Barker, Ray Wehnes, born 10-12-1889, in Elmira New York, 
8 months after Adolf Hitler and enlisted in the Army first serving with the 15th Cavalry Regiment 
under command of Colonel Joseph Garrard 
from 1910 to 1913. Garrard died age 72 on 04-02-1924 in Bexar County Texas, USA. Barker was commissioned as an officer in the Cavalry in 1913, later participating in the Punitive Expedition into Mexico, Pancho Villa Expedition 
from 1916 to 1917. A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. Thereafter, he transferred to the field artillery and accompanied the 13th Field Artillery 
to France in World War I. He served in the Marne-Vesle and Meuse-Argonne offensives. 
In 1928, he graduated from the Command and General Staff School 
, and in 1940 from the Army War College 
.
He was the commanding officer of 31st Field Artillery Regiment 
from June 1940 to April 1941. He commanded the 30th Field Artillery from June 1941 until April 1942. After promotion to Brigadier General in July 1942, he later became the Deputy Chief of Staff of the European Theater from 1943–1944, and Deputy Chief of Staff for Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force 
under command of General Ike Eisenhower. 
.
Major General Ray Barker standing to the left of General Dwight Eisenhower as he speaks to airborne troops, England, United Kingdom, 05-06-1944, the day before D-Day. On June 6, 1944, D-Day, a huge military operation, begins shortly after midnight. More than 5,000 ships transport 150,000 Allied soldiers and 1,500 tanks to the coast of Normandy in France.
American losses: 24,126 men: 3,082 killed, 13,121 wounded, and 7,959 missing. British losses: 13,572 men: 1842 killed, 8599 wounded and 3131 missing. Canadian losses: 2815 men: 363 killed, 1359 wounded and 1093 missing. The exact number of German victims is even less known, but is estimated between ± 4,000 and ± 9,000.
Barker was promoted to Major General in June 1943. In January 1946 he assumed command of the 78th Infantry Division, ni cknamed 
, headquartered in Berlin, succeeding Major General Edwin Parker. 
One Medal of Honor 
recipient (Jonah Edward “Ed” Kelley,
of the 311th Infantry); ten Distinguished Service Crosses 
, 599 Silver Stars 
medals; 3,909 Bronze Stars 
medals and 5,454 Purple Hearts 
. 1,368 officers and enlisted men had perished. During intense house to house fighting on 30-01-1945, Ed Kelley led a squad in repeated assaults on German-held buildings. Although he received two wounds, one of which disabled his left hand, he did not withdraw to seek medical attention but continued to lead his men. The next morning, he single-highhandedly sought out and killed a German gunner who was preventing his squad’s advance before being killed while assaulting a second German position. For these actions, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor eight months later, on September 10-09-1945, age 21. The casualties of the 78th Infantry Division: total battle casualties: 8,146, killed in action: 1,427, wounded in action: 6,103, missing in action: 231 and prisoner of war: 385.
Barker then was commander supervising demilitarization of Germany until the deactivation of the 78th in May 1946 (see:commandants of Berlin American Zone.
.In 1945, Major General Ray Barker, the Shaef Assistant Chief of Staff for Personnel (G-1), was the officer responsible for recovery of Allied POWs. Ray Barker served as the headmaster at the Manlius School, an independent, non-sectarian, college-preparatory military school for boys in the town of Manlius in Central New York. Barker served from 1946 until 1960. During this tenure, he accompanied retired General Lucius Clay
on a trip to Berlin Germany for the dedication of that city’s Liberty Bell 
on 24-10- 1950..
Death and burial ground of Barker, Ray Wehnes.
Major General Ray Baker retired from the military in February 1947 and died age 84 on 26-08-1974 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.and is buried on Arlington National Cemetery in Section 30-Grave 610.
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