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Kent Weekly (SS/DSV) (DBF), EMCS
to remember
Parsons, Charles Thomas (Philippine Guerilla), CDR.
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Contact Info
Home Town Shelbyville, TN
Last Address Philippines
Date of Passing May 12, 1988
Location of Interment Manila Memorial Park - Parañaque, Manila, Philippines
The American-born Parsons had lived in the Philippines since 1902. He was a successful businessman who was fluent in several native dialects and knew the Islands and their people like a book. In 1932, Parsons joined the U. S. Navy Reserves. In December 1941, he was called to active duty in Manila as a lieutenant in Naval Intelligence. In his successful business career, he served as Honorary Panamanian Consul in Manila. The Japanese did not discover his Naval Intelligence connection. After a period of internment at Santo Tomas, they permitted him to leave with his family in June 1942 because of his Panamanian diplomatic status. After a journey from Manila to Takao to Shanghai to Mozambique to Africa, the Parsons reached New York City on August 12, 1942. In short order, Parsons reported to the Navy Department Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where his presence came as a surprise because he had been listed as "missing in action." He presented a lengthy written report to officials there covering in great detail Japanese activities in the Islands since their fall. It is during this period that General MacArthur's request appeared for Parsons's presence at Brisbane. Naval Intelligence, Army Intelligence, and the FBI were loath to let this valuable source of information go, but after some negotiations, the General got his way.
Parsons reported to Brisbane in early January 1943 and was assigned to the Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB). He was put in charge of a project to establish teleradio units in guerrilla forces across the Islands and to strengthen and unify guerrilla leadership so they met standards established by General MacArthur and became cohesive warfare units. To accomplish this project, Parsons would have to return clandestinely to the Islands, a requirement he welcomed. He would become MacArthur's "Man in Manila."
Other Comments:
Also awarded the Philippine Medal of Valor "For conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty."
This award is equivalent to the US Medal of Honor
Commander Parsons was the man that General Douglas MacArthur called "The bravest man he had ever known."
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Luzon Campaign (1944-45)
From Month/Year
December / 1944
To Month/Year
April / 1945
Description On December 15, 1944, landings against minimal resistance were made on the southern beaches of the island of Mindoro, a key location in the planned Lingayen Gulf operations, in support of major landings scheduled on Luzon. On January 9, 1945, on the south shore of Lingayen Gulf on the western coast of Luzon, General Krueger's Sixth Army landed his first units. Almost 175,000 men followed across the twenty-mile (32 km) beachhead within a few days. With heavy air support, Army units pushed inland, taking Clark Field, 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Manila, in the last week of January.
Two more major landings followed, one to cut off the Bataan Peninsula, and another, that included a parachute drop, south of Manila. Pincers closed on the city and, on February 3, 1945, elements of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division pushed into the northern outskirts of Manila and the 8th Cavalry Regiment (organized as infantry) passed through the northern suburbs and into the city itself.
As the advance on Manila continued from the north and the south, the Bataan Peninsula was rapidly secured. On February 16, paratroopers and amphibious units simultaneously assaulted the islet of Corregidor. It was necessary to take this stronghold because troops there can block the entrance of Manila Bay. The Americans needed to establish a major harbor base at Manila Bay to support the expected invasion of Japan, planned to begin on November 1, 1945. Resistance on Corregidor ended on February 27, and then all resistance by the Japanese Empire ceased on August 15, 1945, obviating the need for an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands.
Despite initial optimism, fighting in Manila was harsh. It took until March 3 to clear the city of all Japanese troops, and the Japanese Marines, who fought on stubbornly and refused to either surrender or to evacuate as the Japanese Army had done. Fort Drum, a fortified island in Manila Bay near Corregidor, held out until 13 April, when a team of Army troops went ashore and pumped 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel into the fort, then set off incendiary charges. No Japanese soldiers in Fort Drum survived the blast and fire.
In all, ten U.S. divisions and five independent regiments battled on Luzon, making it the largest American campaign of the Pacific war, involving more troops than the United States had used in North Africa, Italy, or southern France.
