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Gerald Herbert ‘Jerry’ Parshall was
born in Jackson, MI on April 10, 1931 to Floyd and Margaret Ruth
(Scott) Parshall. He had two sisters, Janice and Joanne. In high
school, he was a member of the Michigan State Militia and Michigan
National Guard. After graduating in 1948, he joined the regular
Army, training as a High Speed Radio Operator and Intercept
Operator. He also obtained his commercial pilots license. He served
at Fort Lewis, WA until 1949 (earning the Good Conduct Medal), when
he entered the USMA Preparatory School.
Jerry joined the Class of 1954 on July 5, 1950. His
prior service helped with the military aspects of the curriculum,
and academics were also not a challenge. He played on his company’s
Brigade Championship lacrosse team. He joined the Dialectic Society,
Debate Council, the Howitzer staff,
the Ordnance Club and the Radio Club, serving as its vice president.
He once built a radio for his and his roommates’ enjoyment.
While a cadet, his studies of the Roman Catholic
religion came to fruition when, in his First Class year, he was
baptized into that faith, which served as a lifelong bedrock of his
character.
Before going off into the “Wild Blue Yonder,” he
began a lifetime partnership with Jeannette Mary ‘Jan’ Carry, whom
he had courted determinedly since their first meeting on Halloween
of First Class year. This happy relationship was confirmed with
nuptials at Christ the King Church in New York City on July 17,
1954.
Jerry received his pilot wings after training at
Bartow Air Base, FL and Laredo Air Force Base (AFB), TX, and then
was rated as bombardier/navigator at James Connally AFB, TX.
Assigned as a pilot in Strategic Air Command, he served in
reconnaissance and bomb squadrons at Lockbourne AFB, OH from 1956 to
1959, flying RB-47s. In 1961, he earned a master of science in
electrical engineering from the University of Michigan. Until 1965,
he taught electrical engineering at the Air Force Academy. Next came
Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell AFB, AL, followed by a
brief tour at Forbes AFB, KS, flying C-130s.
At Otis AFB, MA in 1967, he transitioned to EC-121s
for his first combat assignment, then served as an aircraft
commander with the 553rd Reconnaissance Wing, Korat Royal Thai AFB,
until 1968. On this tour he was awarded the Distinguished Flying
Cross and five Air Medals. He was then assigned to the Naval
Observatory, Washington, DC with the Defense Communications Planning
Group (later called the Defense Special Project Group), in the
development of Project “Pave Eagle” (QU-22B), one of our early drone
efforts.
Returning to Thailand in 1972, Jerry served as Pilot,
Operations Officer and final Squadron Commander of the 554th
Reconnaissance Squadron, Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai AB, flying
QU-22Bs, for which he earned the Meritorious Service Medal. After
the squadron’s deactivation, he served as Wing Maintenance Quality
Control Officer, 56th Special Operations Wing, until 1973.
After Thailand, he reported to the Air Force Systems
Command, Andrews AFB, MD as a staff officer with the Drone Division,
Reconnaissance Directorate, and then as Director, Air-Launched
Missile Division. He received the Legion of Merit for his final
assignment as Chief, Planning Group, Systems Division, Directorate
of Research and Development, Headquarters USAF. Jerry retired as a
colonel on January 31, 1978.
Never one to remain idle, and having four children to
educate, Jerry joined AMAF Industries in 1978 as Project Officer and
Program Manager of Federal Aviation Agency communications projects,
and later he had similar roles with EG&G, Washington Analytical
Services Center, working on submarine sonar projects for the U.S.
Navy.
After retirement from EG&G, Jerry and Jan traveled
frequently, both domestically and worldwide. Jerry volunteered at
Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, MD and at St. Patrick Church
in Rockville, MD. He accumulated almost as many volunteer hours as
he had flying time. He was a Life Member of the Knights of Columbus
and belonged to several professional and veterans’ organizations.
The reunions of his wartime flying companions were very special. A
Korat crew member told Jan, “Your husband got me back alive.” Their
living arrangements alternated between Milford, CT and Rockville,
MD. Their enthusiasm for West Point never diminished, and they
rarely missed a 1954 reunion, class luncheons or an Army-Navy Game,
even when Jerry’s health was failing.
Jerry would probably say that his most satisfying
accomplishments were as husband and father. His loving concern and
compassion during Jan’s bout with lung cancer were evident. Their
four sons and five grandchildren give living testimony to their
loving upbringing:
Gerald Jr., born during Jerry’s Lockbourne
assignment, earned a bachelor’s and law degree from Notre Dame.
Edward, also born during the Lockbourne years, graduated from Mount
Saint Mary’s College, MD. James, born during Jerry’s Air Force
Academy tour, also graduated from Mount Saint Mary’s College.
Thomas, born while Jerry was deployed to NKP (Jan visited Jerry
there while pregnant with Tom), graduated from Norwich University,
VT and now wears Jerry’s silver oak leaves as a lieutenant colonel
on active duty in the U.S. Army Reserve.
Continuing the Parshall legacy, three grandchildren
are college graduates, and the two youngest are currently college
students.
After a long and courageous fight with cancer, Jerry
passed away, surrounded by family, in Milford on May 5, 2014. A Mass
of Christian Burial was held at Saint Mary Catholic Church in
Milford, after which six sharp Air Force pallbearers, a firing squad
and an Army bugler assisted in the military ceremony at the
cemetery. A Memorial Mass and celebration of Jerry’s life was
attended by all local E-1 classmates and many others from 1954 on
April 10, 2015.
Be Thou at Peace.
— Jan Parshall and Ed Hart,
roommate and best man |
