Raymond Arthur Barker

Raymond was born in Delavan, Wisconsin, on 20 December 1920, the fourth and youngest child of Harley Claude and Hazel Beatrice (Scisley) Barker. His parents sold their farm in the early 1920s and moved the family to Chicago, settling on Jarvis Avenue a few blocks from Lake Michigan and a stone’s throw to the busy Jarvis “L” station. Work was easy to find, and they had family nearby – Gaius and Una Barker, Raymond’s uncle and aunt, lived on the other end of the block.

Despite his urban surroundings, Raymond maintained a love of the country. At some point in the 1930s, Gaius and Una moved to a farm in Greenwood, Illinois – and Raymond soon followed, dropping out of Lane Technical High School in favor of working on the Barker farm. He flourished in these new surroundings and was generally well-known in the area from Hebron to Chauncey Harrison’s farm in Ringwood. Within a few years, he considered McHenry County – especially Greenwood and Woodstock – to be his home.

Raymond would likely have continued quite happily with this pastoral existence, but the war caught up with him in the fall of 1942.

Ray enlisted in the Marine Corps from Chicago on 5 October 1942, and was soon on his way to San Diego for boot camp. Many former farmers found themselves on the fast track to tank school, and after completing his initial training Ray he was sent up to Jacques Farm to learn how to operate the big metal war machines. Here he joined the Third Platoon of  Company C, First Corps Tank Battalion. The trainees were rotated through each position in an M4 medium tank to find the best fit. Ray was tall and strong, with serious upper body strength developed on the farm – key qualities for a driver.

The five-man crew quickly bonded to each other, and to their tank. Joe Woolum, the gunner, recalled that Ray was responsible for christening their M4A2 “CONDOR” after watching the big birds swoop through the California skies.

On 19 July 1943, the CONDOR crew and the rest of the First Corps Tank Battalion embarked aboard the SS John McLean at San Diego and departed for overseas duty. They arrived in New Caledonia after a month at sea and took up residence at Camp Magenta, where conditions were primitive to say the least. Charlie Company’s stay would be relatively brief: on 27 September, they were officially detached from their parent unit for duty with the 2nd Tank Battalion.

For the next two months, Barker – now a corporal – spent more time aboard ship than in his tank. His company sailed to New Zealand, but never unloaded; at most, Barker spent one night ashore before his ship sailed back to New Caledonia. On 4 November he boarded the USS Ashland, a purpose-built amphibious assault ship capable of transporting tanks to battle. After a hasty (and ultimately unhelpful) rehearsal at Efate, the Ashland joined a convoy of transports en route to the Gilbert Islands.

Only then did Corporal Barker learn his destination: the island of Betio (codenamed HELEN) in the Tarawa atoll. The Third Platoon, including CONDOR, was instructed to land on Beach Red Three in support of the Second Battalion, 8th Marines.

In the early morning of 20 November 1943, Corporal Barker and the CONDOR crew climbed aboard their tank for a rough boat ride to their line of departure. It was their first experience in combat, and they sat atop the turret watching the bombardment of Betio with interest. “As we got close to the shore, all of a sudden a big shell hit close to us” recalled Private Joe Woolum. “Water splashed up, and the concussion.” The crew ducked “like gophers” into CONDOR – and just in time, for another shell struck close enough to disable the tank’s electric turret traversing mechanism. It was not an auspicious start to the day.

Intense Japanese resistance and shallow tides meant that the boat carrying CONDOR could not reach Red 3. Instead, the tank was dropped 500 yards from shore and compelled to make its own way in. Corporal Barker must have been sweating at the controls; the tank would flood and “drown out” if the water got too deep, and there were no guides to mark shell holes or other obstacles. However, he managed to bring CONDOR ashore at some point along Red 3.

All four Third Platoon tanks – CANNONBALL, COLORADO, CONDOR, and CHARLIE – reached the beach, found a breach in the seawall, and according to their orders began driving towards Betio’s airfield in a line abreast formation. Maneuvering between shell holes and other obstacles was extremely difficult, but the rough ground provided some protection from Japanese fire. This changed as soon as the tanks emerged onto the airfield. CANNONBALL was hit by large-caliber anti-aircraft shells and slid into a fuel dump. CHARLIE attempted to cover for CANNONBALL’s crew, only to be knocked out in turn.

In CONDOR, Private Woolum was shooting at anything that moved or even looked suspicious, although he never saw an enemy soldier. Japanese fire started hitting the tank – “you’d hear the horrible explosion, felt the tank shake. It would addle you for a while, and sparks would shoot off inside.” After one such hit, a warning light in the driver’s compartment flicked on. Ray Barker’s voice broke through the noise, shouting that CONDOR was on fire. The tank commander, Sergeant Robert Shook, gave the order to bail out.

Much later, it was found that an electrical short triggered the warning light; there was no immediate danger from fire. Abandoning the tank turned out to be catastrophic for the crew. Shook, Woolum, and loader Herschel B. Fulmer were all wounded while exiting CONDOR or on their way back to the beach. The assistant driver, Private Harry Oreson Grey, was shot and killed. And Corporal Barker was never seen alive again. Photographs of CONDOR taken after the battle show the tank’s main gun aiming directly over his the driver’s hatch; unable to escape that way, Barker found another route out of the tank. What became of him after that is a mystery.

Raymond Barker was reported as missing in action after the battle; in January 1944, when it became clear that he had not survived, his status was changed to “killed in action.” A memorial marker bearing his name was set up in Cemetery 33 Plot 5, Row 2, Grave 4, but this was purely commemorative; Ray’s real burial place was not known.

In 2017, many decades after Ray’s death, the non-profit group History Flight organized an archaeological dig in the area formerly known as “East Division Cemetery” (Cemetery 33) on Betio. They uncovered a burial trench somehow overlooked or otherwise neglected by post-war recovery efforts, and exhumed numerous human remains.

Among them was Raymond Barker. He had been buried as an unknown in 1943 – ironically, not far from his memorial marker – and his gravesite lost in the beautification of Cemetery 33. He was officially accounted for on 27 September 2017, using dental records and chest x-ray comparison, and returned to his next of kin – his niece and nephew – for final burial.

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing

FINAL BURIAL
Spring Grove Cemetery, Delavan, Wisconsin



For more about Ray Barker, visit TanksOnTarawa.com
Or, read Tanks In Hell: A Marine Corps Tank Company on Tarawa by Oscar E. Gilbert and Romain Canisere