May 9, 2023 Highs and Lows

The Liberty Gazette

May 9, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: Mike’s piece last week offered a beautiful reflection on family in a little slice of our trip to the Pacific Northwest. His ancestors migrated to Oregon in a covered wagon. He described his siblings and himself as “part of this western landscape of deserts, mountains, and oceans, drawn to wide-open spaces, both dependent on and independent of each other. Seasons come and go, and we weather the highs and lows and appreciate the beauty in our relationships.” I think that also describes Rex Barber, a fighter pilot whose hometown of Culver, Oregon, we visited. 

Barber came from a farming family–honest American blood–and majored in agricultural engineering before heading off to war in 1940. He was on a ship halfway to Hawaii when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. As our military regrouped, Lt. Barber joined a select team of pilots hand-picked by Major John Mitchell for special training. 490 days after Pearl Harbor, this elite squadron undertook the top secret "Operation Vengeance," the mission to kill Admiral Isoroku Yamanoto, Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet of the Japanese Imperial Navy, the planner and leader of the attack. Yamamoto's “Betty” bomber was part of a flight of eight planes, two bombers and six escort fighters. Barber snuck up behind Yamamoto’s aircraft in his P-38 and riddled it with bullets, killing all onboard. His heroic efforts earned him the Navy Flying Cross. 

And that wasn’t all. He flew 138 combat missions and became a Flying Ace with five confirmed kills and three probables. He was also shot down over enemy territory. That’s when the Japanese were our enemies, and the Chinese were our friends. How times have changed. He hid out for two months and was finally rescued with the help of Chinese guerillas, although he had suffered serious injuries. 

He stayed in the Air Force after the war and was testing the new Lockheed P-80 “Shooting Star” jet fighter when he and a fellow pilot were invited to fly them over an area between Culver and Redmond. Well, more like over and under.

We stood at the southern precipice of Crooked River and imagined it was 1945, and here came Colonel Rex Barber flashing past us, the P-80’s wingspan within mere feet of the rocky canyon walls as he flew under the railway bridge first and then the road bridge (now a walking bridge). The other pilot had enough after the railway bridge and pulled his airplane up to go over the second one, narrowly missing it. 

After 21 years of service, two Silver Stars, the Purple Heart, and several other decorations in addition to the Navy Flying Cross, Barber came home to Culver to help his parents on the farm and raise his own family there. After a time, he opened an insurance agency, served as Justice of the Peace, and then became the mayor. All he had to say about his important secret mission was, “I was just doing my job.” 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com