Originally from the Washington D.C. area, Barry graduated from Montgomery Blair High School. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Maryland in Economics. Afterward, he was commissioned through OCS at Newport, R.I., and served in various assignments mainly in the Pacific Theater. He earned his Master's in International Relations from the Naval War College and studied Mandarin Chinese at the Defense Language Institute and with the Republic of China’s (ROC) Navy in Taiwan as an exchange student. His favorite shipboard assignment was serving as the Commanding Officer of USS Shasta (AE-33), operating in the Pacific Ocean from the Naval Weapons Station at Concord, California. As his final assignment, he was honored to represent our country as the Naval Attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China.