy in January 1940. He completed Recruit Training in San Diego and was transferred to the Hospital Corps School at the Naval Hospital San Diego in April 1940. Upon graduation in July 1940, he was assigned to the Naval Hospital, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In July 1941 he was transferred to the USS McDonough (DD 351) where he recalls that on the morning of December 7, 1941, the McDonough was in Pearl Harbor undergoing repairs. He remembers the crew reassembling the propulsion machinery and the ship getting underway to out of the harbor. He recalls that McDonough remained homeported out of Pearl Harbor and conducted various patrols into the South Pacific theater. He recounts that in February 1942 McDonough collided with the USS Colorado (BB-45) in heavy seas. Later in 1942 he was assigned to the Oakland Naval Hospital, where he recalls his duties and his subsequent marriage. He states that he requested reassignment and was transferred to a Combat Utility Battalion in San Bruno, California for training in anticipation of the upcoming invasion of a Pacific island (unnamed). He states that the invasion was eventually called off, and how he was transferred to Naval Hospital San Diego, where he volunteered for "extra hazardous duty." After three weeks training in Washington, DC, he sailed to Calcutta, India, where he was attached to SACO (Sino American Cooperative Organization). He recalls his time in Calcutta, assigned to Shore Patrol duty, and describes the heat and terrible conditions. He recalls flying in a C-46 over "the Hump" to his SACO Camp at Kineo behind Japanese lines in Fukien Province, southeast China. As a Hospital Corpsman, Barrett describes how he was designated Medical Supply Officer for Southeast Asia. During a trip to Shanghai he contracted malaria. After three weeks in Shanghai he was assigned duty on a sea-going tug as Chief Pharmacist Mate. Eventually he became so weak from the malaria that he was transferred to the hospital at Kwajalein and upon regaining his strength, was transferred to a troop ship taking him back to the States in February 1946. He spends another 13 years in the Navy and took early retirement in July 1959