Russell had to wait until 1948 for a return trip home.

Russell C. Barnes was born in California on October 12, 1906, to Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Barnes and spent his youth in Santa Cruz along with his brother Floyd and a sister. He attended local schools and entered Santa Cruz High School, but left in the spring of 1924 during his junior year. Russell moved to San Jose, found work in a machine shop as a welder and remained at the same shop for the next nineteen years.

On March 6, 1941, Russell Barnes was inducted into the US Army in San Francisco. His unit has not been identified, but it was probably a component of the 17th or 32nd Infantry Division. Between May 11 and May 19, 1943, US Forces attacked the Japanese army entrenched on Attu Island in the Aleutian chain.

An Adjutant General Office report forwarded to Private Russell C. Barnes' parents on June 16, 1943, informed them that he was killed in action on May 29, 1943. His body was interred at a temporary location and following the war, his remains were sent to the Williams Mortuary in Santa Clara County for reburial at an unspecified cemetery.

(NARA2; SCHSC Pg. 5, SCSn June 18, 1943 1:6, S Clara Cnty Gen. Soc., http://www.rootsweb.com/~cascchgs/wfh/wfhb1.html, [16 September 2008])