Retired U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Harvey Curtiss "Barney" Barnum Jr. said he was left speechless ten years ago when he found out an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer would bear his name.
“It really took me to my knees,” Col. Barnum said. “It went through my mind, the number of Marines that I had served with and it was very emotional.”
Colonel Barnum received the nation's highest award for valor, The Medal of Honor, for his actions under fire in Vietnam December 18, 1965.
He would serve two tours during the Vietnam War.
The highly decorated Colonel retired from the Marines 1989 after which he worked for the Navy Reserve Affairs and he now spends his days visiting wounded military personnel at Walter Reed in Bethesda, Maryland.
The 85-year-old veteran visited the destroyer as it was being built in Maine by Bath Iron Works.
“I have what they call a challenge coin,” Barnum said. “I shook every worker on that ship's hand over two years at least once and presented him with one of my coins and looked him in the eye and said, ‘Thank you.’”
After a decade filled with delays caused by a pandemic, supply chain issues and even a strike, Col. Barnum will finally get to see the USS Harvey C. Barnum Jr. commissioned Saturday, April 11 in Norfolk, Virginia.
He said this honor doesn’t just belong to him, but to everyone he has served with along the way.
"I've had a lot of people working with me, and for me that I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to lead. It's all teamwork. It's all teamwork, " Barnum said.
The commissioning ceremony will stream on the Defense Video Information Distribution Service.
The destroyer isn’t the only naming honor Barnum has received. His hometown of Cheshire named their new elementary school in the north end of town after the Colonel. Barnum Elementary will open this fall.
After a lifetime of service, awards and raising a family, when Col. Barnum is asked what’s the greatest thing he’s done, he has a simple answer: “I hope I haven't done it yet.”
