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Colonel Harvey Curtiss “Barney” Barnum Jr.

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Among the many best-kept secrets of the Northern Neck area, here’s another one: a Medal of Honor recipient is among its residents.

Colonel Harvey Curtiss “Barney” Barnum Jr., born and raised in the small town of Cheshire, Connecticut, has a home in Reston, Virginia but has also been a part-time resident in the Reedville area for many years.  In a recent presentation at Irvington’s Westminster Canterbury retirement community, Barnum recalled how he and his wife Martha “discovered” the Northern Neck.

“I was working at the Pentagon then, and we liked to go to the Outer Banks of North Carolina on vacations, but the ride home spoiled the whole week.  So we started to look for a weekend place,” he recalls.

The couple thought about Lake Anna as a possibility, but Barnum notes, “My wife didn’t like the power plant [nearby]. So one day we decided to drive down to the Northern Neck.”

As the couple traversed the rural roads of the Northern Neck, Barnum’s wife noticed a realty company sign that she recognized and stopped by to get information. That Sunday they visited three open houses for properties for sale.

“The third one was off the Little Wicomico River, seven-tenths of a mile down a dirt road. The realtor took us to a deck outside, and we saw a pool, screened porch and garage,” he recalls.  “We were impressed with the area and bought the house in 2005.  We started coming on weekends and also started falling in love with our neighbors.”

The Barnums’ Reedville-area house is a far cry from where he attained fame as a Vietnam War hero.  It is truly a world away from Barnum’s life as a globe-trotting Marine and a post-military career spent in public service.  

While in college at Saint Anselm College, a small Benedictine college in New Hampshire, he joined the Platoon Leaders Class, a Marine Corps officer commissioning program and went on to complete two six-week summer training sessions at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia.  After graduating from college with a B.A. in economics, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve.  By 1965 he had accepted appointment to the regular Marine Corps and was stationed at the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  At age 25, he volunteered for temporary duty in Vietnam, telling his commanding officer he should be the one to go during the holiday season rather than a married family man.

As first lieutenant, he had only been in Vietnam about two weeks when he joined “Operation Harvest Moon” with his military comrades. “I arrived in Vietnam and was assigned as an artillery forward observer with Hotel Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines. I had only been a forward observer four days on Operation Harvest Moon when we were ambushed and taking intense fire.  I had never been shot at before,” he recalls.

The admittedly “green” young officer now says of that day—December 18, 1965—outside the village of Ky Phu, Quang Tin Province, “It’s all about the training.  You train, you train, you train and train some more—then you are prepared to react.”

Under intense fire, he explains, “The way the Communists fight is they take the commander out first.”

 Company commander Captain Paul Gormley was fatally wounded, and the radio operator was killed instantly.   Barnum picked up Captain Gormley and carried him back to a covered position, where Gormley “died in my arms.” He also retrieved the radio device of the deceased radio operator.

   “I was only with them four days, but I had a silver bar on my collar, so the young Marines looked to me for guidance,” Barnum says. “I credit myself with saving 135 Marines.  Hell yeah, I was scared, but officers have to learn how to control fear and not exhibit fear.  When we got ambushed, and the company commander was killed, I knew what we needed—teamwork.”

Later it was learned that Barnum’s group of Marines was outnumbered ten to one.  He led counterattacks, directed artillery and evacuated wounded comrades.  

When he returned to his battery after the operation, Barnum remembers, “They took me to the hospital to be treated for immersion and, I got cleaned up, showered, and slept probably eighteen hours. I went to the mess tent to get a cup of coffee and was told the division commander was going to recommend me for the Medal of Honor—I dropped my coffee cup. The award process is a long process, so I just went about my duties [after this news].”

It was not until almost two years later that Barnum received a call—on February 14, 1967 to be exact—informing him that he would receive the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award for valor in action, on February 27, 1967 and not to say anything about it to anyone.

“I could tell my parents and any people I wanted to invite [to the ceremony] but that was it,” he explains.

Established in 1862 via a joint resolution of Congress, the Medal of Honor is the only military award worn around the neck instead of being pinned to a uniform. The first recipient was Jacob Parrott, a private in the U.S. Army’s Company K 33rd Ohio Infantry during the Civil War.  Over 40 million Americans have served in the U.S. Armed Forces since the Civil War. Only 3,547 have received the Medal of Honor. Medal of Honor recipients are the only individuals saluted by all ranks of the military—including the President.  Barnum is among only 61 still-living recipients.

Barnum’s actual Medal of Honor citation reads in part, “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty… he immediately assumed command of the rifle company and moving at once into the midst of the heavy fire, rallying and giving encouragement to all units, reorganizing them to replace the loss of key personnel and lead their attack on enemy positions from which deadly fire continued to come. His sound and swift decisions and his obvious calm served to stabilize the badly decimated units and his gallant example as he stood exposed repeatedly to point out targets served as an inspiration to all. Provided with two armed helicopters, he moved fearlessly through enemy fire to control the air attacks against the firmly entrenched enemy…”

Amazingly, Barnum asked to return to Vietnam in 1968, becoming commander of the same battery he had served in during his first tour of duty; in doing so he became the first Medal of Honor recipient to return to Vietnam. He continued to serve in the Marines until his 1989 retirement after 27 ½ years of military service.  

 However, his career of service was not over, not by a long shot.  His post-military career includes not only work in the private sector, but government posts such Principal Director, Drug Enforcement Policy, Office of the Secretary of Defense in the 1990s, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Reserve Affairs 2001-2009, as well as serving as a past president of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.  He continues to be an in-demand public speaker and notes that an elementary school in his hometown of Cheshire, Connecticut has been named for him. Still on the horizon: a future U.S. Navy destroyer has also been named after him.

Now being constructed in Bath, Maine, the USS Harvey C. Barnum, Jr. (DDG-124), is scheduled to go out on sea trials in July 2025.  Barnum is planning to join these sea trials for the new ship, as well as planning to attend the scheduled official commissioning in March or April of 2026.

Barnum became Deputy Assistant Director of the Navy right before the attacks of September 11, 2001, which he notes “changed all of our lives.”  The reserves, which had not been called up in years, were mobilized.  He made trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, visited units before they deployed and also met with returning units.

“I visited units that were training to go off to war. I stressed train, train, train and weapons safety.  I would wear my medal when talking to them—I wear the medal for credibility. The President of the United States salutes this medal,” he says.  “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been to the White House—I pinch myself every time I go to the White House.”

In March 2025, he went to the White House again, this time meeting with current President Donald J. Trump. He says when he wears his Medal of Honor, “I think of the Marines who died that day [in 1965] … I think, what would those Marines have thought of [my decisions]? My only concern that day was that I would do the right thing.”

He and Martha spend a lot of time these days in their Northumberland County home.  He praises his second community, still remembering once, when lamp shopping for a lamp for their Reedville home, having a local store clerk advise him to take two lamps he was considering buying home and try them out, telling him, “I know you’ll bring them back.”

 Several years ago, Martha suffered a stroke, and Barnum calls himself “her caregiver and Uber driver” while praising the area rehabilitation center where she goes for physical therapy. If he has a travel obligation, his wife stays with a daughter in Chesapeake until he returns.

When he entered a lecture room at the Westminster Canterbury retirement community for his recent presentation, Col. Barnum was saluted by a group of uniformed teenage ROTC members from Nothumberland High School.  After his presentation and a question-and-answer session, Barnum was surrounded by these same young people as he spoke to them privately and they listened attentively.

“I love to speak to the youth. I hammer home that there is no free lunch and [emphasize] discipline,” he says of his conversations with young people.

When people call him a hero he says simply, “I am a representative of those I serve and served with… I have been there and done it.  I like to talk to the youth of our country because they are the future leaders.”

The seasoned Marine admits he is concerned about America, telling his audience at Westminster Canterbury, “We have enemies… China, Iran, North Korea.  We have terrorists in this country.  I think the press is the fourth enemy.”

He adds, “But I stand before you today as a grateful American.”