Most civilians think a ‘leg wound’ in combat means the trooper will be okay — but often that means a long, painful recovery and doubt whether the leg will be amputated or whether walking again can be accomplished. Barnesville’s William Parker sustained such a wound on Thanksgiving Day 1967, in the central highlands of Vietnam near Chu Lai. Drafted into the U.S. Army 23rd Infantry American Division just the year before, Parker was one of the soldiers in a ‘fierce firefight’ on a search-and destroy mission. A young first lieutenant by the name of Colin Powell was his platoon leader. Parker spent a week in a hospital in Vietnam, two weeks in a Philippine hospital, a month at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC, and seven months at Fort Gordon in Augusta ‘learning how to walk again,’ he says. ’When I got hit with an AK-47 bullet,’ Parker says, ‘I just fell down and the last thing I remember was calling for my mother. I was put in a ward with dozens of soldiers with missing legs and arms, so I thought my leg was gone too. I thanked God it wasn’t.’ Cleared for active duty, Parker spent the last year of his Army draftee service at Fort Benning in Columbus. He then went into the Navy, where he was ‘the only black man on our minesweeper, but we went a lot of places I enjoyed seeing.’ He said he had ‘trouble’ making friends in the Navy: ‘It was that time, you know. Most of my friends were Marines.’ After two years, he served another four years in the Army with several duty stations including two tours in Germany and a stint with the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell, Ky. His wife Catherine says, ‘He’s been around the world two times.’ Parker worked for six years in civil service with Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins before he was declared 100% disabled from the leg injury. Growing up in Barnesville, Parker never imagined the ‘turning point’ in his life would be an injury 10,000 miles from home. ’I was just turned 19 years old,’ he says, ‘and here I was with gung-ho Colin Powell, marching from sunup to sundown with 60 to 70-pound packs in 110-degree weather. I think Powell became a four-star general and went on to other prominent jobs because he was so gung-ho. He never let us quit.’ Settled now in Barnesville, William and Catherine have eight children and eight grandchildren and attend West Mount Sinai Baptist Church. He is junior vice commander of the American Legion Fourth District which includes Barnesville, Thomaston, Forsyth and Griffin. ’I’ll never forget the day I got hurt. I’ll never forget looking down from the medevac chopper and seeing all those bodies of guys who were killed, Viet Cong and Americans. It’s definitely affected my life; I still go to a Vietnam vets support group at the VA hospital in Decatur. What the military does now and has done for us is something nobody should forget,’ he adds.
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