Long-lost friend contacts Donald Berry after 25 years

In the summer of 1995, I worked a three month internship at The Warroad Pioneer, which I'm sorry to say has since ceased operation. This was the first professional newspaper that I worked for in my career, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience. I had only worked at Bemidji State University's newspaper for about a year and half before landing the internship. At The Pioneer I gained experience in sports, feature, beat and government reporting. I designed pages, took and developed photographs and was responsible for community relations. The best part is that I remain friends with the owners nearly 30 years later.

June 20, 1995

By Devlyn Brooks

Imagine receiving a phone call from a friend that you haven't heard from in 25 years, and hadn't seen in 50. This is exactly what happened recently to veteran Donald Berry of Warroad.

"One day I got a call, and he asked me if I was the Donald Berry who had served on the U.S.S. Madison," Berry said, describing how his old military buddy had contacted him after all these years.

Berry had served with Robert Barnum, currently of Union City, Ohio, on the Madison during the last leg of WWII. It was an "all-purpose transport" that set sail out of Boston, Massachusetts. They were on the ship a total of 16 months together, Berry said.

"First, we went on a shakedown cruise down to Puerto Rico," he said. "Then, when we came back, we put the ship in dry dock in New York and did some repairs."

After that, he said, they sailed the ship "down through the Panama Canal and by Hawaii." Then, they sailed onto the South Pacific.

Berry said that they travelled throughout the South Pacific to places such as Guam, Okinawa, Philippine Islands and the Marshall Islands.

"We were in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrendered," Berry said. "We could see the Missouri where the treaty was signed."

After this, they sailed the ship back to the United States, where it was decommissioned in Florida. Berry and Barnum were then discharged from the military.

"That was in April of 1946," Berry said. "We exchanged Christmas cards for a while, and then we just lost track. It's been 25 years since we've had any contact."

Then he receives the phone call. A call from a person he hasn't seen since World War II.

"He told me that he had been looking through some old Navy pictures of his, and ran across a picture of mine," he said. He said that he wondered if I still lived in Warroad, and called up here to an operator to get the number. Then he called me."

Berry said that Barnum, a retired postal worker, spent two days here.

They spent some time driving around northern Minnesota because Barnum had never been to Minnesota. "He was real impressed by our northern Minnesota. He was really impressed by our manufacturing.

"His wife and my wife got along well, and had lots to talk about," Berry said. "It was a real pleasure. We will definitely stay in touch now."