Barfoot, Van Thomas, born 15-06-1919, in Edinburg, Mississippi, United States, 
, to Sim Franklin Barfoot ( 1883–1969) and his wife Martha Elizabeth, born McCrave (1884-1976) 
Van had four brothers and four sisters, Ollie Lucille Barfoot (1907–1920), James Frank Barfoot (1909–1996), Hattie Eloise Barfoot Moore (1912–2007), Mayola Barfoot Sadler (1914–2000), James Preston Barfoot (1916–1989), Freddie D Barfoot Hall (1923–2019) 
, Willie Mae Barfoot Nutt (1926–1997) and Bobbie Faye Barfoot Ralle (1928–2008).
His grandmother was Choctaw, but Barfoot himself was not an official member of the Choctaw Nation; although he was eligible to become an enrolled member of the tribe, his parents never did so. The Choctaw 
are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language.
After enlisting in the Army from Carthage, Mississippi, in 1940 and completing his training, Barfoot served with the 1st Infantry Division 
under command of General Major Karl Truesdell
in Louisiana and Puerto Rico. In December 1941, Van was promoted to sergeant and reassigned to the Headquarters Amphibious Force Atlantic Fleet in Quantico, Virginia, 
where he served until the unit was deactivated in 1943. He next joined the 157th Infantry Regiment, 
45th Infantry Division (“Thunderbird”), 
under command of Lieutenant Colonel Felix Laurence Sparks,
and was shipped to Europe.
During the Italian Campaign Barfoot participated in a series of amphibious landings: the Allied invasion of Sicily 
in July 1943, the invasion of mainland Italy at Salerno in September 1943, and finally the landings at Anzio 
in late January 1944. His unit pushed inland from Anzio, and by May 1944 had reached the small town of Carano in southern Italy, in the province of Latina. They set up defensive positions and Barfoot conducted patrols to scout the German lines. When his company was ordered to attack on the morning of 23-05-1944, Barfoot, now a technical sergeant, asked for permission to lead a squad. Because of the patrols he had made, he knew the terrain and the layout of the minefield which was in front of the German position. He advanced alone through the minefield, following ditches and depressions, until he came within a few yards of a machine gun nest 
on the German flank. After taking out the gun and its crew with a hand grenade, he entered the German trench and advanced on a second machine gun, killing two soldiers and capturing three others. When he reached a third machine gun, the entire crew surrendered to him. Others also surrendered, and Barfoot captured a total of seventeen German soldiers and killed eight.
When the Germans launched an armored counterattack with three Tiger tanks 
directly against his positions later that day, Barfoot disabled the lead tank with a bazooka, 
killed part of its crew with his Thompson submachine gun, 
and turned back the German attack. Barfoot then advanced into enemy-held territory and destroyed an abandoned German artillery piece. He returned to his own lines and helped two wounded soldiers from his squad to the rear. Van Thomas Barfoot newly promoted US Army Lieutenant circa 1944.
Barfoot was subsequently commissioned as a second lieutenant. His division moved into France, and by September 1944 was serving in the Rhone valley. Lieutenant. Barfoot learned he would be awarded the Medal of Honor, 
and chose to have the presentation ceremony in the field so his soldiers could attend. He was formally presented with the medal on 28-09-1944, in Épinal, France, by Lieutenant General Alexander McCarell “Sandy” Patch. 
Having grown up in the strictly segregated south, Barfoot was noted for a comment he made in 1945 regarding African-Americans. Democrat Mississippi senator and Ku Klux Klan member Theodore Gilmore . Bilbo 
asked Barfoot if he had much trouble with the African-American soldiers he had served with during the war. To Bilbo’s embarrassment, Barfoot responded, “I found out after I did some fighting in this war that the colored boys fight just as good as the white boys…I’ve changed my idea a lot about colored people since I got into this war and so have a lot of other boys from the south”. Bilbo died 21-08-1947, age 69, in a New Orleans hospital while undergoing cancer treatment and was buried at Juniper Grove Cemetery in Poplarville. Bilbo was of short stature (5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)), frequently wore bright, flashy clothing to draw attention to himself, and was nicknamed “The Man” because he tended to refer to himself in the third person.
Barfoot later served in the Korean War and Vietnam War. During the Vietnam War, he served as a deputy aviation officer and flew over 177 combat hours. He reached the rank of colonel before retiring from the Army in 1974. In retirement, he lived on a farm in Amelia County, Virginia, and later moved to Henrico County, Virginia, near his daughter.
Death and burial ground of Barfoot, Van Thomas.
Barfoot married Norma Louise, born Davis in October 1944. The couple had four children, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Norma Barfoot died in 1992.
Barfoot suffered a skull fracture and bleeding in the brain due to a bad fall in front of his home in Richmond, Virginia, U.S, and died two days later on 02-03-2012, at the age of 92 and is buried at H. C. Smither Memorial Cemetery, Hudgins, Mathews County, Virginia, VS. 251 Smithers Ln, Cobbs Creek, VA 23035.
Leave a Reply