Roy Leverne “John” Barker was born on December 4, 1920 in Blythe, Riverside County, California. He was the son of Richard Polk Barker and Laura Ella McGahey Barker. They moved up and down the state of California because his dad was a share cropper. His father died in 1935 and he and his mother moved back to Blythe, Riverside, California where he graduated from High School in 1939. After Graduation he went to work for Civilian Conservation Corps that was all part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's new deal. The job had them building roads, parks, and drainages systems, etc. They also gave them some military training.
On Nov. 8, 1941 he married his sweetheart Lois Mullins (who he called Loy) in Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada. After they married he worked at a Filling Station. They didn't start a family, deciding to wait until after the war.
On 24 July 1942 he joined the Army Air Corps and soon discovered his true birth name. He always thought his name was John because that is what family and friends had always called him, he also went by Johnnie (how he signed letters to wife, mother and sisters, with "ie" not "y" as on his headstone), so they had to get records on marriage and enlistment changed to show his birth name as Roy Leverne Barker not John Leverne Barker.
He went thru flight training school in San Antonio, Texas, and then went to Harding and Hammons Fields, Louisiana for more training. From there they joined the 9th Air Force 362nd Fighter Group, 377th Squardron. Flying a P-47 Thunderbolt.
He received awards for directing an attack resulting in the complete destruction of a marshaling yard. Having sent his squadron to another target he and one wing-man strafe a train and destroyed it as well as silencing enemy gun positions. He flew missions over Germany and France as Lead Pilot of a Fighter Squadron.
July 5, 1944 after a fighter had taken out his wing-man he shot down an ME-109G German Fighter, which he was credited for. There had been a miscount of his missions, plus he didn't get credit for shooting down two Focke Wolf 190 German Fighters. The errors were because of lack of recorded information by a heavy drinking ground officer of the 377. This information was passed on to us by LTC Jack Baresfeld, USAF Retired, who wrote a book on their flying and much on his best friend Captain Roy L. Barker. They said he was on his 98th mission, but was really on his 104th (that error in records has been corrected, sadly after 100 missions he could of been sent home) when he was shot down on Jan. 19, 1945 in a big raid over Luxembourg. He was MIA for 5 months before they discovered the identity of a pilot that had survived a crash but was executed by the Germans not far from his plane, said pilot having been placed on his knees then shot thru the head.
After the war he was brought home for burial in the cemetery his Dad was laid to rest in Bakersfield, Kern, California. CPT Barker is also commemorated on the Kern Veterans Memorial, Bakersfield, CA. Some of the medals or decorations he received were the Silver Star, Purple Heart, Air Medal with Three Silver Stars and 2 Bronze Clusters, Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, and Presidential Unit Citation.
Source of information: www.findagrave.com