All-American

You don’t have to tell Dale Barnett he’s been fortunate. He knows it.

He grew up in a Mayberry-like small town where he delivered newspapers, mowed lawns and lettered in four sports. He attended the U.S. Military Academy, married his high school sweetheart and served 22 years as an Army officer, including in Operation Desert Storm. After retiring, he fulfilled his longtime dream of being a teacher and a coach.

“I’ve had the best of both worlds,” says Barnett, who belongs to American Legion Post 105 in Fayetteville, Ga. “I wouldn’t trade my life for anything.”

Now he’s ready for “the ultimate challenge,” which is representing the Legion on Capitol Hill, across the country and around the world.

Elected at the 97th National Convention in Baltimore in September, Barnett is the Legion’s fourth national commander from Georgia and the department’s first in 25 years.

“We’re very proud of Dale,” says Charlie Knox, longtime adjutant of Georgia. “He has integrity and leadership, and his ability to motivate people is unbelievable. He’s brought great credit to our department, and we look forward to him being a great national commander.”

HOOSIER ROOTS About a half-hour south of Indianapolis, in a small neighborhood off U.S. 31, is a street named Barnett Court. In the 1960s, Barnett’s father Glenn – a World War II Navy veteran and member of the town board – bought the property and developed it. Their old family home is still there, along with the slab of concrete where Barnett spent thousands of hours playing basketball with friends.

“Watch an episode of ‘Andy Griffith’ and that was Whiteland, Indiana, for me growing up,” he says. “It was a tight-knit community. Everyone knew each other.”

His family’s history in the area goes back generations – and includes one of America’s strangest burial plots. Called “the grave in the middle of the road,” it belongs to Nancy Kerlin, wife of William Barnett, great-great-great-grandson of Pocahontas and John Rolfe. She died in 1831 and was buried on a hill overlooking a creek. Later, the county relocated the cemetery to build a road and moved every grave but Nancy’s, which was guarded by her shotgun-wielding grandson. So the road divides around the grave and its historical marker. 

“It’s a couple of miles from my grandparents’ house,” Barnett says. “I used to go sledding near there when I was a kid.”

Even as a young man, Barnett had an enviable résumé: student body president, captain of the track and basketball teams, Boy Scout, active in his Methodist church’s youth group. 

He was popular, too. “He had girls chasing him all the time,” says Barnett’s wife, Donna. “They liked him because he treated them with respect. If he wasn’t interested in a girl, he wouldn’t do anything to hurt her feelings. He was friends with everybody, just like he is now.”

He and Donna ended up together after a date to Brown County State Park. During a dance at his senior prom, she realized Barnett was the one.

“We’re still the best of friends,” he says. “We grew up a mile apart, so there’s a commonality, a lot of similar values ingrained in us. We know each other and understand each other.”

On top of that, he appreciates the sacrifices Donna has made in their 40 years of marriage – multiple moves, his deployments, coaching sports teams and heavy Legion involvement.

Their first separation was the longest: Barnett’s four years at West Point. When a slot opened at the academy his senior year of high school, he applied and eventually got it. Donna wrote to him every day, sometimes several times a day, until they married following his graduation in 1974. 

“I caught a lot of grief, because I got more letters than anybody else there,” he says, laughing.

FROM WEST POINT TO EAST POINT Barnett’s backup plan was to attend Ball State University and earn a teaching degree. But seeds of interest in the U.S. Military Academy had already been planted: once during a 1965 trip to the New York World’s Fair, when his father and uncle arranged a day visit to West Point, and again in 1969 when he attended American Legion Boys State and heard presentations on all the service academies. 

He says his first two years as a cadet were “like drinking water out of a fire hose.” Though he had been a good student in high school, Barnett fought to keep up academically. “I wasn’t the last in my class, but I sure knew him, because we were in a lot of classes together.” 

At the time, he had no thought of a military career, but that’s what happened. “You have a five-year commitment after the academy,” he says. “I said, ‘I’ll give it a chance, and unless someone gives me a good reason to get out, I’ll continue.’” 

An infantry officer, Barnett enjoyed various duty assignments in the United States and overseas, including Fort Benning, Ga., Fort Leavenworth, Kan., San Antonio, Germany and Panama. During the Gulf War, he served as a battalion executive officer in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. In a photo from Thanksgiving 1990, President George H.W. Bush shakes Barnett’s hand as Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf looks on.

“I look back with fond memories on my military experience,” he says. “It was an opportunity to go places I probably would never have been able to go. And I took great pride in wearing that uniform and serving our country.”

In 1996, Barnett retired as a lieutenant colonel at Fort McPherson, Ga., having already laid the groundwork for a second career – this one in the classroom. While working as an Army inspector general in Panama, he’d taken the national teacher exam and started looking at states that offered a smooth transition from the military to teaching.

“When people ask why I settled in Georgia, I kind of joke, ‘My uncle kept sending me there, and I worked for him. Uncle Sam!’” he says. Truth is, Barnett found the Atlanta area to be a great fit for his next act. (Plus, Donna liked the climate.) 

Barnett left the Army on Aug. 1 and took classes 10 hours a day for five weeks. By September, he was teaching on a provisional certificate for Fulton County Schools, headquartered in East Point, Ga. With the support of the system’s director of personnel, a Vietnam War veteran, he took a job at Tri-Cities High School teaching U.S. history, geography and political science.   

The environment was urban, and many of Barnett’s students didn’t have the stability he’d known in his youth. “They had a lot going on,” he says. “I think they enjoyed an opportunity to have some structure. In some respects, school was comforting to them after being in very chaotic situations in their home lives.” 

Over the next 15 years, Barnett taught at three high schools and coached baseball, basketball and cross-country. He helped student athletes become eligible for Division I scholarships and brought American Legion programs into the classroom, such as Boys State and the National Oratorical Contest. In 2006, he was named Creekside High School’s Teacher of the Year.

He retired from education in 2011, but misses it at times. “Every day was different,” he says. “You always had a sense that you were contributing to helping others when you were teaching. You felt like you earned your pay each and every day.”

POST PRIDE This phase of the Barnetts’ life might be the busiest. Two daughters, Michelle and Andrea, are grown and have their own families. They have three children still at home. Desiree, 16, is an artist and honors French student. Kathalyn, 12, is active in 4-H and drama. Joseph, 11, is a Webelos Scout and chess player. 

“We keep the asphalt pretty hot between here and the school,” Barnett says.

He logs plenty of miles for The American Legion, too. This year marks his 20th as a member, and he’s served in at least that many positions: post adjutant, post commander, district commander, district Boys State and Oratorical chairman, department treasurer, department commander. Nationally, he’s chaired the Economic Commission and the Membership & Post Activities Committee. 

No matter how far he travels, though, Barnett is proud to hang his cap at Post 105, a log cabin built by the Works Progress Administration in 1936. Members gather at monthly coffee calls and meetings, and rent the building to a church and local groups.

“Go to my post and you could be at a baseball card show or rummage sale,” he says. “What we’re doing works well for our members, allowing us to focus on our programs and still be a visible part of the community.”

Barnett also has close ties with Post 258 in Jonesboro, his district’s largest post. “He belongs to our SAL squadron, but as far as we’re concerned he’s a regular member,” says Rick Corbell, junior vice commander. “He’s an articulate man, a good man who does what he says he’s going to do. I’m proud of his record.”

Increasing membership by spreading the word about what the Legion does has always been Barnett’s vision. It’s worked in his post and in his department, and is a key part of his plans as national commander. He’s encouraging every department to organize a public “awareness walk for veterans,” or similar event. Proceeds will benefit the National Emergency Fund and, just as important, boost the profile of the American Legion Family nationwide.

“We’ve got to get out of our post homes and out into the community,” Barnett says. “We have to make them aware of all the people we help with our programs, whether that’s at the VA hospital, youth development, or legislation that affects veterans and their families or our national defense. If we do that, people will want to join. We need to highlight the positives of this organization, and there are so many.”

 

Matt Grills is managing editor of The American Legion Magazine.