Captain George N. Barker, USN, Commanding Officer of Naval Training Schools here, announced yesterday that he would be detached from this station sometime before the end of the week. He will be relieved by Captain Chester H. J. Keppler, USN, present Director of Naval Officer Procurement for the First Naval District, following which Captain Barker will report to the Commandant of the First Naval District and be granted a sick leave of indefinite duration.

Captain Barker who has been professor of Naval Science and Tactics for a total of four years at Harvard, said yesterday in a farewell interview, "This has been a most satisfactory tour of duty. I have experienced wonderful cooperation from the University for the establishment and operation of the several Naval Training Schools in this activity, which have been built up in the last two years form a few hundred officer-candidates to nearly 5000 commissioned officers and officer-candidates."

In a feature appearing several months ago in the Harvard Scuttlebutt, Captain Barker was described as, "a Navy man's Navy man." His modest and direct manner would hardly indicate that he is the holder of the Navy Cross, which he earned when in the position of Executive and Navigation officer of the destroyer "Nicholson," the first destroyer to be sent by the United States to the Allied Naval forces.

While operating out of Queenstown, protecting conveys and individual ships, with the aid of the destroyer "Fanning," Captain Barker's ship captured the German submarine U-58. The two ships then drove an attacking sub from the "J. L. Luckenbach."

Captain Barker was the Massachusetts appointee to the Naval Academy in 1903. He graduated in 1907 and was on the battleship "Nebraska" and the armored cruiser "South Dakota" during the next few years, when he saw Central and South America, the South Seas, and Asiatic Station.

From 1913 to 1915 Captain Barker was

was then assigned to the battleship "Michigan" and later to the destroyer "Nicholson," at which time he received the Navy Cross.

After the armistice Captain Barker was in command of the United States Naval Forces in the eastern Mediterranean while at Spalato, Dalmatia, where he was the senior American representative for the arrangement and enforcement of the armistice terms.

In the summer of 1919, Captain Barker was appointed inspector at the Naval Academy. From 1922 to 1925 he was aide to the Commander of Destroyer Squadrons, which operated in the Atlantic and later in the Pacific. After this, Captain Barker spent two years on shore duty followed by two years in command of the destroyer-minelayer "Mahan."

From 1929 to 1932, Captain Barker was aide to the Commandant of the Navy Yard at Portsmouth. Following this, he spent two years as Executive Officer of the heavy cruiser, "Portland." In 1934 he was made professor of Naval Science and Tactics here, but at the end of three years he went back to sea in command of the U. S. S. "Houston." This probably was Captain Barker's favorite command, and he is quoted as having said sadly but proudly of the "Houston," "she went down fighting."

The Captain's son, Lt. Jonathan A. Barker, USN, graduated from the Naval Academy in December, 1941. His first assignment was the heavy cruiser "Vincennes," which was sunk in the Guadalcanal invasion. He is now on another heavy cruiser in the Central Pacific.

Captain Keppler, who will relieve Captain Barker, held the position of professor of Naval Science and Tactics at Harvard from 1937 to 1939