Services held for Gen. Barrow

• By JAMES MINTON
• Advocate Baker - Zachary bureau
• Published: Nov 4, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

ST. FRANCISVILLE — The 27th commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps was laid to rest Monday in an oak-shaded church cemetery in the town he proudly called home when he ended a storied career spanning three wars.

Gen. Robert Hilliard Barrow, 86, died Thursday at his home in St. Francisville, a block from Grace Episcopal Church, where his immediate family and larger Marine Corps family paid tribute to his courage, leadership and devotion.

Dignitaries attending the funeral and graveside service included the current Marine Corps commandant, Gen. James T. Conway, former commandant Carl E. Mundy Jr. and U.S. Sen. James Webb, D-Va.

Barrow served as commandant from 1979 to 1983, and was the first Marine to serve a regular four-year tour as a full member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Conway said Barrow raised the quality of Marines entering the service in the post-Vietnam era by strengthening and reorganizing recruiting and training.

“He did a lot to enhance our war-fighting capability, and on a strategic level, moved the Corps into the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was a powerful kind of statesman,” Conway said.

“Our country is a safer place and the U.S. Marine Corps a better institution because of Gen. Robert H. Barrow,” Conway told mourners.

“It’s easy to see what a great tactician he was, and what a great combat Marine he was, but he saved the Marine Corps. A lot of people don’t realize that,” Webb said after the ceremonies.

“At a time of real political turbulence in this country, he kept the politicians away from the Marine Corps, and he kept the Marine Corps out of politics. Those are two things we need to think hard about,” said Webb, a Marine combat officer in Vietnam and former Navy secretary.

Gen. Mundy said Barrow was asked, during his farewell visit to the Senate Armed Service Committee, if he would remain in the Washington, D.C., area, where government officials easily could seek his advice.

“Thank you, but I’m going to a place were you can hear a leaf hit the water,” Mundy said Barrow replied.

Barrow grew up in West Feliciana Parish and graduated from Julius Freyhan High School in St. Francisville. He joined the Marine Corps during World War II.

Calling Barrow one of the finest Marine regimental commanders in the Vietnam War, Mundy said, “History has already measured Gen. Barrow, and of the 34 commandants, he undoubtedly stands near the pinnacle.”