James T. Barron

West Point, 1951

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Jose Andres Chacon on August 23, 2004:

James Thomas Barron Born April 4, 1926 - Died September 5, 1988 On 5 September 1988, Jim Barron went on his last march, hiking with his wife, Gussie, in the Sandia Mountains of New Mexico. There ended a life of service to his country beginning with enlistment in 1945, through the Korean War, Special Forces in Vietnam, command of the target acquisition battalion at Fort Bragg, the National War College, Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering, director of Combat Development at Fort Sill, retirement in 1978 and continued dedication to worthy causes and the welfare of his family until his sudden death. Their seven children offer this splendid eulogy to their father: "Dear Dad, In re-solving a crisis at work, I was amazed at how little I relied on the management principles I learned from the textbooks, and how much I relied on your observations, common sense, and stern compassionate approach to managing people. I find myself, more and more, leaning on you for strength and resolve. I can't help but measure my career against yours in the amount of respect you garnered over the years. You represented a competence, a steel-like integrity that never wavered. While maintaining an enormously successful military career, you disdained careerism. While others viewed job changes with an eye on the next plateau and promotion, you were devoted to the task at hand. Like all good soldiers, you were the incurable optimist, the ultimate romantic. All the sacrifices, the family separations, the tedium, stress and physical danger you faced were worth the price to you. Those of us born to a more sophisticated and cynical generation, seeking justifications and rationales, pale before your simple, direct, and very deep need to do your duty. You may not have realized it, but all of your kids watched you closely. We all remember you in absolute concentration, studying for one of your degrees, in the same room that we noisily played. We watched you embark on a transport plane, bound for Vietnam; we watched you get off another from yet another tour in Vietnam, get us into the station wagon, drive quietly home and put us to bed. We watched you review troops and receive awards. We watched you entertain (a duty you surely took as seriously as leading men). We began to realize how special you were. We inherited from you a certain dislike for ostentation and pretense. You handed down a determination and perseverance beyond the norm. Due to our need to understand one so insistent and passionate as you, our conversations were dominated with explorations of your eccentricities and beliefs. Each disagreed with you at any given time on just about everything, but we never ceased to marvel at your consistency. Fatherhood was not as simple as you wanted it to be. We are a complicated group, but no one suffered more in our defeats, nor reveled more in our triumphs than you. Your message to us was always: 'Look guys, it's easy! Look how far I've come.' There must have been times when you looked with the eyes of a farm boy at your pretty wife, and your handsome brood, and marveled at your good fortune. When you retired the fire in your eyes diminished somewhat, for while you deeply loved your family, the Army was your life. Perhaps the heavy strain of all your commands, the stress of combat, the worry attendant with providing for your family, had finally taken its toll. But the flame flickered for a more fundamental reason, the professional soldier, above all else, must have his mission, and the activities of retirement seemed inadequate substitutes. Well, good soldier, you've got a mission again and it's from your Supreme Commander for the long haul. One I know you will execute smartly as you watch over your family and friends, and help us through this life by reminding us of that simple creed that guided you: Duty, Honor, Country." The Barron Children. jac; 18269 wc 668 (Footnote - Jim's widow, Gussie, lives within walking distance of the Chacon residence here in Albuquerque, right across from another classmate, Pat Corrigan.) The Artilleryman's Creed is a click away at Artilleryman's Creed ufa

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