by Jerika L.H
Although his military registry dates him much older, Jack Barnes, Sr., turned 93 on May 30. This discrepancy is not the result of filing error. A self-described adventurer, his memoir By Your Leave, Sir showcases the many exploits of his rambunctious youth, including lying about his age to join the local war effort. As the tagline of his autobiography states, “Hitching a ride in a stolen U.S. government Secret Service car, just minutes before police lights appeared in the rear-view mirror, put 17-year-old Jack H. Barnes in a spot where volunteering for the U.S. Navy seemed like a good idea. Once it got to know him, the Navy wasn’t so sure it agreed. In the summer of 1945, he found himself on the unfinished, under-supplied USS Pine Island, en route to Tokyo Harbor.”
Jack served in the South Pacific toward the end of the war as an airplane mechanic. As daughter Laurie Ann Blanchard states, “I’ve literally run into him being mentioned in other people’s memoirs. My high school boyfriend’s father had been stationed in Charleston at the same time as my Dad. When he found out I was Jack’s daughter, he was blown away because he knew everything about the story Dad was involved in and was dying laughing, saying, ‘I can’t believe I met you.’ We thought he was a hero.”
The story involved a certain really unlikable drunk sailor from another Allied country who woke up with a massive American Flag tattooed on his chest. It became a bit of an international incident and Jack shipped out early. When the war ended, he wanted to go to Alaska to be a bush pilot but ended up working on the railroad and flying planes on his days off. He worked his way up from Fireman to Engineer and at one time was the youngest Engineer on the Alaskan Railroad. After losing many friends due to downed planes in the Alaskan wilderness (and also after surviving a plane crash himself), Jack invented the first airplane transponder, designed to send an alarm when a plane goes down. Unfortunately the patent was stolen and filed by his lawyer, however, Jack forfeited his right to bring suit against him. Laurie attributes his aversion of conflict to the lingering remains of PTSD. “Back in the 60s and 70s nobody really talked about PTSD. He just walked away from it and moved on.”
Jack met his beloved wife Mona in California while working at McClellan Air Force Base as an airplane mechanic. Mona had three kids and Jack had two from a previous marriage – they met, fell in love, married. The marriage produced three more children, Laurie and her two brothers, one of whom was adopted from Vietnam in the 1970s.
After sowing his wild oats and settling down, Jack got into real estate and became a broker in Oregon. Using his family’s knowledge from their old times on their Placerville ranch, Jack also 
started to farm. Laurie and her brothers grew up on one of the first organic farms in Oregon in the 70s. Jack and Mona moved back to California in the 80s and went back to work for the government so they could add to their retirement. Unfortunately, Jack was injured on the job only two years after being back and lost his right eye at work. Barred from the traditional labor sector, he taught himself the ins and outs of stock and began playing the market. The profit yield of his ten years in stocks proved enough to support the couple’s retirement.
As age began to take its toll, Jack and Mona moved out of their house of 35 years into an assisted living complex last November. At 92 years old, the transition was difficult. He suffered a stroke in May which has left him with some residual paralysis on his right side. Getting around has become a struggle. Daughter Laurie notes, “He never complains about anything, ever. He just smiles when you come to see him and his face lights up. He used to be a loner and all the family could stress him out (we’re kind of a handful between kids, grandkids, great-grandkids etc) – now he is just happy to see people. “
His bodily decline weighed heavy on Laurie’s heart. That is when she took to social media to give Jack the surprise of his life. She wrote a plea to the local community to send him a special hello in the mail for his birthday.
Laurie states, “I’d like to claim the idea of sending cards as my own, but it was really my mom’s and my sister’s. They were talking about how people forget to send elderly people birthday cards and Father’s Day cards. And how they don’t realize how important it is for older people to feel connected to the outside world when their world gets smaller due to physically being unable to get out in it. Dad basically never leaves the assisted living unless it’s for a doctor’s appointment, it’s just so difficult. We took him to a restaurant a couple weeks ago and his legs gave out on him in the middle of the room, it was so awful. He uses a walker, but there were three of us holding him up to get him to a chair. So obviously, unless he has to, he is less and less interested in leaving his apartment. That is why I posted on Facebook and encouraged ANYBODY who saw it, to send it. It helped that Dad’s birthday was right near Memorial Day, him being a vet. “
So far, Jack has received over 90 cards. The family calls the community response ‘simply amazing.’ Mona is as excited by this as Jack, as she often sits near him with the cards in her lap, counting them over and over for him. They examine each card carefully together before Mona reads it out loud. “They try to figure out and imagine who it is from. It’s adorable. It’s become their new thing. Dad sits in his chair and smiles, asks who the person is, how he might know them,” says Laurie.
They’ve gotten cards from all over the United States. Some are touching letters, others are postcards. An entire 5th grade class reached out, as well as complete strangers.
Jack’s response?
“I can’t believe people are this kind to an old man. It is good to be remembered. The world is still filled with good people, don’t let anyone tell you different.”
Daughter Laurie comments that the outpouring of love and kindness has meant the world to their entire family. “It’s been a tough year. We’re all tired and it gets stressful when there are never-ending doctor appointments for both of them. In the midst of all this late life hardship, it is just so lovely to have something like this to look forward to. In a world that has gotten so dark, to have my family rally like this is lovely, to have friends of mine go out of way is touching, but to have complete strangers write a letter to someone they’ve never met to encourage them, to tell them thank you, to make them feel remembered when at this point in their life it can feel like so many have forgotten, it is one of the few things lately that reminds me to have hope in humanity, frankly. I’ll never forget everyone who has participated in this experiment in love, and I have so much gratitude.”
If you are interested in joining the remembrance campaign and reaching out to Jack Barnes, Sr., or his loving wife Mona Barnes, they would be eternally grateful to hear from you.
Jack and Mona Barnes c/o Golden Pond
3445 Mayhew Blvd., #83
Sacramento, Ca 95827
