For Veterans Day, the National Park Service's Park Planning, Facilities and Lands Directorate profiled veterans in its workforce. One is Mark Barry, an exhibits specialist with the Historic Preservation Training Center (HPTC), Southeast Region Caribbean Section, based on St. Croix.
Image from the National Park Service's profile of Mark Barry.
From the Marines to the Park Service
Barry enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 2009, serving with the 7th Engineer Support Battalion and Marine Wing Support Squadron 373. The Park Service drew him for the same reasons the Marines did: "challenge, adventure, and being a part of a mission greater than myself."
Of the Marine values that stayed with him, his favorite is "mind over body": once the mind commits to a goal, no challenge is too great. And the skill he values most is improvisation. However solid a plan, something will go wrong — a broken tool, a crew member out sick, bad weather — and "having the ability to improvise, adapt, and overcome is critical, especially as a project leader."
A patchwork of careers
Barry's military service and schooling focused on engineering. He then spent several years as a land surveyor preserving boundary monuments and property lines in the Oregon mountains, and several more supervising facility and machine maintenance in Colorado. None of it was preservation work, but he now draws on all of it to plan, organize and carry out HPTC projects.
David Gibney (Experienced Worker Program), Sara Polzin (HPTC Frederick), Jose Bastian (HPTC San Juan) and Mark Barry (HPTC St. Croix) review progress on limewashing the Danish Customs House. Credit: National Park Service.
The work
The Park Service cares for a wide range of historic structures, some nearing 300 years old, so that future generations can keep enjoying and learning from them.
His most memorable project left almost nothing to see. At Fort Pickens, the crew dug out more than a million pounds of sand covering the fort's roof, applied a sealant, and buried the roof again. The finished job looked virtually the same as before — but, Barry realized, his crew were the only people to have touched that roof in nearly 200 years.
The St. Croix and San Juan Caribbean Maintenance Action Team crew. Credit: National Park Service.
Removing and dismantling a column crown on the Boca Chita pavilion. Credit: National Park Service.
Why it matters
Most of his projects are in busy parks, on places communities feel strongly about, and visitors often stop to show interest and thanks. Seeing preservation crews at work, he believes, helps people understand that these places can't be taken for granted: they need care and deserve to be cherished.
Many veterans stay in federal service after the military, Barry says, because they like contributing to a meaningful mission as part of a close-knit team, and they find both in the Park Service. "The National Park Service is greater than the sum of its parts and veterans can see and appreciate that."
Sources
Based on "From Marines to Monuments, Learn About Mark Barry's Unique Journey in Preserving Park History," Park Planning, Facilities and Lands Directorate, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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