Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Francis Fox PARRY
A decorated, published, and 'three-war' Marine
By Walter F. Naedele Inquirer Staff Writer
Former Marine Corps Col. Francis Fox Parry had at least one memorable moment far from the battlefield.
A Publishers Weekly review of a 1987 book by Mr. Parry reported that he "is a salty, tell-it-like-it-was writer whose comments on the military milieu are well worth reading."
The review noted that the twice-married Mr. Parry had spectacularly interrupted his military career for his first wife.
"Learning that his wife had become a Conover model and nightclub singer," the reviewer wrote, "he obtained emergency leave, flew from the Okinawa battlefield to New York, and snatched her barely in time from the claws of showbiz."
On Oct. 28, Mr. Parry, 91, died of heart failure at the Hill at Whitemarsh, where he had resided for two months after living for eight years in Blue Bell.
Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Parry graduated from the Hill School in Pottstown, earned his bachelor's degree at the Naval Academy in February 1941, and was commissioned into a 26-year Marine Corps career.
In 1987, Pacifica Press published Three-War Marine: The Pacific, Korea, Vietnam, which Mr. Parry wrote with Leonard F. Chapman. In 1999, the paperback was issued.
In the Pacific, he served at Guadalcanal and on Okinawa. In Korea, he commanded a battalion during combat at the Chosin Reservoir. In Vietnam, he was on the Saigon staff of Gen. William Westmoreland.
His 1967 discharge document states that, among more than a dozen medals and citations, he earned a Silver Star and a Bronze Star.
In 1954, the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin reported the awarding of the Silver Star and of a Gold Star in lieu of a second Bronze Star, but did not state how he had earned the first Bronze.
"The awards are for bravery in action between December 2 and December 6, 1950," the report stated, when Mr. Parry was "with the forces that were cut off around the Chosin Reservoir for about two weeks during the early counteroffensive of the Reds."
In October 2004, the Marine Corps Gazette set up a $1,000 award in his name to recognize the best "combat initiative" article, which it publishes each two years.
From 1970 to 1981, Mr. Parry worked in the Washington offices of the Interior Department, rising to run its electric energy systems, said his daughter, Vera Lichtenwalner.
In the 1990s, he was a member of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program of Montgomery County.
Besides his daughter, Mr. Parry is survived by Alice, his wife of 17 years; sons Nicholas, Alfred, John, and Winslow; a brother; eight grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. His former wife, Vera, died in 1992.
A memorial service took place Nov. 2. Burial is to be May 6 at Arlington National Cemetery.
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