Delaware National
GuardRecounting Vietnam
The spirit of persistence
By Spc. Robert L. Jones, Det. 1, 444th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
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Spec. 4 Barry Parsons with his squad leader, Sgt. Pat |
Dogged persistence, courage under fire and selfless determination in protecting one’s fellow troops are the qualities of character that come to mind when soldiers speak of heroism. Those heroes aren’t always found in the history books, sometimes they work right along side you in the office.
On a sweltering August afternoon in 1969 in Vietnam, two platoons of Company A, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry, were pinned down by North Vietnamese Army (NVA) machine gun fire in the rice paddies near An Lam, about 30 kilometers west of Da Nang. Just two nights before, machine gunner Specialist Four Barry Parsons had just lived through one of "the scariest nights" of his life as his platoon, on night patrol, pulled through a fierce firefight with NVA soldiers.
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Soldiers from Spec. 4 Barry Parsons' patrol after calling in B-52 air strikes, near An Lam, Vietnam. (Photo by Lt. Col. Barry Parsons.) |
Looking back on that night, now-Lt. Col. Parsons, who is still serving in the Army Corps of Engineers with the Delaware National Guard, recalls:
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Lt. Col. Barry Parsons today, Deputy Director of Personnel, Delaware National Guard. (Photo by Spc. Robert L. Jones.) |
"We were informed we’ve got another mission on what was then the southwest finger on Landing Zone West, and then (to) patrol down the base and proceed further around going to the northwest side, and we were to leave at six o’clock that morning. In the middle of the night, what we had was ground radar at that time, to pick up vibrations of footprints, and it picked up 54 footprint signatures. A platoon sergeant came up to me, and he started stuttering, ‘We’ve got 54 NVA in front of us,’ and I looked out in front of my bunker and sure enough you’d see them carrying bangalore torpedoes, squatting down, moving into position. I never thought I was going to live because, I’m the point bunker, I stand out, right on the finger, with the machine gun, and that’s what they want to knock out. I’m firing my M60 till about four o’clock in the morning, and by the time I was done, it was red, glowing, and it started sagging, so we had to cease fire."
He recounts the deadly scenario of his unit’s walking into what could have been an ambush. "Luckily for us, we picked them up, we fired the rest of the night, all the way through the night and eight a.m. the next morning, they were still trying to get off the mountain ridgeline, you could see them starting to move out, you know, running away." His machine gun temporarily out-of-service, Parsons’ sense of improvisation took over. "Then, I was picking up LAWs [the M72 Light Antitank Weapon], and I’m firing up at them just to get them away. And there was a heavy body count; there was a large number of NVAs that got killed. The only fire we had coming in was mortar rounds. Nobody else fired a round, and to our amazement, we were told later after they captured some of the wounded that they were not to fire until they gave the signal," he said.
Just a day and-a-half later, Parsons’ inventiveness could not have been more timely as the point element from his company was pinned down in the rice paddy. His company began drawing small arms and automatic fire from an elaborate underground bunker complex manned by NVA soldiers. "There were twenty improved machine gun firing positions dug down in this hillside," he related. Inter-locking the fingers of both hands, and drawing upon his engineering knowledge, Parsons demonstrated the almost impenetrable nature of the use of natural defenses the NVA used in constructing the bunkers: "They had very ingeniously dug them underneath the root system of the bamboo that grew wild over there. If you’ve ever seen bamboo grow, the roots intertwine with each other horizontally and reinforces soil conservation, but also strengthens reinforcement against weapons."
At this point, soldiers from the First and Second platoons were threatened with imminent peril, as a number were already wounded, and one soldier dead. Assessing the near-impossible situation, his platoon leader, Master Sgt. James Price, of the Kansas National Guard, asked for volunteers to try to break through the NVA defenses using the LAW. "He asked ‘anybody ever fire one of these things?’" Parsons said. "Right away, boom, my hand goes up. ‘Yeah, I fired in basic and AIT’ [Advanced Individual Training]. The next thing I know, I have two LAWs from our platoon, two LAWs from the third, and one from headquarters. Then, there’s a crate coming in, being dropped off by a helicopter, and I’m standing up there and I’m firing LAWs and this soldier’s directing me to bunker positions." By the end of the day, Parsons’ impromptu efforts would make it possible for his unit to extract themselves. "Without the LAWs, we probably would not have gotten anywhere unless we had heavier guns to do it, and the heaviest thing we had was the LAW. I don’t know how many LAWs I fired, but I know there was a lot of them."
Later that evening, returning soldiers sought out Parsons because he had saved their lives through his actions, while risking his own. He took out bunker after bunker, but doesn’t remember being in the middle of all that hostile fire. "Everybody says the bullets were going around me, but I don’t remember anything. All I was thinking about was those guys out in the rice paddy and getting them out."
Perhaps even just as fascinating is the story of Parsons’ struggle in gaining recognition for his heroic actions in Vietnam. After rotating out of country about three months later, he finished his active duty time at Fort Ord, CA, in June of 1970, after eventually being promoted to Staff Sergeant. After graduating from Temple University in Philadelphia in 1973, he joined the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, and in 1976, was awarded a direct commission.
When he transferred to the Delaware National Guard in 1980, then 1st Lt. Parsons’ new battalion commander read through his new officer’s personnel file and asked about Parsons’ Bronze Star. "I asked ‘What Bronze Star?’" Parsons said, "and he showed me the letter of recommendation that Master Sgt. Price had sent to my old battalion commander that I had never seen." During the next 21 years, Parsons ran into "a lot of walls" after he was told that the recommendation had been lost.
He pursued official recognition for his actions through the Department of the Army, often getting vague and contradictory responses, the typical reaction when paperwork is lacking in the system. "When you run into so many stone walls, and nobody wants to do anything, you kind of give up. You say ‘well, I’m not going to fight the system.’" But, along with Price, Parsons credits two Delaware National Guard officers for being the "prod" he needed to see through his fight, Chief Warrant Officer Kenneth Rhoads and Brig. Gen. Norman Cochran (Ret). Eventually, Pennsylvania U.S. Congressman Joseph R. Pitts took up Parsons’ cause which, according to Parsons, really got things moving.
Finally, in January 2001 – almost 32 years after his heroic deeds -- Parsons was officially awarded the Bronze Star Medal, with valor "V" device, for "personal heroism, professional competence, and devotion to duty….Specialist Parsons continually exposed himself by standing in full view of the enemy bunkers while firing, ignoring small arms fire directed at him." Presenting the award to him in July, 2001, Delaware State Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Frank Vavala lauded Parsons, saying "it’s not very often I present such a prestigious award. We are privileged to have this hero, this combat veteran in our midst."
Today, Parsons shows the same sense of tireless determination he showed as a 23 year-old infantryman in Vietnam: Never taking no for an answer, and drawing just as much pride from his National Guard service as from his active duty time. About the Bronze Star, he remarked: "It didn’t become a point of the award to me, it became a principle as a civilian and a part-time soldier. You know, this country’s founded on the Minutemen, the citizen soldier, coming to the defense of their country."
Parsons is currently the Deputy Director of Personnel at
State Area Headquarters with the Delaware Army National Guard. In civilian
life, he works as Project Safety Director for the Turner Construction
Company in Philadelphia. Their current project, the National Constitution
Center, in Philadelphia, near Independence Hall, is one that is close to
his heart, that he feels a connection with. "That’s what we do as National
Guardsman, as citizen soldiers. We defend the Constitution and the Bill of
Rights," he said.