In Memory of
Navy Lieutenant
Dale A. Barrows
Dudley Township, South Dakota
Aurora County
September 25, 1920 – March 19, 1945
Killed in Action at Bay of Kobe, Japan

Dale A. Barrows was born in Dudley Township in Aurora County on September 25, 1920. His parents were John and Grace Barrows. He attended country grade schools, Stickney High School, and graduated from Yankton College in 1942. Dale enlisted in the Naval Air Corps that same year and entered active service on July 15, 1942, at pre-flight school at Vermillion, SD. After intensive training at various places he was sent into combat duty in the South Pacific.

On March 19, 1945, while flying a mission, his plane was forced down in the Bay of Kobe. According to a newspaper clipping, his body actually washed ashore at Kobe Harbor on March 19, 1945. Positive identification was made through marks on his clothing and dental records.

In a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, dated in March of 1946, it states

Your son, Lieutenant (junior grade) Dale Allen Barrows, United States
Naval Reserve, has been carried on the official records of the Navy Depart-
ment in the status of missing in action as of 19 March 1945, when the plane
in which he was flying, a unit of Bombing Squadron SIX, was hit by enemy
anti-aircraft fire during an attack against enemy warships in Kobe Harbor.
His plane lost power immediately, but he continued his dive and released the
bombs on the target. He made a perfect water landing in [indecipherable] and
was seen to stand up in the cockpit after landing. Circling aircraft were forced
off by the enemy anti-aircraft fire and a harbor craft was seen heading toward
the plane. Due to the proximity of enemy installations, rescue facilities [?] were
unable to enter the harbor….

“It will never be known whether he was fatally injured in the forced landing, drowned, or picked off by the Japanese,” the Stickney newspaper reported.

At the time of Dale Barrow’s death in 1945, he was survived by his father, John Barrows; a sister, Viola Larsen; two brothers, Cecil of Stickney and John, who was serving at sea also with the Navy.

The American Legion Post in Stickney is called the Dittrich-Barrows-Noldner Post 26.

Dale A. Barrows was originally buried in the US Armed Forces Cemetery, Yokohama, Honshu, Japan. He was later buried in the Dudley Cemetery in Aurora County with Aurora County V.F.W. of Plankinton providing military escort.

At the time of his death, Dale A. Barrows was the only war fatality from Stickney.

This entry was respectfully submitted by Brianne Chavez, 8^th Grade West, Spearfish Middle School, Spearfish, South Dakota, February 3, 2000. Information for this entry was provided by Jerry L. Larsen of Stickney, South Dakota, nephew of Navy Lieutenant Barrows; additional information was provided by newspaper clippings and a state veterans’ bonus record.