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Casualty Info
Home Town Harrisburgh, PA
Last Address Harrisburg, PA
Casualty Date Nov 24, 1951
Cause KIA-Body Not Recovered
Reason Lost At Sea-Unrecovered
Location Korea
Conflict Korean War
Location of Interment Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial - Honolulu, Hawaii
Wall/Plot Coordinates Court 8 (cenotaph)
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
[Official statement at memorial sites] Seaman (E3) Barnett served aboard the destroyer USS Hyman (DD-732) in Korean waters. On November 23, 1951, he was wounded when his ship was hit by enemy shore battery at Wonsan, North Korea and died on November 29, 1951. His body was not recovered.
[Other sources] The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency records list SN Barnett as MIA - KIA. According to Wikipedia, the USS Hyman received only minor damage during the attack on November 24, 1951 and continued on with her missions.
[Assumption] SN Barnett was injured on November 24, 1951 and fell overboard. His body was not recovered so he was declared dead on November 29, 1951.
Comments/Citation:
Service number: 3836186
The information contained in this profile was compiled from various internet sources.
Description As 1951 drew to a close, a lull had settled over the battlefield. Fighting tapered off to a routine of patrol clashes, raids, and bitter small-unit struggles for key outpost positions. The lull resulted from Ridgway's decision to halt offensive operations in Korea, because the cost of major assaults on the enemy's defenses would be more than the results could justify. Furthermore, the possibility of an armistice agreement emerging from the recently reopened talks ruled out the mounting of any large-scale offensive by either side. On 21 November Ridgway ordered the Eighth Army to cease offensive operations and begin an active defense of its front. Attacks were limited to those necessary to strengthen the main line of resistance and to establish an adequate outpost line.
In the third week of December the U.S. 45th Division, the first National Guard division to fight in Korea, replaced the 1st Cavalry Division in the I Corps sector north of Seoul. The 1st Cavalry Division returned to Japan.
In the air, U.N. bombers and fighter-bombers continued the interdiction campaign (Operation STRANGLE, which the Far East Air Forces had begun on 15 August 1951) against railroad tracks, bridges, and highway traffic. At sea, naval units of nine nations tightened their blockade around the coastline of North Korea. Carrier-based planes blasted railroads, bridges, and boxcars, and destroyers bombarded enemy gun emplacements and supply depots. On the ground, the 155-mile front remained generally quiet in the opening days of 1952. Later in January the Eighth Army opened a month-long artillery-air campaign against enemy positions, which forced the enemy to dig in deeply. During March and April Van Fleet shifted his units along the front to give the ROK Army a greater share in defending the battle line and to concentrate American fire power in the vulnerable western sector.
