Harold Barber

Major 
Marine Corps

Harold L. Barber was born in Florida in October of 1926. He enlisted in the Marines when he was 15-years-old with the help of his mother, who lied about his age. He served in the Pacific theatre where he sampled unusual local delicacies such as snails and dandelions. Mr. Barber remembers suffering from malaria forty times in thirty-one months, recalls how he got a purple heart for fighting in Peleliu, one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific, and explains why he decided to stick it out in the service, even after getting the chance to go back home.