Soren Barrett, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Luke Kelly, July 18, 2001: Saving the legacy tape no. SL-268

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SOREN BARRETT July 18, 2001 got Into It earlier than we did, and yet we weren't In It yet. And, of course, on the 7th of December of '41 , why the Pearl Harbor event happened. I was In my senior year of ROTC, so they wouldn't draft me then because I was that close to getting commissioned. But as soon as the end of the quarter came In June I was Iminediately taken Into the service, In the artillery LUK: Tell me a little bit about your ROTC tran1Ing. What did you have to do? Callisthenics, or ? SOR: Well, we were trmned In the basics of field artillery finng which, agmn, Involved some grasp of your mathematics and calculation of ranges and deflections to targets, this kind of thing. I didn't know how little we had learned until I got actually at the field artillery school. But that's what we learned. And then It was horse artillery at the time. And some of us farm boys that had been rmsed on horses, why, had a lot of advantage over the poor fellows from the City because-and they'd bnng those polo ponies In off of the summer range In the Fall. They were JUSt a little skittish when you'd try to Inount them. I remember the sergeant grabbing the nose of the one that I was going to mount. And he said, "Get your foot In the sturup." As soon as I had my foot In the stirrup he let go And, boy, I was on the horse for a while. But someone without expenence would have probably been on the ground because that horse took off Immediately when you hit the saddle. But I could handle It. I'd learned how L UK: Did you get to choose field artillery as your ? SOR: It was totally ROTC we had at the university at that time. So there was no other 6