Medal of Honor recipient remembered
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Laverne Parrish, a World War II Medical Corpsman from Ronan, was honored Monday in a ceremony for paying the ultimate sacrifice for his country.
Parrish was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for acts of extreme courage and heroism.
According to a citation read by James Pettit at Monday’s ceremony, Parrish was a medical aid fighting with Company C at Binalonan, Luzon, Phillipine Islands on Jan. 18, 1945 when he saw two wounded men under enemy fire. He administered aid and moved one man to cover before crossing 25 yards of open ground to administer aid to another man.
On Jan. 24, his company was crossing an open field near San Manuel, when they came under enemy fire and were ordered to withdraw to the cover of a ditch. Parrish saw two wounded men still in the field. He left the ditch, crawled forward under enemy fire, and brought both wounded men to safety in separate trips.
Parrish treated nearly all of the 37 casualties in his company before he was mortally wounded by mortar fire.
Parrish is one of 435 World War II veterans to receive the Medal of Honor, of 15 million who served during the war.
At Monday’s ceremony, bugler Jerry Akers played Taps to honor Parrish while members of the Ronan VFW saluted him with flags.
