- April 23, 2024
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Claudia and Ray Parker are looking forward to Freedom Fest and Ray Parker getting the Silver Star he earned in Vietnam. Photo by Jacque Estes
Claudia and Ray Parker are looking forward to Freedom Fest and Ray Parker getting the Silver Star he earned in Vietnam. Photo by Jacque Estes
There are dates Ray Parker isn’t likely to forget. On July 4, 1970, he was involved in a battle in Vietnam that earned him two Bronze Stars and a Silver Star, except no one ever told him about the Silver Star. On Veterans Day, Friday, Nov, 11, Congressman Ron DeSantis will award him his Silver Star at the Freedom Fest at the Flagler Executive Airport.
May 5, 2014, can be added to the list because that’s the day he was, “quite awestruck.”
“I was talking with Peter C. Langenus, who is also a friend, and was my commanding officer,” Parker said. “He was giving me a letter of reference, and it said, ‘Raymond Parker is a highly decorated infantry combat officer.’”
Parker questioned the wording. He had been awarded two Bronze Stars, but he didn’t feel that made him highly decorated.
“He said, ‘Well it’s your Silver Star,” Parker recalled. “There was silence, and then I said, ‘what Silver Star?”
For 46 years Langenus thought Parker had received the Silver Star for his actions on July 4, 1970.
The events of the first 12 hours of the Fourth of July that year are clear in Parker’s mind, down to the last detail. An airborne ranger with the 82nd airborne division, assigned to the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, his platoon’s job was to “get in and move fast.”
“My platoon was the point platoon, and we were to secure the landing zone,” Parker said. “We knew the enemy was there, but we didn’t realize how many. We walked into a horrendous contact battle. They had to leave us there.”
Parker estimated he had between 25 and 30 men with him, including Langenus.
“The enemy started standing up to shoot,” Parker said.
Parker aimed his rifle.
“I heard this ‘click.’ It didn’t fire,” he said. “He (the enemy) pulls up his AK, I see his eyes, and he tries to fire, and his rifle jammed. Our Kit Carson Scout (enemy soldiers that joined the Americans), Hung Tom, was with me. He stood up and shot that guy. Everything is blowing up all over the world, and he walks over, not paying attention to what’s going on, grabs the guy’s rifle out of his hands, pulls it open, takes the round out, and hands it to me.”
Tom didn’t speak English, but Parker knew the significance.
“I knew that round was important because that round had my name on it,” Parker said.
A second, and Parker said, “Worse” battle occurred a couple of hours later. It was a battle that went against all odds, and earned the platoon their Bronze Stars, and Parker’s Silver.
“You’ve heard the expression, ‘circle the wagons?’ We circled the platoon to 20 to 30 feet apart. There was phenomenal fire power and we were using up all of our ammunition.”
Parker has a topographic map where he can point out the hill he rolled down, away from his men, and onto a ledge. He threw grenades at the enemy in the ravine below, as they attempted to circle the Americans. The artillery was called in, gunships off the coast, and, above him Col. Bibb Underwood was in a cobra helicopter.
“Finally the enemy just disappeared,” Parker said. “I went back up the hill, clearly I was in shock, the platoon was in shock, and Peter Langenus asked me, ‘Lt. Parker, would you like a Distinguished Service Cross?’”
The answer was a resounding “no.”
The gist of it was I was ashamed that we didn’t do better, and I thought that was the end of it.”
When Langenus realized Parker hadn’t received his medal, they began the process to correct the situation, not an easy thing to do, post activity. With the help of his wife Claudia, Westmoreland Research, Randy Stapleford, military and veterans coordinator for U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, and confirmation by two eye witnesses, Underwood and Langenus, Parker received his award letter on Oct. 19.
The delay was due to missing information in the daily officer’s report. There are several theories on what may have happened.
“It’s not the entire day,” Claudia Parker said. “It’s the first 12 hours. Nothing was written and that’s when the incident happened.”
At ten hundred hours (10 a.m.), on Friday, Nov. 11, 2016, at the Freedom Fest at the Flagler County Airport, Parker will be finally be awarded the Silver Star, the United States military's third-highest decoration for valor in combat.
Freedom Fest is a three-day celebration, beginning at 10 a.m., Friday, Nov. 11. Following the ceremony, those who served in the military anywhere in the world between 1955 and 1975 will be invited up to receive their Veteran commemorative service pins. Throughout the weekend the Vietnam traveling memorial wall will be on display.
There will be military aircraft, bi-plane rides, vendors, food, and fireworks on Saturday night.
The event and parking is free; EZ airport parking is $5.
Friday: 5 p.m. - Swanky Mo’s; 7 p.m. – Elvis Aaron Presley Jr.
Saturday: Noon – Anthony Wilde; 2:30 p.m. – J.W. Gilmore; 4 p.m. – Woodstock Tribute; 6 p.m. GW Souther; 8 p.m. – Young Rolling Stones.
Sunday: 10 a.m. New Way Church, all faiths family service, followed by Thomas Sisters at 11 a.m.
