October 8, 1945: The Barnes returns to Guiuan, Samar, P. I.
after a successful completion of its assignment in assisting in the capture and
surrender of the Japanese Forces in Borneo. Upon its arrival at about 1600 and
while still underway, the motor whaleboat is launched. The whaleboat heads for
the shore and the ship continues to the site of its anchorage in the harbor.
Ensign John B. Clark intercepts the whaleboat when it arrives ashore and joins
Ens. Herbert Long and his crew to return to the ship. The whaleboat runs afoul
of a reef, loses its rudder, and Ensign Clark joins two of the crew that go
overboard to shove the boat into deeper water. With the rudder inoperable, the
headway of the boat is diminished. Ensign Clark reports aboard the Barnes around
2000. He is dressed only in his wet skivvies, shoes and hat. The Ensign makes a
very unfavorable first impression.
October 15, 1945: The Barnes moves to San Pedro Bay, Tacloban, Leyte, P. I. And
enters a dry dock to clean the hull and apply new paint. Tacloban is only a few
miles north of Palo, the sight of Gen. MacArthur's initial landing and
triumphant return.
October 23, 1945: The ship leaves the dry dock with new bottom paint and ties up
at a dock in Guiuan to load a Jeep aboard, somehow commandeered by Comdr.
Jennings. Many aboard wondered if the Barnes was the sole DE in the Seventh
Fleet with a jeep of its own.
October 24, 1945: After the Commodore used the jeep (probably to visit the
Officer's Club) his driver unwittingly leaves it parked on dock. Within minutes,
the jeep is stolen.
October 29, 1945: A shore patrol unit discovers the crew of a nearby cargo ship
in the process of loading our jeep aboard their vessel. The jeep had been newly
painted. Regrettably, the shore patrol returns the jeep to the Barnes. The jeep
is hoisted aboard and secured.
October 31, 1945: The Barnes returns to San Pedro Bay and ties up alongside a
tender. Two new officers report aboard; one is a Lieutenant and the other an
Ensign.
November 4, 1945: The ship is "swinging on the hook" in San Pedro Bay, but
receives orders to accompany an APA to Okinawa.
November 5, 1945 through November 10, 1945: Following a typhoon that generated
very high seas, the Barnes proceeds slowly to Okinawa.
November 11, 1945: The Barnes is at anchor in Okinawa. The typhoon had paid a
destructive visit a few days before. Sunken ships dot the harbor. Many cargo
ships, LCIs, LSTs and various craft are beached. Some small craft are more than
beached; they are half way up a hill behind the port.
November 11, 1945: Liberty party goes ashore. A couple of officers in the party
return with porcelain ceremonial burial vases. The vases had been very recently
cleaned of ashes.
November 13, 1945: The Barnes is ordered to return to Manila and join the other
ships in their division. The ship pulls anchor and heads south toward the
Philippines.
November 15, 1945: At approximately 1600, the Barnes was heading on a
southwesterly course, midway between Luzon and Taiwan, when a lookout sights a
floating mine. The ship turns about and approaches the mine from upwind. All
engines are ordered stopped. At 1620 the gunnery crew opens fire, beginning with
the 40mm and 20mm anti-aircraft guns, but all shots miss. As the ship drifts
slowly toward the mine, the barrels of the 40mm guns cannot be depressed enough
to bring fire at the target. A short while later, as the ship drifts closer to
the mine, neither can the 20mm guns. When the guns were mounted, it was assumed
they would be used to fire at aircraft and not at targets in the water less than
fifty yards away. At about 1650, with the bigger guns now useless, the gun crew
opens fire with 30 cal. rifles. Then at 1700, when the Barnes is approximately
thirty yards from the mine, a lucky (?) hit from one of the riflemen explodes
the mine. In spite of the ship being showered with shards of metal, no one
aboard is hit, and other than some deep scratches to the paint, there is no
substantial damage to the Barnes. At about 1730 the ship gets underway and
resumes its heading to Manila. Later discussions with the O. O. D. reveal that
an incredible distraction caused by a candy wrapper caused those on the bridge
to lose track of the mine and its proximity to the Barnes.
November 17, 1945: The ship anchors in Manila Bay, P.I.
November 18, 1945: At 1700, the crew is allowed liberty in Manila. The crew
celebrates with gusto their first leave to a large city in a very long while.
The next day all liberties are canceled "until further notice."
November 20, 1945: At anchor in Manila. 0800, most members of the crew are sick.
Dr. Scilleiri diagnoses the problem as Amoebic Dysentery, apparently the result
of the contamination of the water from the bodies that remain in the sunken
Japanese ships that litter the harbor. The process to boil seawater in a vacuum
to distill fresh water, and does not allow the temperature to reach 220 degrees,
therefore does not kill most of the bacteria present. Thereafter, when in
Manila, all cooking and drinking water is boiled.
November 22, 1945: At anchor in Manila. It is Thanksgiving, but still no
liberties.
November 23, 1945: At anchor in Manila. Curfew relaxed and at 1700 the crew goes
on liberty.
November 24, 1945: At Anchor in Manila. Crew back under restrictions, no
liberty.
November 25, 1945: At anchor in Manila: Ensign Lenning reports aboard.
November 28, 1945: At anchor in Manila: 0900, Commander John P. Ingle is
relieved of duty as captain of the Barnes by Lieutenant Commander Loren H.
Kiser.
November 28, 1945: The Barnes pulls anchor at 1300 and leaves Manila harbor to
serve as an escort for an APD bound for Shanghai, China.
December 03, 1945: At 1800, the Barnes arrives at entrance to Yangtze River and
takes on a pilot. It proceeds to the Wangpu River, and turns southward toward
Shanghai. At about 2000 the ship ties up, fore and aft to anchor buoys, adjacent
to a British destroyer.
December 04, 1945: 1700, most of the crew is allowed liberty, with only a few
remaining aboard. The O. O. D. on duty from 2000 to 2400 reports having to repel
a boarding party composed of twelve females and their chaperone. As could be
expected, Shanghai is one of the most important ports visited by the Barnes. It
was noticeably a better port for liberty than Tacloban or even Manila. In
Shanghai we did not have to boil the water, but Dr. Scillieri did have to
sanitize a few of the sailors.
December 05, 1945: O. O. D. on duty from 0000 to 0400 reports female stowaways
found in forward and aft gun turrets. O. O. D. on duty from 0400 to 0800 reports
the offloading of all remaining female stowaways and their chaperones by 0730,
and ship is now ready for morning inspection, sir. (Note: The stowaway situation
reported above was not included in the letters Clark wrote home. His
recollections of the important events occurring during these two days were aided
and revitalized during a telephone conversation in September 2000 with shipmate
John Treen)
December 09, 1945: At 0800 The Barnes is ordered to return to Manila and at 0900
a pilot reports aboard. By 1400, all the crew that missed the morning muster has
boarded, and the ship leaves Shanghai.
December 11, 1945: At sea steaming southward, when at 1300 a lookout spots
another floating mine. Remembering the earlier encounter, the O. O. D orders the
ship to heave to, alongside and not upwind. The gun crew blows up the mine with
short bursts from the 20mm AA guns. After a short delay, the Barnes is underway
again.
December 12, 1945: At 0700 the Barnes arrives back in Manila. This time the
drinking water is boiled, and there are no restrictions on liberty.
December 13 through Christmas Day, 1945: At anchor in Manila with still no
liberty restrictions.
December 26, 1945: The Barnes is made part of Task Force Unit 93.4.16 along with
two other ships from our division. The unit was formed to cruise around the
islands in the Southern Philippines as a show of strength. Renegade natives have
joined with the few Japanese soldiers left behind and are causing havoc in some
areas.
December 27, 1945: Anchored at Puerto Princessa, Palawan, P. I.
December 28, 1945: At 0800, the ship pulls anchor and moves to tie along side a
dock. The business that follows is absurd. A crane swings a disassembled Quonset
Hut aboard the ship and places it astride the torpedo tubes where it is dogged
down. The co-conspirators in charge assume there will not be a need to fire the
torpedoes any time soon. Next the motor whaleboat is lowered, and an Air-Sea
Rescue Boat (ASR) is picked up and placed in the cradle formerly used by the
whaleboat. Then the motor whaleboat is hoisted by the davits and tied off
outboard. At 1200, the Barnes pulls away from the pier at Puerto Princessa and
resumes its mission.
December 28, 1945: At sea, 0800, because the ASR had suffered a recent sinking,
and the motor needed a complete overhaul, the motor macs removed the engine from
the ASR boat.
December 29, 1945: Anchored at Bato Bato in the Tawi Tawi group in the Sulu
Archipelago, P. I. (I am not making this up.) At 1000 a group of "volunteers,"
armed with 30 cal. Carbines, .45 pistols and several cases of beer are sent
ashore to find someone to frighten. Invasion party returns at 1600 after killing
every can in every case. At 1800 the ship pulls anchor and sets sail for
Zamboango.
December 30, 1945: At 0800, the Barnes drops anchor at the harbor in Zamboango.
A search party is sent ashore to check for tailless monkeys. At 1500, the monkey
hunting party reports to the captain that the few tailless apes spotted on the
beach were trying to sell genuine Hari-Kari swords made from springs taken from
abandoned jeeps, therefore were not reported. So the Barnes pulls the hook and
heads north for a while and then northeast through the Mindanao Sea and the
Straits of Bohol toward Cebu.
December 31, 1945: By noon the Barnes is tied up alongside a dock at Cebu City,
Cebu, P. I. With everything secure by 1900, a liberty party goes ashore. Ens.
John B. Clark has O. O. D. duty from 2000 to 2400. In addition to New Years Eve,
this date is also his twentieth birthday. At 2400, before being relieved by the
next watch, Clark goes to the flying bridge and begins firing a flare pistol at
ships anchored in the bay and soon fires all the rounds aboard. Fortunately the
flares have limited range and do not hit their targets. Periodically, he blows
the ship's whistle until warned the ship is getting low on steam. Clark
obviously had access to Dr. Scillieri's medicinal alcohol supply.
January 1, 1946: At 0800 the Barnes remains docked at Cebu City. At 1200 the she
leaves the dock and steams southwest toward the Sulu Sea. After awhile, the ship
makes a hard right and start heads north toward Panay.
January 2, 1946: At 0800 is at anchor at Iloilo in Panay. At 2300 the first men
from the liberty party arrive back and report that there is a wonderful
nightclub with an orchestra in town. At 2315, most officers leave the ship to
investigate.
January 3, 1946, the Barnes returns to Manila and for the next two weeks the
crew is kept busy with repairs and restoration. There has not been this much
chipping and painting activity since Captain Ingle's departure and the ship
reflected this neglect. But soon all the topside areas are scraped, chipped and
repainted and all the holidays covered so the Barnes is smart looking and
shipshape once more.
January 13, 1946: Commodore William C. Jennings departs. Lieutenant Commander
Kiser assumes the duties as Division Commander.
January 16, 1946: The Barnes and two other ships of the division resume their
tour of the Philippines.
January 17, 1946: At anchor in Culion. Culion is in the Calamian Group, half way
between Mindoro and Palawan. Before the war, Culion main attraction was its
leper colony. Because of that, the Japs had remained clear of the island. It is
reported that a very large number of lepers died during the war due to the lack
of medication. Also anchored off Culion was a ship with an all colored crew.
Even the officers were colored. The ship was a prison ship, and it is supposed
the Navy felt that the prisoners would be reluctant to try to jump overboard and
escape to a leper colony.
I have no record of the ship's movements between January 17 and January 24 when
the ship returned to Manila. I believe we made a stop at Calapan in Mindoro and
two or three others, but I do not know the names of the ports. I am fairly
certain that had we passed near Puerto Princessa, Captain Kiser would have
pulled in and off loaded the Quonset hut.
From January 24 through January February 6, 1946, the Barnes remained on anchor
at Berth 29 in Manila Bay. On February 1 the ship received about fifty new men,
just out of boot camp. By this time, a large number of the crew of the Barnes
had left for home. All that were married and nearly all that had more than four
years of duty were gone. There were only a few petty officers and even fewer
commissioned officers left from the original crew that brought the ship from
Norfolk to the Philippines. Ensign Clark complained that both the radar and
sonar systems were frequently out of commission. Three months earlier, the
Barnes had aboard a Commander, two Lieutenant Commanders, three Lieutenants, and
three Lieutenants (jgs) and five Ensigns. By now, most of the personnel
qualified to repair the electronics had been sent home. None of the officers
possessed the skills needed to repair any of the equipment. At this time the
only experienced officers were the Captain, the Executive Officer, the First
Lieutenant and the Engineering Officer. The young ensigns were still learning
their division command responsibilities and ship handling, and the new men
joining the crew were mostly unfamiliar with shipboard duties and lacked the
skills to repair its equipment.
The ship's Captain was Loren Kiser (Kiser had the dual responsibility of also
being Division Commander) and the Executive Officer was Lieutenant Fulmer.
Lieutenant (jg) Herbert Toder was the First Lieutenant and Navigator with Ens.
Lenning his assistant, and Lieutenant (jg) John T. Richards was the Engineering
Officer and Ens. Ralph Schaeffer his assistant. Serving as Gunnery Officer was
Ens. Herbert Long. Ens. Treen was the Communications Officer and Ens. Clark the
Radar and Sonar Officer. Lieutenant (jg) Charles Duck was the Supply Officer and
Lieutenant (jg) Frank Scillieri was the Medical Officer. There remained only
five officers aboard that were with the ship when it left American waters for
the Pacific; they were Mr. Toder, Mr. Richards, Mr. Duck, Dr. Scillieri, and Mr.
Long, and they all would soon depart.
February 6, 1946: The Barnes is ordered to Lamon Bay on Luzon's East Coast. The
order states that our Supply and Disbursing Officer, Lieutenant (jg) Duck is to
disburse pay to the officers and crew of a minesweeper and other craft working
in the area. The destination is about sixty miles directly east of Manila. It is
sixty miles by land and nine hundred by sea. The ship leaves Manila Bay, steams
past the Bataan Peninsula, turns north past Subic Bay and the Lingayen Gulf.
Before she reaches the north end of Luzon, the seas begin to build. When the
Barnes turned east toward Cape Engano, the going was rough. After the ship
passed Engano and southward down the East Coast of Luzon, the seas were as rough
as any most of the crew had encountered either in the Atlantic or Pacific. As
the ship proceeds further south, the rougher the seas became.
Most aboard became ill. On the third day, only two or three officers and a
handful of the crew were able to stand their assigned watches. The ship pitched
and rolled. On our third night, there were times when the rolls approached forty
degrees. The ASR boat was stowed inboard, and the motor whaleboat was slung
outboard and secured in the davits. From time to time a very high sea would hit
and lift the little boat. The O. O. D. on duty became fearful that it would be
torn loose and lost. He was convinced that the weight of the Quonset Hut,
astride the torpedo tubes, made the ship somewhat top heavy and ordered the
lines that held the hut in place to be slackened and cut. As expected, the next
roll to starboard relieved the ship of this worthless topside load. The only
damage to the ship was the loss of some lifelines and it appeared to the men on
watch that the roll diminished a bit.
February 9, 1946: We had been dead reckoning our position for the past
thirty-six hours, because our radar and loran were not operational and clouds
obscured the sun and the stars. That morning, between heaves, a lookout shouted
that there was a pod of whales dead ahead. A closer look revealed that what he
had seen was surf pounding on a reef and sending spray high in the air. The O.
O. D. first ordered all engines to be stopped and then reversed to slow and stop
the ship about a hundred yards short of the reef. The abrupt change in the throb
of the engines brought Capt. Kiser to the bridge. After determining the depth of
the water, we dropped the anchor. A call from the captain brought the Navigator
to the bridge. At noon the Navigator was able to get a fix and made a close
determination of our location. An inspection of the chart of these waters
revealed that our course for the past few hours had taken us through waters
labeled "DANGEROUS WATERS - MINE FIELDS; NAVIGATE THE AREA WITH EXTREME
CAUTION."
However, we were near our destination in Lamon Bay. We hoisted the anchor and
proceeded "with extreme caution" around the reefs, into the little port and
anchored once more. A boat picked up Mr. Duck and his crew and he proceeded to
shore to commence dispensing pay. While Mr. Duck was engaged as paymaster, the
Barnes received a SOS from a position to the north. Not waiting for Mr. Duck to
finish his work and return aboard, the Barnes hauled up the anchor, and with
detailed directions for a safe course, steamed north out of Lamon Bay. It later
developed the SOS came from a C-46 that was down on land near the coast of
northern Luzon. By the time we established the location, Captain Kiser decided
to let Mr. Duck and his men return by land, so we rounded Cape Engano and headed
back to Manila.
February 13, 1946: The Barnes returns to Berth 29 in Manila Bay. Mr. Duck and
his men had arrived the day before and were awaiting us.
February 14, 1946: After refueling, the ship left Manila for the last time and
headed north to Tsingtao, China. (Tsingtao, like many Chinese cities, underwent
a name change in the 1950s. It is now called Quindao. It is west of Korea,
across the Yellow Sea.) In a few days the ship entered the East China Sea and on
February 19 entered the Yellow Sea. It was cold, bitterly cold; ice formed on
the guns and superstructure. Ice also formed on hatches and doors making them
very difficult to open.
February 20, 1946: The Barnes anchors at Tsingtao.
February 28, 1946: The Barnes returns to Shanghai, on the way down from the
north, the sun came out and the ice melted.
About March 5, 1946: The Barnes is back in Tsingtao. From March 8 until March 15
the Barnes is at sea engaging in ASW and gunnery training.
March 16, 1946: The ship is at anchor in Tsingtao. Some of the crew takes in
horse racing at a local track. The harbor at Tsingtao is poorly protected from
storms that occur in the open sea. The ship often pitches and rolls, that and
the unpleasant weather make life aboard the Barnes somewhat dreary. The seas are
frequently too rough to send a boat ashore for mail or movies. The O.O.D.s must
take sights and plot the ship's position frequently to make certain the ship
does not drag anchor and drift upon the many rocks that line the shore.
April 3, 1946: The ship is still at anchor in Tsingtao. It is snowing. It
frequently snowed during our stay in China. The gunners mates lower the ASR
boat, take the shotguns, several boxes of shells loaded with buck shot and go
duck hunting. They return with numerous blue billed mud hens.
April 4, 1946: I write home that "the Communist army has a contingent encamped
about twenty miles away and that Tsingtao is full of Russians." I predict that
"after we leave China, the Nationalists are finished."
April 6, 1946: One of the more pleasant days of our military service. The
division receives orders to leave Tsingtao on April 15, 1946, proceed to Guam,
Pearl Harbor and then to San Diego. The ships in Division 33 move alongside a
tanker to top off their fuel tanks and make ready for the voyage home. The crew
spends their remaining liberty hours ashore trying to find appropriate souvenirs
for family, friends and sweeties.
April 15, 1946: About fifteen or twenty Marine junior officers come aboard as
passengers. They rejoice in knowing that the trip will be much faster on a DE
than an APA or some other troop ship. The ships of Escort Division 33, The USS
Barnes - DE 353, the USS Willett - DE 354, the USS Acree - DE 356, The USS -
Davis - DE 357 and the USS Mack - DE 358 leave the Tsingtao harbor for the last
time. Our first stop is at Guam, a trip of about 1500 miles, where we refueled
and took on provisions; the next leg took us 1000 miles on an eastward course to
Eniwetok where we refueled once more. Between Eniwetok and Hawaii is a distance
of about 1400 miles. During that leg of the trip, it dawned on the Gunnery
Officer that our first stop in the states would be to off-load all ammunition,
depth charges and torpedoes. In order to abbreviate the stateside operation, he
decided that now was a good time to begin the off-loading. He ordered the
gunners mates to bring almost all of the 20mm and 40mm rounds topside and dump
them in the Pacific, leaving some for appearance sake. The five-inch shells,
torpedoes and depth charges were deemed too valuable to deep-six and were
untouched. He also ordered that the depth charges that were still in racks and
K-guns as well as the torpedoes in their tubes to be disarmed, and they all
were. Or so thought the Gunnery Officer.
May 1, 1946: At 0800 the ships of the division drop anchor at Pearl Harbor. The
liberty party left the Barnes before the anchor was set. The small detachments
of men that had the duty that day and remained aboard were sorely disappointed.
After a layover of a few days, the Barnes again heads east toward San Diego. The
Gunnery Officer inventories all arms, munitions, binoculars, and other items he
signed on for when appointed as the officer in charge of the division. A few
things he assumed were aboard cannot be accounted for, but most of the pistols,
shotguns, the camera, and binoculars were located.
May 11, 1946: the division is just off the coast of California. The Gunnery
Officer aboard the Barnes again used poor judgment and decided to dispose of the
yellow dye marker that remained in the lockers. The yellow dye marker is
intended to mark an enemy submarine's last known position and anticipated to be
let go at the time the ship released a load of depth charges during an attack.
The Barnes still had a very large inventory that remained unused. As the crew
disposed of the dye marker, the remaining ships in the division plowed through
this yellow soup that formed in the Barnes' wake. The USS Barnes, followed by
her yellow-hulled sisters, steamed into San Diego Harbor. Because she was the
Command Ship of Escort Division 33, the Barnes tied up along side the dock at
the Munition's Depot. All aboard were elated by the prospects of our ship being
the first in, the first out, and the first to release the crew for liberty in
the good old U. S. A.
An officer from the depot came aboard to inspect the ship and its munitions and
weapons. Soon he discovered an armed depth charge in one of the K-guns. He
ordered the Barnes to remove itself from the San Diego Harbor and not return
until the armed depth charge was disarmed or otherwise made harmless. Several
days before, an attempt had been made to disarm the charge, but the effort
failed because the heads of the brass bolts had twisted off. We left the harbor,
and following orders from the Gunnery Officer, the Chief set the charge to
detonate at 300 feet. The depth charge was rolled over the stern, and for some
mysterious reason, blew up immediately. Fortunately for the Gunnery Officer, the
blast caused much less damage than could be reasonably expected to the Barnes,
and other than a brief moment of terror and the ringing of ears, none of the
crew experienced permanent injury. The explosion did, however, exceedingly
disturb the Captain. The Gunnery Officer felt that the Captain was quite
fortunate; at least he had remained on the bridge. The Barnes was no longer
first in line; it now would be the last out and the crew's dreams of an early
liberty in the good old U. S. A. were dashed.
May 11, 1946: After allowing the ship to re-enter the San Diego Harbor, the
munitions are off loaded without further incident. Afterwards, the Barnes heads
north to San Pedro and was assigned a berth at Pier 223 on Terminal Island.
However, the ship arrives too late to be able to send a liberty party ashore;
nevertheless fearing neither man nor beast nor the O. O. D., many went ashore.
May 12, 1946: The beginning of the end. Many men from the ship begin the process
of being released or discharged. During the slow process of the decommissioning
procedure, the remaining members of the crew begin to say their final good-byes
to friends and comrades and to the USS Doyle C. Barnes. One by one, they packed
their sea chests and bags and headed for home. The ship remained at Pier 223
until all had left. Many loose items were either accidentally packed in
suitcases or unintentionally appropriated or inadvertently confiscated or
something. Later, when the Gunnery Officer inventoried the small arms locker, it
was empty. The ship's fine camera was missing and there were no binoculars
aboard. The Gunnery Officer, who was responsible, rightly or wrongly assumed all
these items had been lost during action, storms at sea or were stolen by the Red
Chinese (between Eniwetok and San Diego). All the typewriters disappeared, as
did hand tools from the engineering department, saws, hammers and the like, the
sextants, and most dreadful of all, we found only empty brandy bottles in sick
bay. As luck would have it, the motor whaleboat was still aboard, as were all
the larger guns and torpedo tubes. The pilothouse and gyrocompass, the bridge
and mast were still in place. By June 1, 1946, most all of the crew had left,
taking with them every thing of value that was portable. The only officers
remaining were Captain Kiser, Ensign Treen, Ensign Clark and Ensign Lenning. If
our weak explanations had not been accepted by our superiors, the officers
responsible for the whereabouts of the missing gear would still be trying to
meet their financial obligations to the Navy. We gave thanks that our
explanations for the disappearance of the small stuff satisfied our superiors.
We felt indeed fortunate that none of the five inch thirty-eights were missing;
for certain some eager-beaver ensign would have insisted on a full
investigation. Lastly, all the remaining officers left with nothing for
souvenirs to remind them of their service (or disservice) aboard the Barnes
except their monogrammed silverware and napkin holders. Apparently they all had
unwittingly packed these party favors in with their underwear.
According to the "Dictionary of American Fighting Ships" the Barnes was placed
out of commission January 1947 and sold for scrap in 1973. Alas and alack.
