At 17, Tom skipped his senior year of high school to enroll in the University of Florida and enlisted as a Private in the Air Corps Enlisted Reserve. He was insulted when the Recruiting Officer said 'Let's swear this kid in' ' after all he was a man going to defend our country! He was called to active duty on June 8, 1943 and completed Basic Training as an aviation student. Tom and his friend, Charles Anderson, received their pilot's wings and commission as a 2nd Lieutenant on August 4, 1944. For 72 years, on the anniversary of getting their wings, Col. Anderson and Col. Barr were in a race to see who could call the other one first on August 4th to commemorate that day. They were both selected for B-17 training (The Flying Fortress), both became pilots and they remained friends for life. The last call was August 4, 2016.



On December 6, 1944, Tom was assigned his flight crew and they served together until the end of WWII. They took the troop train from Lincoln, Nebraska to New York City and boarded the Queen Mary with 20,000 other soldiers headed to England. On March 27, 1945, they arrived at the 303rd Bomb Group (Hell's Angels) at Molesworth to serve in the 427th Bomb Squadron. Lt. Barr, only 19 years old, flew 11 bombing missions in 19 days taking out German airfields, railroad marshalling yards, weapons factories and concrete aircraft hangers hiding German fighter planes. The final mission involved more than 300 B-17 aircraft on a raid to bomb the Skoda armament works and airfield in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia.



The Colonel retired from the U. S. Air Force in 1974. During his career he flew a total of 5,225 hours: 104 combat hours in the WWII B-17 and 198 combat hours in Vietnam. He earned the American Campaign Medal; the Air Medal; the European, Africa, Middle East Campaign Medal with Battle Star Central European Campaign; the World War II Victory Medal; the Army of Occupation Medal; the National Defense Medal; the Air Force Commendation Medal; the Vietnam Serv.