- Introduction -

I'm Andy Barr ... thanks for visiting.  This is a mini-biography of my naval career from 5 April 1949 through 16 October 1968.  It is amazing to me that over 55 years have passed since I raised my hand, swearing the oath that started my service and thirty years since retirement. 

I've wanted to put this bio together for a long time, mainly as a reminder to myself that I did exist "in another life" and managed to do a few things - a need to justify my existence, I suppose.

The following pages reflect my memory of past events, people and experiences.  I kept no log, and regrettably, my photo collection has been lost so I rely on photos and historic information made available by others to fill the void, hoping one day to recover my own.  I find it strange - and eerie too - that much of this recall flowed so easily; yet, there are blanks and some "crossed wires" relating to names and dates.  So, I present a caveat:  since 95% of this is a memory exercise and I have few documents to qualify the accuracy of every date or event, please give me the benefit of the doubt respecting specific details, dates and places, or provide me best evidence so that I may adjust my memory - and this text.  While I'd like to think that this is "close enough for government work", I am not infallible for sure, and I can take a course correction without a collision alarm sounding.

They say that the sweetest sound (and sight) to a man is the proper sound of his name on the lips of another (and the correct spelling in a printed piece).  I hope this, too, is accurately accomplished and that I haven't butchered the spelling of proper names, as in shipmates, vessels and places, and please ... accept my sincere apology for a memory which can recall some folks and events and not others.  If you have a fact, anecdote, a shipmate's name I've missed, or other item which will allow me to make these pages more correct, more interesting, please contact me.  Thanks in advance.

You may find the Yellow pop-up, courtesy of the author, Scotty Lee, a helpful tool using  "modern" browsers.  There are links to this and links to that, but the BLUE links mark text that, for the non-Navy person, may help to provide additional and/or amplifying information.  As a point of interest, just hold your mouse cursor over here.  (NOTE:  IE4/5 may show some pop-ups blinking, while Netscape appears stable; also some monitors will cut off the lower lines of the pop-up text.  If you have either or both problems, please email me - thanks.)

Frankly, I just had to get these things out and this web site is just the vehicle for such reflection.  I am hopeful that others, seaman and landlubber alike, and most particularly, Destroyermen, will find something useful in these reflections.

The link PROLOGUE opens the site to you as a storybook;
links at the bottom of each page will sequence you through
the time-line of 1949 - 1968.

GO DIRECT! allows you to select specific pages.