Clyde Barnhart was born in July 1923 in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. He served in the Army Air Corps [Annotator's Note: during World War 2], in the 883rd Squadron [Annotator's Note: 883rd Bombardment Squadron, 500th Bombardment Group, 20th Air Force]. He graduated from high school in May 1942. He had gone to work for the government at an air depot, but was drafted into service and placed in the reserves in December 1942, entering active service on 13 January 1943. He was discharged on 24 December 1945 at Indiantown Gap [Annotator's Note: Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania]. Barnhart had two sisters, and eight brothers. His father was a carpenter. Three of Barnhart's brothers also served during the war. One was in the CBI [Annotator's Note: China-Burma-India Theater], the other in Italy. They all made it home. Barnhart grew up during the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] and recalls eating "coffee soup" which was coffee with bread in it. Army food was good in comparison. He worked in the summers hoeing corn for a neighbor. Barnhart did basic training in Miami Beach, Florida and was then sent to Lincoln, Nebraska for AM [Annotator's Note: perhaps aircraft maintenance or mechanics] school. From Lincoln, he went to Chanute Field, Illinois for specialty school and then to Walker Army Airfield in Kansas. There, he built runways for B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber], and then the B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] came in. He worked repairing the aircraft. Barnhart was a senior in high school when he heard about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. It was all over the radio. His schoolteachers told them that the world would never be the same again, and it was not.

Clyde Barnhart was assigned to the 20th Air Force at the Overseas Replacement Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Some of the other men at Chanute [Annotator's Note: Chanute Field, Illinois] did not want to go, but they were sent to Walker Army Airfield in Kansas. There he began servicing B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. The first B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] he saw was painted in camouflage. They finally got orders to go overseas for the invasion of Saipan [Annotator's Note: the Battle of Saipan, Mariana Islands; 15 June to 9 July 1944]. He got a furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] to go home but almost immediately received a telegram to report back. When he got back to base, his whole outfit had gone overseas. Barnhart was told he was going to be an island hopper, starting from California. There, there were rows and rows of B-29s. He was able to go to Frisco [Annotator's Note: San Francisco, California] and had a good time. He was then sent to Hamilton Field, California and on to Honolulu [Annotator's Note: Honolulu, Hawaii] to refuel before heading to Kwajalein [Annotator's Note: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands]. He saw a dead Jap and still remembers the smell. Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname given by Allied servicemen to any English speaking female radio personality broadcasting Japanese propaganda in the Pacific Theater] once mentioned his name. His heart goes out to the Seabees [Annotator's Note: or CBs, members of US naval construction battalions] who built the runways day and night for B-29s. They always had mutton to eat. It came from Australia. Once while eating in the mess hall, Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] planes came in and strafed. His hair turned gray that day, he was always scared. The men were given rations of beer, but Barnhart did not drink so he traded his beers for Coke. There was an area called Suicide Cliff [Annotator's Note: Marpi Point on Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] where local women would leap to their deaths because they had been told the Americans would rape them. The Americans would hide in the caves below the cliffs during air raids. The bodies of the dead had to be bulldozed but the smell of death remained. He will never forget it. There was also a leprosy colony on the island. They would sometimes sightsee around the island. Barnhart has attended reunions after the war. General Curtis LeMay [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces then US Air Force General Curtis Emerson LeMay; Fifth Chief of Staff of the US Air Force] ordered the armor to be taken off the airplanes. A hell of a lot of men were lost at Iwo [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945; Iwo Jima, Japan]. The Air Force had no match for the Japanese Zeros [Annotator's Note: Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, referred to as the Zeke or Zero] until they got P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft].

Clyde Barnhart [Annotator's Note: a mechanic serving on Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands with the 883rd Bombardment Squadron, 500th Bombardment Group, 20th Air Force] did not interact much with the local civilians. They were fenced in and gave no trouble. They were Chamorro, not Japanese. Barnhart took care of the planes when they came back from missions, at all hours of the night. His first impression of Iwo [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan] was of the volcanic ash, which was awful. He visited a cemetery there where two men he knew from home [Annotator's Note: Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania] were buried, they had both been killed on the same day. He got permission to take their dog tags and returned them to their families. The island had been bombed daily for 74 days but only two Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] were killed because they hid in the cave system on the island. He did not sleep while on the island, there were rats everywhere. The B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] tried to run missions every night from Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] if they could. There was a rumor once that Japanese paratroopers would be coming in one evening. There were always rumors, but only some of them were true. Barnhart had a friend, Winnifred Burton [Annotator’s Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify], from Texarkana, Texas, who was convinced they would not make it home alive. His attitude made Barnhart feel bad. One night there was an air raid, and Burton said they were being gassed. They saw each other at a reunion in San Antonio [Annotator's Note: San Antonio, Texas], but he died shortly thereafter during a medical operation. Barnhart was still on Saipan when the war ended. The Enola Gay [Annotator's Note: the first aircraft to drop an atomic weapon in wartime, code named Little Boy, over Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945] took off from Tinian [Annotator's Note: Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands], which they could see from Saipan. They heard about the bombing later that day, and soon after that the Japanese were going to surrender. The United States would have lost a million men if the bombs had not been dropped. Barnhart was eventually sent back to the United States, as did all of his brothers.

Clyde Barnhart [Annotator's Note: a mechanic with the 883rd Bombardment Squadron, 500th Bombardment Group, 20th Air Force] returned home and had 30 days off. He could have received 52-20 [Annotator's Note: a government-funded program that paid unemployed veterans 20 dollars per week for 52 weeks], but did not take it. He got a job in Middletown [Annotator's Note: Middletown, Pennsylvania] as a mechanic's helper. He had to take a test to become a permanent senior laborer. He ended up in the Marine Corps in Philadelphia [Annotator's Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] when Middletown was shut down. He ended up as a foreman in the receiving department. He was sent to Warners Robins, Georgia where he was wined and dined and offered housing, but he did not like it there and turned down the offer and continued to work in Philadelphia. Barnhart credits going into the service with not drinking too much.