大象传媒

This is a record of events of happenings taking place from the time I was informed that I was going to sea.

-Robert H. Barkan-

My father, Robert H. Barkan, was born June 28, 1926. He grew up on Farragut Road in Brooklyn, New York, the son of a Baptist housewife, Edna Pickarvey, and an orphaned Russian Jew, the senior Robert Barkan., who made a career as the dean of city police reporters for The New York Daily Mirror. There was also an older sister Ruth who married and divorced after giving birth to a daughter Linda.

Robert, known among friends as 鈥淏obby鈥� and 鈥淩ed鈥�, dropped out of school and enlisted in the Navy on September 7, 1942 when he was 17 years old to participate in the second World War, which for his part, was waged on land and on sea for approximately four years. He left for active duty on December 31st, although he remained in the states, in Norfolk, Virginia, Ft. Pearce, Florida, Washington DC and Galveston, Texas, training as a radio man. Between June of 1944 and September of 1945, he went overseas, first to Colon, Panama, to Bora Bora, Espirito in the New Hebrities Islands, Milne Bay, New Guinea, Manus Island, Hollandia Guinea, Leyte Phillipines Islands, and Korea. During that time he endured bad weather, really bad chow, and kamikaze pilots one of whom missed his ship by inches and whose wake swept a man overboard. (Japanese kamikaze pilots sank or damaged more than 300 U.S. Naval ships, causing nearly 15,00 causalities.)
His diary began in the spring of 1944 when he set sail for the Pacific from Galveston, Texas. In addition to his diary excerpt, which also incorporated another 1943 log that he kept, Naval Secrets, I have included some of his war correspondence, primarily with his future wife, my mother, to coincide in the appropriate time sequence.
Regarding the war in the Pacific, by the time Bob was sent overseas, the leaders of the war effort were beginning to plan for a direct invasion of Japan. In early July of 1944, the Joint Planning Staff (JPS) said,鈥� unconditional surrender was to be achieved by undermining Japan's ability and will to resist through sea and air blockades, intensive air bombardments, and destruction of Japanese air and naval strength--and ultimately by invading and seizing objectives in the Japanese industrial heartland.鈥�
Japan was required to surrender on the "unconditional" terms determined by the Allies. It was into this environment that Bob set sail for the Panama Canal-destination unknown-in May of 1944 during the waning years of World War II.
From June 1944 to early October 1944, Bob served as Radioman Third Class aboard the LCI (L) 972, a training ship. Duty was light and the ship appeared to be trailing Mc Arthur, stopping on liberated islands and territory with friendly natives: Bora Bora, Espiritios Santos, Milne Bay, Hollandia, New Guinea. Bob watched movies, played ball, flirted with native women. His diary makes whimsical references to Davy Jones鈥檚 locker, and he pokes fun at top brass who 鈥渏ump on the fantail鈥� during an ocean swell.

In October, Bob learned he was to report aboard gunboat LCI (G) 64 for active duty as part of a convoy of battleships in the final invasion of the Philippines. His friend, Ken Pooton was part of the convoy, as well, on another ship that Bob visited prior to the invasion.

The famous invasion of Leyte is documented by the 19 year old Radioman. It is followed by the invasion of Luzon. In February 1945, Bob is promoted to Radioman Second Class and he is 鈥渉appy about it for it will mean a great deal more money.鈥�
By spring of 1945, Bob鈥檚 diary entries were short and terse, and he wrote of being homesick, and longing for the familiar faces of his family and Farragut Road. He inquired about the weather, the happenings of home.By summer and fall of 1945, Bob鈥檚 diary and letters to Lynn took on a depressed tone. He was bitterly disappointed that he wasn鈥檛 bound stateside after the Japanese surrender in August. He wrote,鈥� The Navy has really taken care of its men and gives the USO boys the breaks. I wonder how we would have felt if we knew about the plan when we were fighting off Jap suicide planes.鈥�

Instead of home, Bob is sent to Korea where the LCI 64 is caught in a typhoon enroute. It was a terrifying time for the young sailor and he wrote,鈥� The skipper told all hands to stand by with their life jackets just in case鈥� All night long we just stood by. 鈥� After several days the 64 sailed out of the typhoon and harbored in Korea, which Bob hated because the natives reminded him of the Japanese soldiers he fought during three invasions. After a year in the South Pacific, he was also cold and forced to stand back to back watches. From Korea he was sent to China, which he liked quite a bit. During his duty there four pages of his diary were cut out. Finally, in November he was sent back to Korea, then Okinawa, then Guam, San Fransciso. His dream of being home by Christmas didn鈥檛 materialize, but he was home by January 1946.

Bob鈥檚 naval diary ended in February of 1946 when he was promoted to Radioman First Class, but I would like to complete the chronicle of his life for interested readers.

Although a few references in his diary referred to a girl named Doris, Bob ended their relationship before D-Day and began corresponding frequently with Lynn Peterson, from Farragut Road, through much of 1945. He began dating Lynn when he returned home. His father, Robert Barkan, Senior prevailed upon his friends and colleagues at Standard Oil and at IBM to write letters of recommendation for young Bob to help launch his career. Bob secured a position in the mailroom at IBM in 1946, married Lynn in September of 1947. His first child, a girl, was born almost exactly a year later.

Over the next ten years, he finished his high school and his college diplomas, by going to school at night and receiving a degree in Journalism from Long Island University. He and Lynn had two more daughters, and he rose steadily at IBM to technical assistant, internal publications supervisor, press review service, group editor and then, by 1965, to editor of the Division News. He and Lynn were relocated by IBM; first from Queens to Long Island and then to Rockland County, New York. During his entire professional career, he wore a black suit, a black tie, and a white shirt and he took the train to the city every single week day.

In 1970, in sold his home in New York and moved his family to Orlando, Florida. Perhaps his naval stint in Ft. Pearce, Florida and in the Philippines began his liking for warm climates. In Florida, he opened a string of businesses: a modeling agency, a pizza restaurant, an office supply store and, finally, a carpet cleaning business with a fleet of trucks, which he and Lynn ran from their suburban home in Winter Park.

Bob鈥檚 father died in 1954. His mother married two more times and died in the 1980鈥檚. His niece Linda was severely injured and brain damaged in a car crash, and she died in 1971. His sister Ruth continued to live in Norfolk, Virginia earning a living by taking random photographs of tourists and trying to sell them the pictures. As of 2004, I have no idea what became of her.

Robert H. Barkan, a veteran survivor of the World War II Pacific conflict, died at the age of 49 on February 24, 1975. He was fatally shot through his kitchen window in his home in Winter Park. He was survived by his mother, his sister, his wife, three daughters and four grandchildren: two boys and two girls. His cold case is still being investigated by the Orange County Florida鈥檚 Sheriff鈥檚 Department. His killer remains at large.

Lynn remarried in 1983 and was widowed again in 1992. Today, she lives in Casselberry, Florida. She is the great-grandmother of two boys and two girls.

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