Clyde "Cash" Barber

LCDR Clyde Cassius “Cash” Barber, USN (Ret)

Gulf Breeze, Florida

Navy PBY Crew Member

Clyde Cassius “Cash” Barber was born in Drennen, Colorado on 6 May 1924. He was one of seven children, and the fifth boy, in a farming family. While he was in high school his family moved to Pueblo, Colorado to live with his mother’s father.

With World War II on the horizon and wanting to have some control over his future, he convinced his parents to give their consent so he could enlist in the Navy after his 17th birthday. He was sworn into the Navy 24 May 1941, and traveled by train from Denver to San Diego, California for recruit training at Naval Training Center (NTC) San Diego.

After completing “boot camp” he transferred to Alameda Naval Air Station for fourteen weeks of aviation machinist training. After graduating in mid-November 1941, his entire class of thirty received orders to Patrol Bomber (VPB) Squadrons in Hawaii. The class departed Mare Island, California, for Pearl Harbor on 6 December 1941 and was underway when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

After the attack, the ship returned to Mare Island and Cash and his shipmates were transferred to USS PROCYON (AKA-2). After loading blood plasma and medical supplies at a dock in San Francisco, PROCYON departed 12 December for Pearl Harbor. The class formed gun crews to man the 5-inch/35mm deck gun and four 40-mm gun mounts during the voyage. Four sailors were assigned to each gun crew, and each man rotated through all the different gun crew positions. They practiced firing throughout the transit to Hawaii.

As PROCYON entered the channel into Pearl Harbor, Cash saw the damage from the Japanese attack. He will never forget the images of the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard dry docks on the starboard side of the channel surrounded by damaged ships and USS NEVADA (BB-36) beached on Hospital Point. As PROCYON passed Battleship Row, he saw most ships were sunk or damaged. All the PBYs on Ford Island were damaged or destroyed.

Cash reported to VP-11 at Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay, on the windward side of Oahu, and was assigned work and security duties. At one point he stood guard, armed with a rifle, in a foxhole near the beach. In January the squadron began receiving replacement PBYs and he was assigned to a flight crew. His first patrol on 27 February 1942 was a twelve-hour flight. During March he flew five more patrols that averaged thirteen hours per flight. He trained as a 3rd mechanic and manned one of the 50-caliber machine guns.

The realities of war hit Cash on Easter Sunday 1942. Bill Allen, his close friend from Machinist Mate training, was on a patrol flight returning to NAS Kaneohe. The field was obscured by fog, and during its approach, the airplane hit Makapuu Point, killing the entire crew.

In July, the squadron moved into the South Pacific and assisted in the Guadalcanal operations. Tragedy struck again during this period when Japanese forces shot down LT Clark's PBY and took the crew as prisoners. After the war, most of the crew were repatriated, but another of Cash's friends, Ralph Ames, had died in captivity. VP-11 later flew in support of the Solomon Islands campaign until it was relieved 31 December 1942. All squadron personnel returned by ship to California where they received 30 days leave before reporting to San Diego for reassignment. During his leave in his cousin's hometown of Bakersfield, California, Cash met his future bride, Eileen Ames.

When Cash arrived in San Diego, he returned to VP-11 which was reforming for another deployment. They began intensive training and, at age 18, he was assigned as plane captain for a crew commanded by LTJG H. A. Williams. The squadron completed training and the PBYs departed for Hawaii on 29 April 1943, where they arrived after a twenty-hour flight.

After several days of rest and airplane maintenance at NAS Kaneohe, the squadron flew three PBYs to Canton Island, where it conducted several weeks of patrols. In May 1943 they were reassigned to a small seaplane base on Crawley Bay in Perth, Western Australia, where they flew Indian Ocean patrols until September 1943.

In early September 1943, the squadron moved to Port Moresby, New Guinea, where it conducted bombing and strafing raids against Japanese forces in the Vito Islands. On 14 December 1943, the squadron flew a special mission into central New Guinea to evacuate 219 Australian commandos. The PBYs struggled to overfly the Owen Stanley Mountain range before landing on a narrow strip of the Sepik River. VP-11’s operations in New Guinea continued until February 1944, when it was relieved and returned to Perth, Australia.

After returning to Perth, VP-11 continued patrols in the Indian Ocean. Near the end of one patrol Cash had a close call when the number one cylinder on the starboard engine blew. They feathered the propeller and, after dropping their bombs into the ocean and throwing out all equipment that wasn’t required for flight, flew for more than six hours on one engine to a safe landing at an advance base in Geraldton, Australia. In less than twenty-four hours, Cash and his second mechanic salvaged a cylinder from another failed engine and had the PBY back in the air.

In July 1944, they deployed to northern New Guinea to a base on Woendi, near Biak Island. This enabled them to fly missions into the Philippines, often hunting Japanese submarines. As American forces progressed in the Pacific, PBY bases were established on Morati and Leyte. Following the battle of Leyte Gulf, the squadron was relieved by a PBM squadron with faster and heavier bomber aircraft. VP-11 flew its PBYs back to Kaneohe Bay. All squadron personnel boarded an aircraft tender for the voyage back to the United States, arriving at NAS Alameda, California on 15 December 1944. Five days later, Cash and Eileen married in San Francisco, California. Since then, Eileen did her best to keep him on a proper course.

After thirty days of leave, Cash reported to NAS Oakland where he joined a Navy transport squadron that flew R5Ds, the Navy's version of the Army Air Corps’ C-54. He was soon assigned to an overhaul facility where he was part of a rigging crew that removed and replaced flight controls on R5Ds. He took leave in late August 1945, to visit his family and was at his parents’ home in Lost Hills, California, for the announcement of the Japanese surrender.

Cash remained in the Navy after World War II. His transport squadron, VR-8, was one of two Navy squadrons supporting Operation Vittles, the Berlin Airlift. Between March and September 1949, VR-8 led all squadrons in aircraft utilization and tonnage delivered to the residents of Berlin. In November 1956, he participated in VR-7’s Around the World Flight supporting the Suez Canal crisis. During 20 years of enlisted flying he logged over 7500 of crewmember flight hours.

In May 1961, Cash was commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade, Aviation Maintenance Limited Duty Officer. He served another ten years in aviation maintenance billets at Naval Air Facility, Naha, Okinawa; Commander Air Transport Wing Pacific, NAS Moffatt Field, California; VP-42, Saigon (1967) and Cam Ranh Bay (1968), Vietnam; and Commander Fleet Air Wing Whidbey, NAS Whidbey Island, Washington.

LCDR Barber was “piped over the side” 30 June 1971 after more than thirty years of active Naval Service, including twenty years as an enlisted Sailor. During his career he earned 18 campaign and service medals and ribbons, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, and Presidential Unit Citation. He wears Combat Aircrew wings with three gold stars.

In June 2014, Eileen and Cash moved to Gulf Breeze, Florida where they shared the “Captains’ Quarters” cottage with their daughter, retired Navy Captain Carolyn Deal, and her husband, retired Navy Captain Robert Deal. After celebrating their 78th wedding anniversary, Eileen passed on 26 December 2022. LCDR Barber celebrated his 100th birthday on 6 May 2024.

LCDR "Cash" Barber Climbs Out of Phil Webb's Stearman After Flying During Veterans Flight 2022

Phil Webb, "Cash" Barber, Carolyn Deal & Robert Deal During Veterans Flight 2022