John Barrett

Barrett, John Kenny

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Transcribed by Jennifer Morgan on 8/9/2025

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John Kenny Barrett: My name is John K for Kenny K-E-N-N-Y Barrett and I’m eighty years old at the present time. And my background is that I am first generation American. My father and mother came from Ireland many, many years ago. And I end up, I was born in New York City and I grew up in Dobbs Ferry, New York. And

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I when I first went to Champlain College for a while and then I dropped out and went into the military. I got out of the military and I went to Niagara University. Then I went to work in New York City for a while, and then I had a opportunity to take over a job upstate New York based inAlbany. And when I was in

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Albany for maybe five years, then I was transferred here to Syracuse and that’s how I got to Syracuse. I got here with the U.S. Brewers Association.

Interviewer: So, you are actually dispatched to Korea at the very beginning right after the infantry training programs. But later you went to Korea or how long did you stay there?

B: No, I never did get to Korea, although I was actually Anxious to go there.

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It ended up that I ended up my mother insisted that I take typing in high school because her son Kenny was gonna go to college. And it ends up that even though I had all this great infantry training, I ended up being a clerk typist for. . .

I: So from there you joined and became part of the soldiers in the airborne, U.S. Airborne.

B: Yeah, Yup

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I: and you never participated in the war?

B: No, No I did not

I: But you are officially designated as a Korean War Veteran

B: Yes, I am.

I: Could you explain why you were designated as a Korean War Veteran even though you never been to Korea?

B: I was in the military during the war period and I’m not sure what the date was, the cutoff date was but

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I was in the military during that conflict period before the armistice and there were I come from Dobbs Ferry, New York, and there were two young friends of mine that lost their lives in  Korea, Jimmy McCoy and uh a fellow by the name Harry Storms and uh they uh I’m not sure what probably

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Harry Storms uh got killed on uh shortly before the armistice and then Jimmy McCoy got killed very soon after he got to Korea.

Interviewer: Who are those two?

B: These are friends of mine from Dobbs Ferry, New York.

I: Okay

B: They were young people that I knew, and of course, it was just uh, of course even if I did get over there it would have been

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probably after the armistice. But it’s still, there were you know still problems taking place over there at the time

I: There should be a reason why you were designated as a Korean War Veteran because I know from the document from the veterans office that they actually extended the period of Korea War Veterans from 1953 to the January of 1955 for the make benefits available

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for the soldiers but I don’t think that every American soldier was designated as a Korean War Veteran because they served during the war. So we need to find out why you were designated as a Korean War Veteran because originally you were originally supposed to be dispatched to Korea. Right?

B: Yes. I was pipelined for Korea when I finished up basic training and I guarantee they

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probably were going through those 201 files and they found out I could type, and the military needed people that could read and write.

I: So, you told me that you saw many soldiers returning from Korea during the war and then they were dispatched again to Korea, so any stories that you heard from them about Korean War or anything you

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have reminiscence of?

B: As a matter of fact, I heard some great stories about the various countries that participated from at 34^th Parallel. As a matter of fact, the uh, I’ll never forget a story that I heard that this American unit on one side was a Turkish outfit and on the other side was a

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Scottish outfit. Okay. And the uh the Scottish guys would play their bagpipes and it would scare the blazes out of the people from the uh, the North Koreans. And apparently those Turks, the North Koreans were scared stiff of them. So this fellow was toying with them we were sitting really good position because the Scots

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were over here and the Turks were over here, and I shared, and apparently they shared a lot of things together, but during the apparently they had the armistice there was a lot of time to spend with one another.

I: So how did you come to know about this project, having an interview and trying to have a digital clearing house of all the artifacts belonging to Korean War veterans?

B: Well, what ends up happening, they called me from the 105 chapter and asked me if I wanted to help them out with this program that you people are putting together, and I said, “Heck yes, why not! I’ll help if I can

I: Can you share your thoughts about the importance of this project having a permanent clearinghouse so everything that talking about Korean War Veterans and why it is important for the future generations?

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B: Oh, absolutely. We don’t want to forget that a lot of people tried to uh sweep the Korean War under the rug. No way! We lost a lot of people there and it uh and what’s nice about it is the South Koreans are phenomenal friends of ours

I: Have you been to Korea

B: No, I have not

I: Are you following up about the recent development

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the economic development

B: Oh, yeah, I follow up pretty good.

I: So, what do you think about the legacy of Korean War veterans on this prospering Korea?

B: What do I think about it?

I: Yeah, what is the legacy of Korean War Veterans

B: Well, I’ll tell you one thing about the Korean people, the South Korean people. They love us, and it’s amazing what they have not only contributed to the

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veterans groups but they invite them back the GIs back and they host them too. I thought that was pretty nice, very nice as a matter of fact.

I: Could you talk about the GI Bill that you received and how it actually helped you after you retired from the military?

B: Oh, absolutely the GI Bill was the greatest thing that ever happened, and I would have probably still

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gone to college some place but I would have never had the opportunity again to go away to college. I would probably have to live at home and day hop some place. But I ended up going to Niagara University, which is up in Niagara Falls and I spent four years up there, and I came home with a degree, and the GI Bill was very good for me.

I: What else does the GI Bill provide for you?

B: At that time, we had uh

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I think we got about uh, if I’m not mistaken, it was about 600 dollars a month.

I: Did that pay tuition or I do they pay you at the university

B: Yeah, they would

I: or how would it work?

B: They would send a check to us on a monthly basis, I’m pretty sure. And we would in turn just walk the check over to the uh

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comptroller’s office over by the admissions office and turn it in. So all I had to do was supply my, uh you know, I could work summers and uh I even toward the end there I worked evenings and weekends and whatnot waiting on tables. I was able to earn my own keep. Room and board type situation but the tuition was taken

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care of basically, by the GI Bill. That’s pretty much how it worked out back in those days.

I: How much was the tuition? Can you remember it?

B: That’s pretty much how it worked out back in those days.

Interviewer: How much was the tuition, do you remember?

B: Well, I think that at that time, I think the tuition was maybe $1200 a year. Something like that. We got so much a month and

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whatever that was, we would give to the school, and that covered the tuition. Well, I feel it’s very important to belong to associations and groups that are relative to the military and whatnot. I ended up being a uh…I’m in the Korean War Veterans, I’m in the American Legion, I’m in the 104–uh–the 11^th Airborne Division Association, and of

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course I’ve contributed to quite a few of the military groups that, uh, they sponsor, you know, looking for money and whatnot. But it ends up, I feel it’s very important to be part of the Korean War Veterans Association because I was basically, uh, my life was interrupted for a while when I was drafted, but I was a little different than a draftee. I was a requested draft, because I dropped out of college.

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This is in 1953, I dropped out of college early in 1953, and I had to report to the draft ward, that’s when the draft was going. And the only way at that time that you stayed out of the military, or out of the draft, was if you stayed in college, went to law school, went to medical school, got married, went into the priesthood, things like that, that’s what kept you out of the service. And uh, but I was very interested in going into the military,

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I thought it would have been very nice to do, and I ended up requesting draft and I was, uh, went to, uh, from – I grew up in Dobbs Ferry, New York, by the way, down close to New York City. And uh, what ends up happening, I left college, at that time I was at Champlain College up in Plattsburgh, and I left college and they advised me to check with my draft board as soon as I got home. So I went to the draft board, and immediately when I went down to the draft board, I

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wrote a letter requesting draft. And within a week or 10 days I was in the military. And I went to Fort Kilmer, and then Fort Dix, and then they sent me to Fort Campbell, Kentucky for basic training.

I: Basic training. How long was it?

B: My basic training was 16 weeks. I had 8 weeks of light infantry and 8 weeks of heavy infantry weapons, and

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all through that period of time all I heard was “You’re going to Korea. You better be prepared. You are going to Korea.” You didn’t nap or sleep while you were at those classes on weaponry, on what was going on in Korea and everything else. And it was a very, very stringent training program. I mean, they really knew how to push those people. Because a lot of people didn’t want to go in, of course,

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but I, I don’t know, I joined up, I requested to draft, so I was gonna make the best of it. And it ends up that I finished up my 16 weeks of infantry training, and I had 30 days leave because I had to go back to the replacement company at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. And I was gonna be shipped to Korea, I was pipelined to Korea. Went home for my 30 days and everybody was saying prayers for me, and

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wishing me good luck, and we had parties and everything else. I’m going to Korea, the whole bit. I went back to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and all of my buddies were there that I went through basic with, and we all went back, and everybody was going to Korea. Well, I sat around the replacement company, everybody else was leaving, I sat around on replacement company for about probably two months, maybe even longer. And I was waiting for my orders

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to come through to go to Korea. These other people were leaving, and they were going to Korea. Well, what happens to me? I get my orders, and what was it? Division Headquarters Company, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, as a clerk typist, and that’s what happened to me. So I went up to Division Headquarters Company, and I worked in the typing pool, which was very boring. Probably 50

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people working in a room typing orders for people going to Korea, going to Japan, going to Europe, you name it. So then, what happens was I had an opportunity to go to Fort Benning for Jump School. So I went to Jump School at Fort Benning the fall of ’53, and came back from

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jump school at Benning, and probably three or four months later, I had an opportunity as a corporal to go to jump master school, so I also went to jump master school. While I was at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, a lot of the troops were rotating back from Korea and Japan, and one of the groups that was very active in Korea was the 187^th Airborne Unit.

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And they were a lot of those fellas who came back from Korea. They were coming through our unit there for retirement, or reassignment, or even some of them went right back. They came in and they stayed in the United States for maybe six to eight months and then they request assignment back to Korea or to Japan or wherever it was. So that’s basically how I ended up being involved

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and then when I got out of the service, it was very fortunate for me, I had the GI bill because of the Korean War. I got through college, and then I continued my life, and I got married, and I had three children, three beautiful, beautiful children. So that’s basically my connection to Korea, and of course the Korean

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Korea’s a great, great neighbor and friend of the United States. Well, for one thing, in the Korean War era, we made some great friends over there in that part of the world. Matter of fact, I don’t even really realize, don’t really understand how we initially got in there, but apparently

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there were American interests in there in South Korea before we got in there right? Going to war? Must have been right? But I hope that our friendship can last as long as I live, and my family, because it’s been a great, great friendship, and it just goes to show you what can happen when two groups get together and work together and look what they’ve got.

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They’ve got a great country over there, and of course, we’ve got a great country here. It’s very nice, and I enjoy doing what I’m doing now. You know, giving back a little bit if I can. It’s worth it.

I: Any stories you want to share with us all? Anything related to Korea?

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B: Yeah, I can remember some of the fellas that got back from Korea when I first went up to Division Headquarters Company which was right after the armistice. They fought pretty hard, some of those guys, I’ll tell you, some of the people who were there training me were veterans that had returned from Korea. And that was no picnic, but we were able to you know

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…together they pulled off a nice, I think, a very good victory. But it was not a cakewalk. It was not a cakewalk, I’ll tell you that. And I’ll tell you what was interesting to me, I was up at Niagara, and it was probably

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’57 maybe ’58, and I got notified that within 30 days, I could be called back for Vietnam. Dien Bien Phu. And that’s when the French pulled out of French Indochina. That was because basically, I think, the airborne MOS, they call it, was very important at that

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time for some reason. And was designated to a unit in Staten Island, New York, even though I was up in Niagara Falls, as a reservist. Anything else?

I: Great! Thank you very much.

B: Well, I enjoyed it.

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