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Lt Col Dennis D. Barron joined the Civil Air Patrol in January 1965, as a cadet member of the Martinsburg Composite Squadron. As a cadet, Lt Col Barron earned the Mitchell, Earhart, and Ira E. Eaker Awards and attended five summer encampments, serving as Cadet Commander of two of them. He also attended several national special activities, including the International Air Cadet Exchange and the Jet Orientation Course. After earning the Eaker Award, Lt Col Barron transferred to senior member status, in 1972, and immediately began overseeing both the squadron’s cadet program and the West Virginia Wing’s Summer Encampment program.

In September 1974, Lt Col Barron assumed command of the Martinsburg Composite Squadron and continued in that post until September 1994. During his twenty years as Commander of the Martinsburg Squadron, the unit earned numerous awards, including a Unit Citation, Squadron of Merit, and Outstanding Squadron of the Wing.

After stepping down as Commander of the Martinsburg Squadron, Lt Col Barron continued to assist the local unit by serving as finance officer and cadet leadership officer. In October 1996, he was selected to serve as the Inspector General for the West Virginia Wing, a position he held until October 2005, when he was appointed the WV Wing Chief of Staff.  He has been named Outstanding I.G. for the Middle East Region on numerous occasions and is a graduate of the Air Force I.G. Training Course, taught at Andrews AFB, Maryland, and the Civil Air Patrol National I.G. College, held at Kirkland AFB, NM, in June 2000.

In 1998, Lt Col Barron accepted an additional Wing assignment as the Drug Demand Reduction Administrator, all while still commanding the cadet summer encampment programs each year. Lt Col Barron has been a leader in the DDR program, both in the MER and on the national level. He attended the first National Drug Demand Reduction Conference, held in Atlanta, Georgia, in June 2001. Lt Col Barron has established working relationships with his counterparts in the FBI, DEA, and National Guard Bureau on both the state and national levels. This relationship has resulted not only in numerous joint DDR presentations to CAP cadets, but also co-sponsorship of several cadet encampments by the WV National Guard. In 2004, Lt Col Barron was named the National DDR Administrator of the Year.

Included among the many awards earned by Lt Col Barron are four Exceptional Service Awards (1982, 1992, 2004 and 2005), eight Meritorious Service Awards, over 25 Commander’s Commendation Awards, the West Virginia Wing Commander’s Special Commendation Award (1997), the Gill Robb Wilson Award (1985), the Search and Rescue "Find" Ribbon (1979), and two Air Force Liaison Office Torch Awards (1996 & 2002) for mentoring cadets. Lt Col Barron was named the Outstanding Senior Member of the West Virginia Wing in 1983 and 2001. He has served as a senior escort for the International Air Cadet Exchange in 1979 & 1995, visiting The Netherlands and Great Britain respectively. Lt Col Barron still commands the Wing’s outstanding summer encampment program and, to date, has attended 40 summer encampments.

Lt Col Barron is a licensed pilot and a trained Incident Commander/Mission Coordinator. He is active in search and rescue and other emergency services missions. He serves on both air and ground teams and earned a "Find" ribbon for leading a ground team in the discovery of a downed aircraft that had been missing for a week.

Lt Col Barron has master ratings in several senior member training tracks and is a graduate of the National Staff College (1976), as well as numerous other leadership training courses. In addition, to date, Lt Col Barron has attended over 47 wing, region, and national CAP conferences.

In his civilian career, Lt Col Barron is employed by the U. S. Marshals Service, in Washington, DC. Lt Col Barron previously worked for the U. S. Dept. of Justice as a juvenile detention and corrections specialist in the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. He also worked in the West Virginia juvenile and criminal justice systems for 23 years in various positions, including Chief Probation Officer of the three county judicial circuit of West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle and Magistrate for Berkeley County. He is the immediate past President of the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Parks and Recreation Board, a member of the Martinsburg Optimist Club, and active in several other civic organizations.

Lt Col Barron lives in Martinsburg, WV.