Gregory Inman Barras

West Point, 1955

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by John McCloskey on May 17, 1999:

Greg Barras was the last person on earth who would have claimed to be a hero, but a hero he most surely was. I knew him all too briefly as we went through the rigors of West Point as classmates in Company B-1 from 1951 to 1955. For part of one semester of our plebe year, we were roommates. A true son of the Deep South, bom and raised in Mississippi, he never did get used to the icy West Point winters. Plebe year began rather awkwardly for Greg, in that he spent a few weeks in the hospital (he broke his leg in wrestling class), and shortly after he returned to the Company he had. to go home for his father's funeral. Soon after that Greg and I became roommates when our original company clerk, another classmate, ran afoul of the Honor Code. When we were all asked who could type I said I could, and immediately was appointed as the new company clerk. We became roommates at that time, perhaps because he had a typewriter and I did not. He was the first person I knew who had been through Rat Year at VMI before entering West Point. I thought that showed a marked degree of courage on his part. He was basically a no-nonsense person, but he had a keen sense of humor. Just thinking of the Roadrunner and Coyote of the movie cartoons made him chuckle. His accounts of the TV antics of Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, which he had seen while in the hospital, made us all chuckle. Plebes had little or no chance to watch TV in those days. We often sat together at football games, cheering for the Army Team. Never one to toot his own horn, he just went about the business of being a good cadet. He was rewarded by being named Company First Sergeant First Class year. He may have growled at the underclassman who tacked a 'First Sergeant's Office" sign on the latrine door, but he had to have been a little bit tickled by their prank. He and I lived in rooms across the hall from one another that year and we managed many a bull session when we weren't struggling with our studies. I am proud to have known him and wish I had known him longer and better. We never saw each other after graduation, since he went into the Air Force and I joined the Army. Our career paths never again crossed. I have thought of him often, especially since hearing that he was missing in action. His name has always come up at our class reunions. When I read the announcement that his remains were being returned for burial, I resolved to be there if at all possible. It was a genuine honor for me to be present at his burial at West Point for a final salute, along with five other classmates. Three of us were from Company B-1: Don Andrews, Zach Hagedorn and myself. Rest in Peace, Greg. Jack McCloskey

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