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REX T. BARBER Colonel, USAAF, USAF, Ret 70th Fighter Squadron 18th Fighter Group

Rex T. Barber was born in Culver, Oregon, on May 6, 1917. After graduating from high school he briefly attended Linfield College in McMinnville, OR, then transferred to Oregon State College at Corvallis, OR, where he majored in Agricultural Engineering. He had always had an interest in flying - even as a youth - and when the war erupted in Europe 1939, he could see the war clouds gathering for the U.S., and although he had just a few weeks remaining to receive his college degree, Barber enlisted in the Army Air Corps in September 1940. He immediately applied for Pilot Training, and in March 1941 was sent to the Rankin Aeronautical Academy, Tulare, CA, as an Aviation Cadet where he first learned to fly in Stearman PT-17 biplanes. He won his wings and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps at Mather Field, CA.

Lieutenant Barber’s first duty assignment was with the 70th Fighter Squadron, then part of the 35th Fighter Group, at Hamilton Field, CA, where he initially flew Curtis P-40s. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, the 70th Squadron was moved to the Fiji Islands, arriving on January 27, 1942, to fly Bell P-39s then to Guadalcanal where they soon acquired twin-engined Lockheed P-38s. When the 18th Fighter Group was re-formed in March 1943, Lt. Barber was assigned to the 339th Fighter Squadron, and the 70th was transferred into the 18th to join the 12th and 44th Fighter Squadrons. The 70th remained with the 18th, flying combat missions out of Henderson Field until October 1942, then commenced their northward island-hopping actions against the Japanese forces during the remainder of World War II.

The most significant event of Rex Barber’s career – perhaps of his entire life, took place just a short time after he had joined the 339th Squadron - in mid-April 1943. A coded Japanese message was intercepted, telling in precise detail, the planned route and scheduled arrival ( 0945 hrs.) for Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s flight to the island of Ballale, just off the coast of Bougainville on the morning of 18 April, 1943. Because the U.S. had previously broken the secret Japanese codes and could translate their intentions, Major John Mitchell, Commanding Officer of the 339th Fighter Squadron, was selected to plan and lead a flight to intercept and to shoot down Japan’s foremost military leader. Due to the extreme distance involved... more than 425 over-water miles each way, it was determined that only the P-38 would have sufficient range to carry out such a mission, and even then, they would require the large 310 gallon drop-tanks ... but the only tanks available on Guadalcanal were the shorter-range 165 gal. models.

Roger Ames, 12th Fighter Squadron, one of the mission pilots (and a long-time member of the 18th Fighter Wing Assoc.), recalled: “We put in an emergency order for the larger tanks, which had to be flown in during that night, and the crews worked throughout the night installing one each of the 310 and the 165 gallon tanks on every available P-38. We had only 18 flyable P-38s between all of our squadrons, and all were scheduled for the mission, but only 16 made it into the air.”

In order to intercept Yamamoto’s Betty bomber by 9:45 a.m., Major Mitchell determined that it would be necessary for the P-38’s to be airborne, formed up and depart Guadalcanal by 7:15 a.m., just two hours and five minutes before intercept time, then fly at wave top altitude, well away from any islands, to avoid potential discovery by enemy radar. They took off on schedule on April 18 – Palm Sunday, a week before Easter Sunday, 1943, and flew a meticulous series of five varied headings, depending entirely upon the accuracy of Mitchell’s clock, compass and airspeed for his Dead Reckoning (time and distance) planning. Four pilots had been designated to be the "Killer Flight", to carry out the actual attack against Yamamoto's bomber; they were Capt. Tom Lanphier, Lt. Rex Barber, Lt. Joe Moore, and Lt. Jim McLanahan. (Lt. Besby Holmes and Lt. Ray Hine replaced Moore and McLanahan when their drop tanks failed to feed). All of the other twelve P-38s were to be "Cover Flights" to protect the Killers from the scores of enemy Zeroes which were expected to accompany their top Admiral.

Roger Ames reported further: “It was an uneventful flight, but a hot one, flying at wave-top level, ten to fifty feet above the sea. Some of the crews silently counted sharks, another counted driftwood. I don’t remember doing anything but sweating – John Mitchell said he may have started to doze off a couple of times, but the Man Upstairs would tap his shoulder to keep him awake. As we finally turned in toward the coast of Bougainville and started to gain altitude, 1st Lt. Doug Canning – ‘Old Eagle Eyes’ – broke radio silence with a quiet ‘Bogeys! Eleven o’clock high’ announcing contact with the enemy. It was 9:35 am. The Admiral was precisely on schedule, and so were we. It was almost as if the affair had been prearranged with the mutual consent of friend and foe. Two Betty bombers were at 4,000 feet with six Zeroes at about 1500 feet above and just behind the bombers in a ‘V’ formation of 3 planes on each side of the bombers.

“We all dropped our belly tanks and put our throttles to the fire wall climbing for altitude. The Killer Section closed in and climbed for the attack while the Cover Section stationed themselves at about 18,000 feet to take care of the fighters expected to rise from Kahili.” (The Japanese had about 75 fighters on Bougainville, but none were airborne to protect the incoming flight. It was surmised that they were all lined up along the runways waiting to be inspected by the Admiral.)

"Lanphier and wingman Rex Barber headed for the enemy planes which were slightly above and at their one or two o'clock position off their nose, rapidly closing toward them; they had hoped to position themselves for a right-turning pursuit-curve attack, but when about a mile in front and two miles to the right of the bombers, the Zeroes spotted them and dropping their belly tanks, dove down to intercept the P-38s, while the lead Bettys nosed down in a diving turn to get away from the attackers. Meanwhile, Lt. Holmes, leader of the Killer’s 2nd element, could not release his belly tanks, so in an effort to jar them loose, he turned off down the coast kicking his plane around attempting to shake them loose. Ray Hine, his wingman had no choice but to follow and protect him. So Lanphier and Barber were left as the only two going after the Japs for the first few minutes.”

Roger Ames wrote that he could not personally see what transpired next, since he was at 18,000 feet, and the Killers were down closer to the jungle. But he had carefully read all available reports, and concluded that the following events had taken place:

“As Lanphier and Barber were about to be intercepted by the Zeroes, Lanphier banked slightly left to turn head on into them, shot down one Zero and scattered the others. This gave Rex Barber the time and opportunity to go for the bombers without interference. As Barber turned right to get into position to attack the Betty bombers, his left boom and engine blanked his view and he lost sight of them briefly as they passed under his wing, and when he straightened around he saw only one bomber – going ‘hell bent for leather in a spiral turn down toward the jungle tree tops. The 2nd bomber, he learned later, had dropped behind the first and was below and behind Barber, who immediately went after the 1st Betty and started firing across the top of the fuselage at the right engine. As he slid over to get directly behind the target, his fire passed through the vertical fin of the Betty and he saw pieces of the rudder separate from the plane. He continued firing and was probably no more than 100 feet behind the Betty when it suddenly snapped to the left and slowed rapidly; as Barber roared by he saw smoke coming from the right engine. He believed the Betty went down into the jungle, but he did not actually see it crash.”

“By then, three of the Japanese Zeroes were making firing passes on Barber’s tail, as he took violent evasive action while he headed for the coast on the deck, at minimum altitude. Luckily for him, two P-38s (which were later determined to be Lts. Holmes and Hine) saw his difficulty and chased the Zeroes off his tail. Barber stated that he glanced back inland toward the area he had just passed, and saw a large column of black smoke rising from the jungle, which he believed to be the first Betty bomber which he had just shot down.”

“In the meantime,“ continued Ames, “Lanphier, having shot down one and scattered the rest of the Zeroes’ formation, found himself at about 6000 feet and looking down, saw a Betty flying across the tree tops, so he came down and began firing a long, steady burst across the bombers’ course of flight ... from approximately right angles. (In another account, Lanphier claimed he was clearing his guns.) In both cases he said that ‘he felt he was too far away to hit it’, but to his surprise, the bomber’s right engine and right wing began to burn – then ‘the right wing came off ‘ the plane plunged into the jungle and exploded.”

(A search team, led by Japanese Army Lieut. Hamasuna, found the wreckage the evening of the following day – 19 April 1943 – and reported “that the ‘wings and propellers had survived’, but the fuselage had broken just ahead of the Rising Sun insignia, and the section forward from there to the cockpit had been burned out. No one had survived the crash, except possibly Chief Surgeon Takata, whose body was found next to that of Yamamoto. It was speculated that Takata may have placed Yamamoto, while still alive, in his seat where he was found, and then Takata died near him. Yamamoto was found dead outside the fuselage, sitting on the cabin seat, with the seat belt on, as if he were still alive. He wore white gloves. His hand grasped his sword and his right hand rested lightly upon it. His head lolled forward as though he was deep in thought, but he was dead. Yamamoto’s watch had stopped at 7:45 a.m.....”)

Lt. Holmes, having shaken loose his faulty drop tank, saw the second Betty bomber diving toward the sea at low altitude, and took after him, with Lt. Hine on his wing. They had the bomber under heavy attack from the rear, when Rex Barber reportedly joined their attack and finished putting the crippled aircraft into the sea, and in the process was struck by falling debris which damaged his intercooler and scraped his gondola.

“Lanphier reported that two Zeroes then came after him and he called Mitchell to send someone down to help him. He unwittingly led them over a corner of the Japanese fighter strip at Kahili, then headed East with the Zeroes still on his tail, went into a high speed climb and finally lost the Zeroes at about 20,000 feet. Lanphier finally arrived at their home base – with just two bullet holes in his rudder ... in startling contrast to Barber’s plane, which had 104 bullet holes, a knocked out intercooler and a large dent in his gondola.”

Upon landing at Fighter II on Guadalcanal, none of the 15 surviving pilots were formally debriefed on the mission. (Lt. Hine did not return from the flight, and was listed as MIA) Lanphier was one of the first to land, and he got out of his plane shouting, in no uncertain terms, that he had shot down Yamamoto. He kept repeating “I got him. I got him. I got that son-of-a-bitch”. Neither Major Mitchell nor Lt. Rex Barber could believe what they were hearing from Lanphier. “How,” they thought “could Lanphier even know which Betty the Admiral was riding in?” No one saw him shoot at any aircraft.

When the returning mission pilots gathered in the headquarters tent, every one was talking at the same time and the only records taken were cursory notes that one or two intelligence officers made, and those were usually concerned with victory claims and confirmation information. Mitchell recalled “We had no one who could conduct debriefings in those days. We were uneducated then. We only knew what we ourselves had been through, and accepted each others’ versions of what had happened.”

No one questioned Lanphier’s claim as he persisted in retelling his story over and over to anyone who would listen. While Rex Barber sat back, unable to understand how Tom could continue to make such a claim. Finally Barber had enough. He asked Lanphier: “How in the hell do you know you got Yamamoto?” Lanphier shot back, “You’re a damned liar. You’re a damned liar.” Barber was shocked at this reaction, and said: “I haven’t made a statement. I just asked a question, but here he was calling me a liar for asking a question.”

Lanphier kept insisting that he had shot down Yamamoto, and because there was no official report to counter his claim, everyone seemed to believe him ... only Major Mitchell and Lt. Barber questioned his claim, but neither wanted to argue with him.

An undated report to the Commanding General, USAFISPA was prepared and signed by two Army Intelligence Officers, Capt. William Morrison and Lt. Joseph E. McGuigan ... a copy of which Roger Ames had in his files. Neither Mitchell nor Barber were consulted at any time during the preparation of the report. This report and the follow up messages were thus accepted by the Army and Navy Commanders as the official version of the epic mission. And Lanphier constantly referred back to those initial reports whenever he was questioned.

A short time later, during an informal discussion on a golf course, between Capt. Lanphier, Lt. Barber and General Strother, Barber said, “I’ve been wondering how they ever got a Mission Report together to send to higher headquarters?”

Barber said Lanphier replied “Don’t worry about it, Rex. I went over to the Ops tent that evening and wrote the report. I also helped write our citations for the Medal of Honor.”

Barber was stunned. He’d never received a copy of that vital mission report until the late 1950’s when many of the classified wartime documents were declassified. He said that if he had known about the report, he said that he would have strenuously objected to its content, especially after Lanphier told him he had helped to write the report.

Who shot down Admiral Yamamoto has been in dispute for several decades. In 1997 the American Fighter Aces Association gave Barber 100 percent credit for the shoot down of the bomber carrying Yamamoto. In 1998 the Confederate Air Force recognized that Barber alone and unassisted brought down Yamamoto's aircraft and inducted him into the American Combat Airman Hall of Fame.

The Air Force, after much high level discussion, ultimately made an arbitrary decision to split the victory over Yamamoto’s Betty bomber between Lanphier and Barber and, despite the numerous independent studies, seminars and ongoing expert research to the contrary ... which has concluded that only Rex Barber, alone, could have downed the Betty carrying Admiral Yamamoto on 18 April, 1943, the hierarchy still refuse to correct their obviously erroneous records, nor to award the nation’s highest honor to both John Mitchell and Rex Barber for their epic wartime performance.

[ A detailed, comprehensive summary of the Yamamoto Mission, including comparison of conflicting arguments and copies of reports and findings, can be found on the Second Yamamoto Mission Assoc. (SYMA) website at: http://www.syma.org]

In all, Rex Barber flew 110 combat missions from Guadalcanal, then transferred in early 1944 to the 449th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group in China, where he flew another 28 combat missions in P-38s, shot down several more enemy aircraft – which were not logged, and was himself injured when he was shot down, but evaded capture. He returned to the ‘States in January 1945 and was assigned to the 412th Fighter Squadron, 29th Fighter Group, at Oxnard, CA, where he flew and test flew the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, the United States’ first operational jet fighter. When World War-II ended, Rex Barber had survived 138 combat missions, was credited with five confirmed kills and three ‘probables’, including probably the most notable aerial victory of the war – the downing of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy and mastermind behind their attack on Pearl Harbor. Barber had been awarded the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, a Purple Heart, numerous Air Medals and a wide array of theater ribbons and campaign medals.

In 1946 then-Major Barber was awarded a Regular Air Force Commission, and on October 3, 1947 he married Margaret, his partner-for-life, in Panama City, Florida. He remained active in the Air Force, with a tour in Tactical Air Command at Langley AFB, VA, from 1946 to 1950; Air Defense Command at Colorado Springs, CO from 1950 to 1952, a stint as Air Attache to Colombia and Ecuador, while based in Bogota, Columbia until 1956, when he transferred to Myrtle Beach, SC, where he ultimately retired from active Air Force duty as a Colonel in 1961.

Colonel Barber, his wife Margaret and their family returned to Culver, Oregon, where he became a successful Insurance man, was Justice of the Peace, and Mayor of Culver, but he was noted for never having missed a Little League ballgame... and as a person who would repeatedly “...take in stray kids.”

Rex Barber was hospitalized for pneumonia in May, 2001, but seemed recovered after returning home. He died quietly at home on July 26, 2001.  His son, Rex Barber Jr. pausing on the phone to hold back tears, said that his dad  had enjoyed a good 84 years, then his ‘afterburner just flamed out on him’ .