Alton R. Barnes was born in December 1923 in Oxford, Alabama. He grew up in Talladega County where his father was in the dairy business. There were six siblings in his family. The family moved during the Great Depression because of the scarcity of jobs. Times were so hard that his father attempted farming for one year. He took on difficult jobs just to feed the family. Barnes had a wonderful family life. He attended school until the 11th grade when he was drafted. He recalls hearing the President's [Annotator's Note: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt] speech declaring war after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Barnes knew little of the ramifications of that event. He was drafted in June 1943.

Alton Barnes went to Fort McPherson, Georgia and then back to Fort McClellan [Annotator's Note: near Anniston, Alabama] after his entry into the Army. He completed his basic and advanced training in a heavy weapons company at Fort McClellan. He specialized in the operation of water cooled machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning .30 caliber M1917 machine gun]. He went to a school of practical application, SOPA, where he learned how to instruct and teach others. He next went to Camp Maxey in Texas and then directly to the Pacific. He joined the 158th Regimental Combat Team. He had no chance to go home prior to overseas deployment. He left California by ship and stopped briefly at Eniwetok. It took 23 days to reach the Philippines.

Alton Barnes arrived by ship in the Philippines and was sent by railcar into the jungles immediately. They had been given two donuts and a cup of coffee on their arrival. The troops were issued weapons that were covered with Cosmoline. The rain was heavy and it was late at night when he arrived. Barnes was summarily told to stand guard duty. He was very young and scared to death in that nighttime jungle. The men were soon aboard another ship and headed toward Batangas. Barnes then joined the unit he would serve with during the middle of March [Annotator's Note: March 1945]. He joined D Company, 158th Regimental Combat Team [Annotator's Note: Company D, 1st Battalion, 158th Regimental Combat Team]. It was a heavy weapons company. He was a machine gun crewman. Hardly getting a chance to introduce himself to his section mates, Barnes was soon on a boat headed across Lingayen Gulf to a place called Legaspi. That was Barnes only invasion. It was on the same day that the Marines attacked Okinawa [Annotator's Note: 1 April 1945]. After three or four days of hard fighting, it seemed the Japanese gave up. The troops remained in the mountains mopping up resistance. Most action involved elimination of snipers. Around the middle fo June Barnes' unit was replaced by the 11th Airborne Division and then sent to Bao [Annotator’s Note: unsure of spelling]. Barnes initially was assigned to drill troops but then transferred to the headquarters for the 158th. He would be made part of the stockade guard outfit. The 158th was largely composed of Native Americans and Mexicans. They had served well in the war and fought with valor in New Guinea prior to Barnes joining them. He was now being put in charge of controlling those fighters who were in the stockade for various infractions. That did not last long before he heard about the atomic bombs. No one knew what they were but anticipated the war ending. In mid-August, the war was over. When the commanding officer announced the end of the war, he also told his men that they would have been part of the invasion of the Japanese home islands had the enemy not surrendered. They were slated to capture a Japanese air raid early warning island prior to the main forces attacking Kyushu.

Alton Barnes and the 158th Regimental Combat Team, 158th RCT, left the Philippines in September [Annotator's Note: September 1945] and headed to Japan to become a part of the occupation of Japan. Before being able to land at Yokohama, the ship had to withstand a hurricane. The RCT was deployed to Utsunomiya which was a fairly large city north of Tokyo. While marching through the town, the inhabitants were nowhere to be seen. Utsunomiya appeared vacant. Although billeted at a beautiful garrison, the troops soon discovered that fleas and rats infested it. The exterminators had to be brought in before the troops could actually settle in. The 158th remained there until January [Annotator's Note: January 1946] when it was deactivated and returned to Arizona. While in Japan, Barnes and another man were slated to go back to the Philippines to return with a desperado who belonged to the 158th. The troublemaker had killed some Filipinos. The commanding officer elected to retain Barnes and sent the other guard to the Philippines. The other man sent on the mission died when his plane crashed in the sea during heavy weather. Barnes feels that the Lord intervened and prevented him from taking that flight. Barnes had a hospital stay with kidney stones during November. Afterward, he was sent to an engineering battalion. Before he could unload his gear, he found out that the 158th was being sent home. He loved seeing the Coca Cola signs when he returned home. [Annotator's Note: Barnes laughs.] It was a blessing.

Alton Barnes was a machine gunner [Annotator's Note: in Company D, 1st Battalion, 158th Regimental Combat Team] during the capture of Legaspi in the Philippines. The people in the squad were experienced men. The sergeant told the men to move from one position to the next. There were three days of heavy action and then it tapered off. The heaviest fighting was on 3 April [Annotator's Note: 3 April 1945]. After being relieved, the 158th Regimental Combat Team was being prepared for the invasion of Japan. Barnes was not aware of the planning. As a sergeant, he knew that there was something going on since the men were being worked so rigorously. Had the invasion proceeded, Barnes might not have survived the operation. It would have been a disaster. Barnes' commanding officer was a good man. The American troops that Barnes served with did not like the Japanese. He felt the enemy soldiers were dedicated to their cause and effective fighters. A few of the Japanese simply gave up the fight. They were eaten up with jungle rot. Barnes operated a water cooled M1917 machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning .30 caliber M1917 machine gun]. It would get so hot that it was hard to handle. It was heavy. It took one person to carry the gun and another to carry the tripod. Barnes knew how best to get the weapon in and out of action. He became an instructor on the gun as a result. He never felt vulnerable during his combat. Fighting was heavier in Northern Luzon compared to that experienced by the 158th, but there was vicious fighting near where Barnes was positioned at Legaspi. Barnes first joined his company in the Philippines. Although initially difficult to get to know his comrades, they soon took him in as a fellow brother in arms. It was a great unit. They were known as the "Bushmasters" and had a lot of pride in their capabilities.

Alton Barnes spent about three months in Japan performing occupation duty following World War 2. His main function was to establish the regimental stockade. The men were allowed access to the local area where they had contact with civilians. There was no trouble with the Japanese. Many local inhabitants returned to the city [Annotator's Note: Utsunomiya]. The troops stayed in a constant training mode during that time. Barnes returned home on 23 February 1946. He married on 11 May 1946. He had not completed high school so he returned to a veteran's class. The school principal asked Barnes to teach physical education to youngsters. Barnes had taught while in the military so he agreed. Through 1947, Barnes took high school classes and simultaneously taught physical education. He graduated high school in 1948 and entered college on the G.I. Bill. In 27 months, he completed college. He had a child during that time. He joined the Alabama National Guard and accepted a commission as a second lieutenant. He joined the National Guard because of his reluctance to rejoin the Army as an enlisted man. He was not qualified to go to Army OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school] during the war because he did not graduate high school. His discharge from the Army was about 23 February 1946 at Camp Shelby. He was a staff sergeant. Later, Barnes found that the Alabama National Guard needed officers so he enlisted. He was commissioned in 1947 prior to starting college in 1948. When he started college, he took an inactive status but rejoined a year later. He was called to active duty in December 1950 with the 31st Infantry Division with the 464th AAA Battalion in a tank company as an armor officer. Barnes attended Jacksonville State College and majored in physical education. After graduation, he coached a bit but opted to reenter the National Guard. In 1951, he was allowed a three month delay in deployment to Korea due to his wife's pregnancy. He was sent to Japan in lieu of Korea. He joined the 6th Tank Battalion there. Japan had changed tremendously. Everything was so peaceful in his second tenure there. Technology had progressed. The Japanese were different. Barnes and his commanding officer were invited to eat with a local family. The 6th Tank Battalion of the 24th Infantry Division was in a rest mode after deployment to Korea. Barnes returned home after 19 months and returned to teaching and the Alabama National Guard. Barnes decided to commit full-time to the Guard. He would be involved in establishing training programs for them. Barnes saw little difference in the integrated Army of 1951 compared to that of World War 2. He was involved in bringing the first black and female students into the training programs for the Alabama National Guard. He had no issue with bringing those officers along to further promotions. There is a mutual respect between them.

Alton Barnes established the Alabama National Guard officer candidate school, OCS, in 1956. The leadership of the former World War 2 officers was being lost in the Guard. Where the federal government aided in instructing enlisted guardsmen, the state of Alabama had responsibility to instruct the leaders of the Guard. There was no money or facilities to establish a program. With only scant information to guide him, Barnes established a school at Maxwell Field [Annotator's Note: in Montgomery, Alabama]. Classes started in 1957 with 80 students. It was poorly run initially and only 27 graduated. Instructors and students were hard to recruit. After three classes, improvements were obvious. The school became more efficiently run. Officers are still being produced for the Guard. The program worked and Barnes remained with it for 21 years. At the end of his service, he was asked to be the Assistant Adjutant General of the Alabama Guard. He retired at the rank of full colonel in January 1979. Barnes was not deployed during the Vietnam War. The men there suffered terribly with Agent Orange. It has caused long term illnesses in exposed veterans including Barnes' son-in-law. Barnes' OCS curriculum was set up initially for the Alabama Guard. Barnes worked vigorously to keep the instructors and students motivated to work with the program. He stressed the importance of fighting the communists during the height of the Cold War. Barnes found equipment and facilities from Fort McClellan to be beneficial for his OCS educational program. He is thankful for that facility. Fort McClellan has a teaching facility in Barnes' name on its site. He has been blessed.

Alton Barnes loves the United States and its freedoms. Freedom is the most important thing in this country. He decided to stay active in his retirement. He began writing. Initially, it was technical writing. He has continued training military personnel. He would gladly serve again in the military. The use of computers to aid training programs has been one of the most significant of the advances in technology that he has witnessed. He has gained an extensive amount of personal training during his own experiences in military instruction programs. The Alabama National Guard was called up during the Berlin Crisis. It also was called upon during the Civil Rights period in the 1960s. He and four other Guard personnel were called upon to aid in a disturbance when Martin Luther King [Annotator's Note: The Reverand Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.] was speaking at a church. The event was kept under control. The Alabama Guard units protected Freedom Riders. The Guard also participated in George Wallace's incident at the University of Alabama. As leader of the Alabama National Guard OCS, Officer Candidate School, Barnes insisted that all trainees be treated equally whether white, black, male or female. He did allow for an easier physical training program for the females when they first entered his OCS program.

Alton Barnes remembers being posted on guard duty during a rainy night in the Philippines as a green soldier. In the postwar period, he remembers in 1961 when an officer commandeered his training facility that he had just prepared. The officer took it for his command. He relegated Barnes to an inferior dilapidated building to run his OCS, Officer Candidate School. Barnes took 65 adjacent buildings and made a training center out of it. Barnes obtained the aid of his commanding officer and managed a labor force to aid in renovation of the facilities. It became a beautiful series of teaching buildings before Barnes retired in 1979. World War 2 allowed Barnes to continue his education. He completed a college education. His wife was a good motivator for him to press onward. The G.I. Bill enabled his education at Jacksonville [Annotator's Note: Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama]. He was blessed to be a veteran and is proud of his service. The country lost a lot of good men in the war. Barnes lost a good friend named Emmitt Mixon who had been at basic training with him. The Vietnam War was even worse. Barnes is writing a novel about the Civil War. Barnes' military training aided in his maturation. He feels that the youth of today would jump in and fight for the country if push came to shove. A little military training might do some good for those provocateurs in today's society. Another memorable event occurred in 1957 when Barnes was a captain in the Alabama National Guard. He was asked by a commanding officer to witness a nuclear explosion at Yucca Flat, Nevada in his stead and report his observations back to his CO [Annotator's Note: commanding officer]. The bomb was 11 miles away. He turned his back to the burst and covered his eyes with his hands. He could still see through his hands. The aftershock knocked him down. He even went to ground zero soon after the detonation. He had to be decontaminated and issued new clothing in the aftermath. It was a memorable event in his life. Barnes thinks The National WWII Museum is an important museum. People come from all over the country to see it. Everyone should know what happened during the war. All the veterans who served were glad to be able to do something for the country. He has faith that future generations will serve just as his generation did.