Ernest Barber was born in September 1924 in rural Mississippi with three brothers and one sister while his father worked as a bricklayer and farmer. He took a bus to school every day. During the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States], his parents were ingenious because they slaughtered and harvested all the food, so their family never went hungry. His family got along with their neighbors and they looked after each other. Barber’s parents were active in the church and the community. Ernest was still in high school when Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] was attacked, and he did not hear about the news until Monday morning at school. Barber was unaware of the location of Pearl Harbor. Barber was 17 when he graduated from high school, and then attended junior college for one year before he was drafted by the Army. Barber wanted to go into engineering and took science courses at school. Barber’s parents were going to buy a larger farm, but decided not to because they did not want their children to be stuck working on the farm [Annotator’s Note: clock sounds at 0:12:38.000] and would rather their children find other professions. Barber and his siblings eventually went to school and got degrees. They bettered their lives like their parents wanted them to. Barber tried to enlist in the Navy as a pilot, but failed the color-blind test and was sent home. He then went to the draft board in Brookhaven [Annotator’s Note: Brookhaven, Mississippi] and was inducted into the Army. Before he left, his parents wished him well and gave him some advice, which was to obey the orders of his commanders. His mother said she would be praying for him to come back and was proud of him.

After Ernest Barber was drafted into the army, he was inducted at Camp Shelby [Annotator’s Note: Camp Shelby, Mississippi] and then he was sent to boot camp in Hot Springs, Arkansas. However, he learned quickly that they were sent to the wrong location. Barber and the rest of the recruits were taken to a hospital and bunked there. They received orders a few days later to remain at the hospital. He received some basic training for about three weeks and then was given duties in the hospital. Barber spent his first year at the base working in the dining hall. He did KP [Annotator's Note: kitchen patrol or kitchen police] duty and worked in the pantry tracking the food. After his year at Hot Springs, the army sent Barber to Camp Barkley, Texas where he received more basic training. Barber thought the camp was a “hell hole.” After 11 weeks, Barber was shipped to dental assistant school in Fort Bliss, New Mexico. He learned how to extract teeth. He then went on a bivouacked in Abilene, Texas. The weather was cold, and he was assigned to a hospital tent. He was then sent to physical reconditioning school at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington. He recalled the coursework to be very difficult and then would do physical activities for five hours a day. He met Frank Leavitt and cared for him while he was a patient [Annotator’s Note: Frank Simmons Leavitt was an American professional wrestler of the early 1900s, known by the ring name Man Mountain Dean].

After several months of training, Ernest Barber was sent to Charleston, South Carolina and assigned to the USAHS [Annotator’s Note: United States Army hospital ship] Larkspur. The ship then went to Southampton, England to pick up wounded soldiers and bring them back to the United States. Next, the ship went to Cherbourg, France to pick up more wounded and brought them back to New York. His hospital ship traveled from the European Theater to the United States over eight times transporting wounded soldiers for recovery. The last trip Barber made was on the USAHS Wisteria. The Wisteria was more slender than the Larkspur. He also noticed that the Wisteria only had salt water, while the Larkspur had fresh water. On the Larkspur, the Merchant Marines ran the ship operations while the Army managed the hospital operations. Many of the wounded men were very depressed because they did not know how they would be able to get back into civilian life. Some of the patients were mentally insane and had to be put in special padded cells. The medical personnel often gave them medication to knock them out. Barber visited the beaches of Normandy [Annotator’s Note: Normandy, France] and visited the American cemetery [Annotator’s Note: clock dings at 0:42:36.000]. He toured the area and saw the trenches where the Germans fought from. Barber commented that the sand was still stained red from the blood of soldiers wounded or killed on the beach. His time in Normandy was very emotional and eye-opening to him. On one occasion, the ship was heading to Cherbourg to pick up another load of wounded when an announcement came over the PA system [Annotator’s Note: public address system] for everyone who was able to leave their post to report to the top deck. There, the captain of the ship announced that Japan had surrendered. Everyone cheered and hugged each other. Barber prayed to God and thanked him for the War’s End and that he would be going home soon. Barber could not wait to see his family, friends, and fiancé.

After the war, Ernest Barber went back to school using the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] to attend Oklahoma State [Annotator's Note: Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma] for chemical engineering and worked as a petroleum engineer for 31 years before he retired in 1987. His wife completed her master’s degree and taught classes. Barber was discharged from the Army as a corporal. [Annotator’s Note: Video break at 1:01:57.000]. World War 2 helped Barber mature during his three years in the military. Barber’s most memorable experience of World War 2 was when the captain on the ship announced that the Japanese had surrendered. He was slated to fight in the Pacific and all that came to a halt when the Japanese surrendered [Annotator’s Note: the Japanese signed the Instrument of Surrender on 2 September 1945]. Barber believes that World War 2 taught America to be prepared and supportive of our country. Barber believes that there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations. He believes that America needs to look to the principles of the Bible and is blessed with a constitution written by our founders. [Annotator’s Note: clock digs at 1:12:14.000.] His family is very supportive of each other and help each other financially when they can.