Benjamin Butler “Ben” Barnes was born on January 19, 1921, in Miller, South Dakota. He was the son of Herman Deforst Barnes and Grace Butler Beasom. He was married to Clara Amelia Lumley Huggins.
He graduated from Miller High School in 1939 as the class president. Barnes went on to study at the United States Military Academy at West Point—one of only two South Dakotans accepted to the program that year—and graduated in 1943. After graduation from West Point, he was assigned to the United States Army Air Corps where he became a fighter pilot. At some point after completing flight training, Barnes was stationed in South Dakota.
Once he was sent overseas to fight in the war, Barnes flew a single-seat, fast pursuit plane, the P-51 Mustang, in the 361st Fighter Squadron, 356th Fighter Group of the Eighth Air Force. Just a few months after going abroad, he was on an escort mission to Berlin when he and nine other American pilots encountered approximately 90 Luftwaffe during the return flight. His plane was last reported over the skies of Eberswalde, Germany, on December 5, 1944, and a German military shoot-down report documented a P-51 crash landing near Carlshof that same day. The War Department declared Barnes deceased of December 6, 1945. Unfortunately, due to political restrictions involving the USSR-occupied zone, American Graves Registration teams were unable to conduct further investigation of the crash site after the war.
Seventy-two years later, First Lieutenant Ben B. Barnes was returned home to Miller. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency recovery teams found and excavated the crash site and recovered Barnes’ remains. The plane was identified by the serial numbers on two .50 caliber machine guns found at the crash site. The DPAA identified Barnes’ remains from dental records and mitochondrial DNA match with one of his cousins.
1Lt Barnes is now buried in the G A R Cemetery, Miller, Hand County, South Dakota, USA. His name is permanently inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial, Cambridge, England.
Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov