Mark Thomas Barrett was born on June 9, 1951, in Ancón, Distrito de Panamá, Panamá, Panama. He was graduated from Nathan Bedford Forrest High School Class of 1969 in Jacksonville, Florida, and a graduate of the University of Florida with a BA in Political Science. He was a qualified parachutist and a Ranger. He was stationed at Ft. Jackson from December 1973 to June 1975 as a training and executive officer and served at the fort's examining and entrance station from June 1975 to July 1976. His final assignment was with the United Nations Command in Korea as a Joint Security Force Platoon Leader.

On August 18, 1976, Capt. Arthur Bonifas, a Joint Security Force Company Commander, and 1st Lt. Mark Barrett were slain while trimming a tree at the Joint Security Area of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

The U.S. soldiers were dispatched to trim a poplar tree that obstructed a watch tower’s view of a checkpoint near a bridge. Dubbed the Bridge of No Return, it was frequented by troops of U.N. Command and soldiers of North Korea’s Korean People’s Army, who, at the time, taunted and provoked each other, according to the command’s security battalion.

Bonifas and Barrett, part of a 10-man U.N. Command security team, were sent with workers to trim the tree after the North Korean side was informed of their intent. Nonetheless, a North Korean officer on site told the U.N. troops to cease their operation. The officer summoned roughly 30 additional troops, who attacked Bonifas’ team without warning.

The killings shocked President Gerald Ford, who ordered the tree felled three days later in Operation Paul Bunyan. Combat troops and engineers cut down the tree in roughly 45 minutes without incident as American forces throughout the peninsula stood by on alert.

1Lt Barrett is now buried in the Greenlawn Memorial Park, Columbia, Richland County, South Carolina, USA.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.stripes.com