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Ken enlisted in the Navy on August 13, 1941, serving during World War II on the USS Barnett as a carpenters mate. Ken received his boot training at Great Lakes, Illinois. His petty officer rating came the hard way -through active combat service- as he did not attend a navy service school. He served in both oceans and saw special action at Guadalcanal, Sicily and Italy. Ken was with the first forces to set troops ashore in the French invasion. His ship, the Barnett, is recorded as having escorted the first wave of small assault boats which set troops ashore in the D-Day invasion. He survived a suicide bombing and was honorably discharged on September 22, 1945 as a Carpenters Mate First Class. Ken received an Honorable Discharge Button, Honorable Discharge Emblem and Honorable Service Lapel Button.
Other Comments:
USS Barnett (AP-11, later APA-5), 1940-1946
USS Barnett, a 9432-ton transport, was built in 1928 in England as the civilian passenger ship Santa Maria. She was purchased by the Navy in August 1940 and commissioned the following month. During the rest of 1940 and in 1941 she took part in amphibious training exercises in the Caribbean area. In 1942, following the outbreak of war between the United States and Japan, Barnett went to the Pacific, where she participated in the invasion of Guadalcanal in August and the subsequent campaign to hold that island in the face of Japanese efforts to retake it.
Reclassified as an attack transport in February 1943, with the new hull number APA-5, Barnett spent that year and the next in the Atlantic war theater. During 1943 she was part of the amphibious forces that supported the landings on Sicily in July and at Salerno in September. During the Sicily operation, on 11 July 1943, Barnett was near-missed by an enemy bomb, which damaged the ship and killed seven of the Army troops on board. The transport was also active during the Normandy invasion in June 1944 and in the invasion of Southern France in August and September 1944.
Barnett returned to the Pacific in time to participate in the Okinawa landings in April 1945 and steamed back to the United States shortly after the end of the war with Japan. In May 1946, USS Barnett was decommissioned at Newport, Rhode Island. She was transferred to the Maritime Commission in July 1946.
USS BARNETT (APA-5) received seven battle stars for World War II service: Combat Action Ribbon (retroactive) - Navy Unit Commendation (7) - American Defense Medal - American Campaign Medal - Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal (4) - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (3) - World War II Victory Medal - Navy Occupation Medal (with Asia Clasp).
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Okinawa Gunto Operation
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 1945
Description The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg. was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources, mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 42,000–150,000 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, a significant proportion of the local population. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki together with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting on Okinawa.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 1945
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories Barnett returned to the Pacific in time to participate in the Okinawa landings in April 1945 and steamed back to the United States shortly after the end of the war with Japan. In May 1946, USS Barnett was decommissioned at Newport, Rhode Island. She was transferred to the Maritime Commission in July 1946.
