Robert Barrow, 86; general led, reformed Marine Corps

ROBERT BARROW (United States Marine Corps)

NEW YORK - General Robert H. Barrow, the 27th commandant of the Marine Corps who served heroically in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, and then went on to reform Marine recruiting and training, died Thursday in St. Francisville, La. He was 86.

The Marine Corps announced his death.

General Barrow combined Southern courtliness, fierce devotion to Marine tradition, and courage reflected in dozens of awards. He was awarded the Navy Cross in Korea and the Army Distinguished Service Cross in Vietnam, both of which are second only to the Medal of Honor.

As the Marine manpower chief in 1976, General Barrow was instrumental in drafting reforms designed to end physical abuse and harassment of recruit trainees by drill instructors. The New York Times, quoting military officials, reported in 1979 that the training reforms, which included closer supervision by officers, had worked well.

At the time, the general said the corps would not ease the tough physical conditioning that was a hallmark of Marine boot camps. But he demanded that there be no more "excess stress" on recruits, including "nose-to-nose yelling" by drill sergeants.

General Barrow also succeeded in raising the quality of recruits, in part by seeking out high school graduates. In 1975, less than half had high school diplomas; by 1982, 82 percent did.

Robert Hilliard Barrow was born in Baton Rouge, La., and grew up on his family's Rosale Plantation in West Feliciana Parish, La. The family's circumstances were difficult, however. They had no electricity, so Robert satisfied his early passion for reading using a kerosene lamp.

He went to Louisiana State University, because it offered free tuition at the time and modest boarding costs. He worked as a waiter and janitor and served in the university's Corps of Cadets, as all physically fit students - only men were admitted then - were required to do.

After Pearl Harbor, General Barrow, inspired by the Marines' heroic but ultimately unsuccessful defense of Wake Island in December 1941, was attracted by a double-page Marine Corps recruiting ad in The Baton Rouge Morning Advocate.

He joined the Marines in March 1942. He could have stayed to graduate because of his membership in the university's corps but instead asked for active duty in November 1942, Allan R. Millett and Jack Shulimson wrote in "Commandants of the Marine Corps" (2004).

General Barrow was disappointed in his preparation during the six-week boot camp in San Diego, undoubtedly setting the stage for his later training reforms. The book quoted him as saying that the experience "was not one that prepared someone to go off and be a fighting member of a fighting organization."

General Barrow stayed on as a drill instructor, and then went on to officer candidate school and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in May 1943. He ended up being deployed to China, where he led a US team fighting with a Chinese guerrilla force behind Japanese lines. He was awarded a Bronze Star with Combat "V."

During the Korean War, General Barrow fulfilled diverse assignments, including the Inchon-Seoul operation, a daring amphibious strike led by General Douglas MacArthur, and the Chosin Reservoir campaign, in which US troops fought valiantly to hold off invading Chinese before being forced to withdraw. Lynn Montross, the corps' chief historian at the time, called him "the most outstanding company commander of the war."

In 1952, General Barrow was lent by the Marine Corps to a top-secret mission on a string of islands north of Taiwan, the Marine Corps said in its announcement of his death.

During the Vietnam War, General Barrow commanded the Ninth Marine Regiment, Third Marine Division. In Operation Dewey Canyon in early 1969, his troops killed 1,617 enemy soldiers and captured 1,461 weapons and hundreds of tons of ammunition. General Richard G. Stilwell, chief of staff to General William C. Westmoreland, the US commander in Vietnam, called General Barrow the war's "finest regimental commander."

He rose through the ranks, becoming assistant commandant in 1978 and commandant in 1979, succeeding General Louis H. Wilson, who had already started big reforms in the Marines, including discharging more than 5,000 undesirables.

Besides recruitment and training, General Barrow expanded the Marines' role in the military's new rapid-response strategy. He also formulated ways the Marines could fight without storming beaches. These included putting equipment on preloaded ships that would meet Marines at a safe port.

General Barrow's wife of 53 years, Patty, died in 2005. He leaves his sons, Charles C. Pulliam of Greenville, S.C., and Robert H. of Tampa, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Marines; his daughters Cathleen P. Harmon of Killeen, Texas, Barbara B. Kanegaye of Houston, and Mary B. Hannigan, of Oakton, Va.; 11 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.