Name: Robert Craig BARKER Jr.
Rank / Rating: RT1-Radio Technician First Class
Service #: 626 41 05
DOB: Aug 11, 1913
From: Indianapolis, IN
Parents: Robert Craig, Sr and Mary Johnson Barker
Went Aboard: Nov 30, 1944
Age When Ship Went Down: 31 years, 11 months, 19 days
Spouse: Mary Lou Bowen Barker
Children:
Grandchildren:
Bio Submitted By: Patricia Stephens - Admin
Date Posted:

Robert grew up in Lebanon, Marion Co., IN where his parents continued to live most of their lives. His father, Robert Sr., was the local Fire Chief. The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, enacted in September, required all men between 21 and 35 years of age to register. Robert registered on October 16, 1940 at age 27. He married Mary Lou Bowen, also of Lebanon, on August 30, 1941. Less than nine months later, Robert and Mary would be parted when he enlisted in the US Navy on May 4, 1942 in Indianapolis, IN. It is assumed that Robert elected to join the Navy before he was drafted into military service.

At enlistment, Robert was 2 months shy of his 29th birthday. He completed basic training at the Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, IL. He performed well there as evidenced by his rating as a RT2c (Radar Technician second class) at the end of training. On May 21, 1942, he was received at the Naval Training School (Radio Materiel), Chicago, IL. to continue his training in radar. He remained there until September 27, 1942, when he was transferred to San Francisco. Three days later he arrived at the Naval Training School (Radio Materiel), Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA, “for instruction.” He trained there for about six months. From San Francisco he was transferred on April 5, 1943, to the RS, Bremerton, WA for forwarding for duty at the Naval Operating Base (NOB) at Kodiak, Alaska. He would remain there for one month. On May 15, 1943, he was transferred to the NOB, Dutch Harbor, Alaska for duty in the Advanced Communication Pool. He served there less than 2 months. His next stop was at NOB, Adak, Alaska where he arrived on August 6, 1943. Robert would serve in Adak for over one year. Ten months after he arrived, on June 30, 1944, he earned the rating of RT1c. On September 17, 1944, he was transferred to USS Kimberly DD-521. She was a Fletcher-class destroyer and had seen action in the Gilbert and Aleutian Islands before returning to San Francisco, CA in September 1944, where Robert would go aboard. This was his first time on board a ship. He would have mingled with crew members who had lots of war stories to tell. But, before Kimberly departed for her return to the Pacific, Robert was transferred. On November 30, 1944, he went aboard USS Indianapolis CA-35 at Mare Island where she was being overhauled following almost 12 months of battle action across the Pacific. Robert was one of four radio technicians received on board that day. Transferring from a destroyer to a heavy cruiser must have been a bit overwhelming for Robert. There was no comparing the size of the two ships. Kimberly had a wartime complement of approximately 329 men and Indianapolis’ complement was over 1,200. Robert had three months to settle into life on board Indianapolis before she departed Mare Island. Admiral Raymond Spruance, commander of the 5th Fleet was on board. Indianapolis was his flag ship of the fleet. On February 14, 1945, Indianapolis joined Vice Adm. Mitscher’s fast carrier task force, just two days before it made the first attack on Tokyo. Robert’s skills would be tested during the intense battle action through March 1945. During the softening up of Okinawa, beginning March 25th, Indianapolis shot down six Japanese planes and assisted in destroying two more. The luck of Indianapolis changed on March 31, 1945 when a kamikaze plane approached the ship with little warning. Tracer shells from the ship crashed the plane but not before the enemy pilot released a bomb that tore through the deck into the mess hall, berthing compartments below and down deeper into the fuel tanks and exiting the bottom of the ship where it exploded. There is no record that Robert was among the twenty men injured in this horrific event. Nine crew members were killed. Admiral Spruance disembarked Indianapolis after the kamikaze attack and USS New Mexico became his flag ship of the 5th Fleet. When the admiral left, his flag allowance staff followed close behind and it now included Robert. Spruance surrounded himself with the most qualified men. On April 6, 1945, Robert was officially received for duty aboard New Mexico where he would serve for almost two months. From USS New Mexico, Robert was transferred and received on June 1, 1945, to CinCPAC (Commander In Chief, Pacific) Advanced Headquarters at Guam, the shore base for Spruance and his flag allowance. Spruance was working on shore preparing for the invasion of Japan. Robert remained on shore until June 14, 1945 when he received orders to return to the US and to Indianapolis. He was granted a 30-day rehabilitation leave. This meant he now had 30 days to report aboard Indianapolis. He left Guam and arrived June 16, 1945 at Pearl Harbor for transport home. He left Pearl Harbor on June 20, 1945. Once in the US, it is assumed Robert enjoyed the remainder of his leave in CA. He reported to the receiving station in San Francisco, CA on July 14, 1945, and was transferred to Vallejo, CA that same day where he went aboard Indianapolis, only two days before the ship would leave port. Indianapolis left Mare Island on July 16, 1945. She unloaded her top-secret cargo at Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands, on July 26, 1945. She left the next morning and arrived in the afternoon in Apra Harbor, Guam. Robert most likely thought his service on board Indianapolis would end at Guam. He was back where he had started a month earlier. Indeed, Robert was transferred off to the Commander of the 5th Fleet, Apra Harbor. He disembarked for shore duty with almost all the other members of the flag allowance. Any hope Robert had of staying on shore with his shipmates was dashed when he was ordered back on board “for temporary duty.” The other members of the flag allowance on board with Robert were LCDR Cedric Foster Coleman, commander of the flag allowance, Arno John Telford, RT3c, Ray Gunther Wenzel, RT3c and two new members who had arrived in Guam from basic training in the US and were waiting to come aboard, William Hearn Bradley, S2c (SM) and Pat Leon Adams, S2c. Robert’s temporary duty meant he would likely meet Spruance in the forward theatre when he came back on board Indianapolis or Robert would transfer to another ship that Spruance selected as his flag ship and return to his normal flag allowance duties. Another possibility was that he would be sent to another shore headquarters to meet up with Spruance. The one possibility he never considered was not ever returning to the full flag allowance. Robert, LCDR Coleman, Telford, Wenzel, Adams and Bradley were lost at sea two days after leaving Guam when Indianapolis was torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-58 and sunk in less that 12 minutes. Survivor, Lt(jg) Richard Banks Redmayne, Chief Engineer, stated that he joined men on a life raft shortly after the sinking in the early morning hours of July 30th. Within three hours two more life rafts and two floater nets all joined together. Other survivors joined the group that night that eventually consisted of about 150 men. "Tuesday morning we buried one man by the name of Barker, radio technician first class, who was on Commander Fifth Fleet Staff." He gave no details of Barker's death. All six names are inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, Philippines. All were awarded the Purple Heart, posthumously. At the time of Robert's death, his wife, Mary, was living in Los Angeles, CA.