William M. Barnett was born in June 1925 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He grew up in the city, had an older sister, attended school at Newman School, but then went to Exeter Prep School in New Hampshire for two years. Both his parents grew up in New Orleans and attended Newman School. They married in 1920. Hs father worked as a lawyer. As a young boy, Barnett found ways to make extra change by selling magnolias to people. Barnett was not aware of the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] and feels that it did not affect him at all. In 1932, when he was six years old, his parents took Barnett and his sister to Cuba for a week. And then in 1937, his parents took them to Asia for summer vacation. They visited Japan and met with the ambassador. They also visited Shanghai [Annotator’s Note: Shanghai, China]. During that time, they were advised to leave the city and go south to Hong Kong. Barnett and his family got caught up in a bombing between the Japanese and the Chinese while trying to travel out of Shanghai. When they returned to the United States, his family’s adventures were published in the newspaper. While in Shanghai, Barnett stood on the deck to watch propeller planes fly over until his mother made him come in and stay below the port holes. He was not scared because he was too young to understand. Barnett remarked that his mother was a great woman. She studied music in New York before marrying his father. Barnett was in prep school walking back from class when he heard over the radio about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941].

In June 1943, two weeks before his 18th birthday, William M. Barnett was given permission to leave prep school [Annotator’s Note: Exeter Prep School in New Hampshire] to enlist in Boston [Annotator’s Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. He had just been accepted into an accelerated college program, and he thought that by enlisting, it would delay him from going overseas. Another reason he enlisted was so that he could request his branch of service. After he graduated from prep school, thinking that he would soon start his college program in July, he instead received orders from the military to report to Camp Beauregard, Louisiana for induction. A few days later, he was sent to Camp McClellan in Anniston, Alabama for basic infantry training. It was not pleasant crawling on his belly underneath barbed wire and the weather was extremely hot. His mother was a friend of the wife of General Kemper Williams, who was the commandant at Camp McClellan. Thinking that maybe Barnett would get a chance to dine with the general, she told her friend that her son was a private at the camp. One day, Barnett received orders to report to the commandant. When he reported to his office, the General asked how he was doing, in which Barnett replied that he was doing well. The General then said he would tell his parents and immediately dismissed him. After his 90-days of basic training, Barnett was sent to Fargo, North Dakota during the winter of 1943 for the ASTP [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program; generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers] program. It was very cold. He contracted chicken pox in November 1943 and was sent to a hospital. The rest of the battalion was quarantined. While in Fargo, he also dated a girl. In January 1944, the Army cancelled the ASTP program and sent Barnett to the 42nd Rainbow Division [Annotator’s Note: 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division] at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma and received more training. On the weekends he would go to Tulsa, Oklahoma to see USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations, Inc.] shows and go on dates. One day, he was called up to train on the 60mm mortar [Annotator's Note: M2 60mm mortar]. In November 1944, his regiment was sent to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey to await overseas deployment. He boarded a troop ship on Thanksgiving Day [Annotator’s Note: interviewee knocks his mic and interviewer pauses interview to adjust it at 0:30:06.000]. He looked out of the window as he passed the Statue of Liberty. The voyage took about nine days, and it was not fun because many soldiers became seasick. The bunks were three or four high and sleeping was not pleasant. He wrote a v-mail letter [Annotator's Note: Victory Mail; postal system put into place during the war to drastically reduce the space needed to transport mail] to his parents in a special code. His ship docked in Marseille [Annotator’s Note: Marseille, France] in the first week of December 1944. His regiment was supposed to train before heading to the front lines, but with the breakout of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], his regiment was ordered to head north. When Barnett reached Dijon [Annotator’s Note: Dijon, France], he boarded a train and was sent to the Maginot Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by France in the 1930s] at Fort Crown Prince.

On Christmas Day 1944, William M. Barnett [Annotator’s Note: with the 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division] was put on a DUKW [Annotator's Note: DUKW; six-wheel-drive amphibious truck; also known as a Duck] and headed to Strasbourg [Annotator’s Note: Strasbourg, France] being warned to lookout for snipers. On the first night in Strasbourg, Barnett was on guard duty leaning against a doorway of a factory. All of a sudden, a sniper shot at him, but the bullet hit the concrete wall. He immediately went down to take cover. [Annotator’s Note: Interviewee asked to take a break for a minute 0:39:40.000.] As the regiments moved forward toward the front lines, Barnett contracted dysentery. He shared a foxhole with another G.I. [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier], and one time, Barnett had to climb out of the foxhole to relieve himself but did not make it out in time. He messed in his underwear. He had to remain in the foxhole until the next morning when he was given permission to go to the back of the lines to take a shower and get some clean clothes and returned to his regiment. As the war progressed, his regiment was taken off the front lines for rest. The officers commandeered a farmhouse where a mother and two daughters were living. Because Barnett could speak French, he was used as his commander’s translator and was able to sleep on the floor of the kitchen. The lady of the house gave Barnett a mint drink that helped his stomach problems. As a thank you, Barnett bought little pins for the two daughters. His regiment proceeded through Europe and reached a river and crossed into Würzburg [Annotator’s Note: Würzburg, Germany]. They were supposed to take the lead of crossing the rivers, but another regiment jumped ahead of them. Most of the time, his company was in the reserves, which he was fine with. Barnett had been promoted to Sergeant while his regiment was in Alsace [Annotator’s Note: Alsace, France]. Before his regiment crossed into Würzburg, his commander sent out patrols, and one brought back a German prisoner. His commander then told Barnett to go out on a patrol. When he got down to some foothills, he set up a mortar and dropped a shell in the tube, but it did not fire. When a small skirmish broke out, Barnett grabbed the mortar equipment and carried it back with the live round. Somehow he was able to remove the shell later. When his regiment entered Würzburg, he received a replacement ammo carrier, named Oz King from North Carolina. He was a prisoner that was paroled in exchange for volunteering for front line duty. He liked to drink alcohol and threatened a lieutenant for wine. On another occasion, King was found in severe pain and was taken to a hospital. Barnett never learned what happened to him, but heard that King had a ruptured appendix. Later, Barnett was asked to sign an affidavit to court martial him. His regiment crossed the Rhine River at Worms [Annotator’s Note: Worms, Germany], and captured Schweinfurt [Annotator’s Note: Schweinfurt, Germany]. Barnett watched the American planes bomb the city. He saw a priest walking down the road who told Barnett that after fighting the Germans, the Americans would be fighting the Russians. Barnett’s regiment cleared the houses in Schweinfurt. He appropriated a German pistol during this time [Annotator’s Note: Video break at 0:57:46.000].

William M. Barnett [Annotator’s Note: with the 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division] first saw a dead G.I. [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] when he was going through the Harz mountains. The G.I. was laying on his back with his helmet covering his face. They stayed in a town for about five days. The company commander received papers to fill out for a battlefield commission. He gave the papers to Barnett who was to be sent to Paris for training to become a second lieutenant. However, soon after he received his papers, his regiment moved out and Barnett had to hold onto them for the next seven to ten days. When he turned them in, they were sent back because they were too muddy. Barnett remarked about a time when he and another soldier slipped into a trench, and they shared some scotch together. After getting into Germany, Barnett noticed that the Germans were surrendering to the Americans. Barnett did not hold any animosity towards the German foot soldiers, he placed more blame on the Gestapo [Annotator's Note: German Geheime Staatspolizei or Secret State Police; abbreviated Gestapo]. He had to guard two Gestapo soldiers and thought they were nasty looking men. His regiment captured Fürth [Annotator’s Note: Fürth, Germany] and stayed in a militant house. In the middle of the night, someone knocked on the front door. It was a German who had come home. He was immediately arrested and taken to a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camp. Barnett and his regiment made it to Nuremburg [Annotator’s Note: Nuremberg, Germany]. His unit was then sent to Munich [Annotator’s Note: Munich, Germany] where they were ordered to clear houses. His unit reached the Austrian border on VE-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. They celebrated by shooting some deer to eat and drank wine and beer. His unit was ordered to report for occupation duty in Salzburg [Annotator’s Note: Salzburg, Austria] for a month, and then to Vienna [Annotator’s Note: Vienna, Austria]. He joined the Glee Club because he thought the members were treated well. They were given their own quarters and traveled to different places to perform. His parents asked Barnett to find the sister of their friend, Eugene Ormandy [Annotator’s Note: phonetic spelling], music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra [Annotator’s Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. Ormandy had lost contact with her and wanted to find her location. Barnett was able to locate her in the Russian-occupied zone of Vienna. He gave her a bunch of letters from Ormandy and in return she gave him letters to send to her brother. Barnett remained in Vienna with the Glee club until April 1946 when he received orders to report to Le Havre [Annotator’s Note: Le Havre, France]. From there he boarded a troop ship to return to United States. During the trip back, a floating mine was spotted, and some Navy sailors tried to shoot at it. When his troop ship arrived at the New York Harbor, the soldiers on board received a pleasant welcome from the citizens.

William M. Barnett [Annotator’s Note: who served with the 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division in Europe] was discharged in April 1946 at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey with the rank of sergeant. In September 1946, Barnett began classes at Yale University [Annotator’s Note: Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut] and graduated in 1950. Barnett and a couple of his friends went to Europe to revisit some of the towns Barnett served in during World War 2. He then attended Tulane University Law [Annotator’s Note: Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana]. He used 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] for six years of college education. Later in life, he was persuaded by a friend to apply for post-traumatic stress disorder relief with the Veterans Administration [Annotator’s Note: United States Department of Veterans Affairs]. Barnett went and took some tests, which resulted in him finding out that he does not have any conditions and will not receive any benefits. In 1994, for the 50th Anniversary of D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], Barnett and a few other veterans went back to Europe with Stephen E. Ambrose [Annotator’s Note: While best known for his World War 2 books and as the founder of the National D-Day Museum, now known as the National WW2 Museum, in New Orleans, Ambrose wrote about numerous aspects of American history] for the ceremonies in Normandy [Annotator’s Note: Normandy, France]. Barnett’s company did not go into Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany] concentration camp after his regiment liberated it. Barnett helped a woman from Berlin whose husband died on the front lines. The closest call he had was when he and his unit were dug in a foxhole. A plane flew over them, and then soon after the Germans began shelling in his direction. The worst part was when the trees burst, and the shrapnel came raining down on him and his unit. Another time, he was running through an open field, and he just knew that he was going to get shot in the back. He did not. He felt so lucky to be alive. During occupation duty, he acted like the police towards the locals. Some of the Germans were nice, while others ignored him. While he was in Austria, he did not do anything during occupation duty except practice in the Glee Club. Barnett kept a daily diary and a camera during his World War 2 experience.

William M. Barnett believes that Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] saved hundreds of lives by dropping the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. His most memorable experience while doing occupation duty in Vienna [Annotator’s Note: Vienna, Austria] was being in the Glee club and performing for audiences. After the war, he went to college at Yale [Annotator’s Note: Yale University, an Ivy League college in New Haven, Connecticut], and then went on a European tour after he graduated in 1950. He remarked about a prom he attended with his friends, and he was dressed in women’s clothes. He attended Tulane [Annotator’s Note: Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana] for law school, graduating in 1952. He practiced civil law with his father. He married in 1954 and raised children. He retired from practicing law in 2015. Barnett fought in World War 2 because his father would not stand his son waiting around to be drafted. He did not want to fight anyone, but knew he had to join the military. His war experience gave him a lot of memories but did not change him. Barnett believes 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.