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Parks' service in WWII and Korea propelled him into the pulpit
Date July 19, 2008

By ALEX McRAE

At the height of the Great Depression, Ralph Parks was happy to find work. But when his pay started coming in promises instead of cash, he knew he had to make a change.

Instead of hunting a new job, Parks joined the Navy.

He never dreamed his decision would land him in the middle of two major wars and propel him to a life in the pulpit. But through it all, Parks never doubted his decisions were the right ones.

"I realized later the Lord's hand is on everything," he says. "And I think it all turned out pretty well."

Parks was born in 1922 in Sugar Grove, Va. When he was 5, his dad gave up farming and took a job in the coal fields near Beckley, W. Va. Parks helped tend the family garden, and when he was lucky, made 50 cents a day hoeing corn for local farmers.

His mother and father were active in the local Methodist church, but in the small, rural community, services were only offered once a month. When he was "8 or 9" Parks gave his life to Christ at a revival.

"I vividly remember asking God to forgive me and wondering how He could do that," Parks says. "I didn't think I was worth it."

Parks' church involvement deepened with each passing year, but he learned that being a church member didn't always mean living an upstanding life.

After high school, Parks didn't want to work the coal fields. The Sunday school superintendent at Parks' church had a small farm and offered him a job for $15 dollars a month plus room and board. For the first few months, things were fine. Then the man quit paying Parks, promising to do better but never coming through with the cash.

Parks finally left and never collected his past due pay.

"He was head of the Sunday school, but he certainly wasn't filled with the Christian spirit," Parks says. "It was a big disappointment."

Other jobs were still scarce. So Parks joined the Navy in July 1940.

He went to Norfolk, Va., for basic training and machinist mate school. In March 1941, Parks headed for the Miami Naval Air Station as an aircraft mechanic. Just months later, America went to war and the Miami situation grew considerably less laid back.

"We all thought we could be under attack any day," Parks says. "You didn't know what was happening and had to plan for the worst."

While in Miami, Parks resurrected an old dream. Soon after high school, Parks paid $5 to a traveling pilot for a plane ride and had always wanted to fly again. In Miami, he started taking private flight lessons and earned a pilot's license.

"I felt like it was really a step forward," Parks says. "I was really proud."

While Parks was getting his private license he was also getting Navy flight time in the back seat of torpedo bombers. A few times, Parks was allowed to fly the plane, sometimes when it was doing simulated torpedo runs just 8 to 10 feet above the ocean.

"The more I flew the more I liked it," he says.

Parks finally applied for Navy flight training. He was accepted and became a cadet in the Navy's Enlisted Aviation Pilot Training program. Parks' training took him to Dallas, Tx., Nachitoches, La., Athens, Ga., Memphis, Tenn., and Pensacola, Fla., where Parks was awarded his wings in June 1945. One month later, he was commissioned as an Ensign.

Parks stayed in Pensacola and flew scouting and observation planes, then headed back to Norfolk for fleet training. By then, he wasn't traveling alone.

In 1942, while still in Miami, Parks met a young lady named Elizabeth Goodson at a roller skating rink. Elizabeth was from Attalla, Ala., but had moved in with her sister in Miami after her mother died.

Ralph was smitten with Elizabeth, but he was already dating two other girls. It made Christmas shopping a nightmare. Parks solved the problem by purchasing three identical heart-shaped lockets for his lady loves. He suspects two of the girls were turned off when their lockets turned green. Elizabeth stuck with him, though, and they were married on Aug. 21, 1942. The date was not a coincidence.

"We got paid on the 5th and 20th of every month," Parks says. "Lots of marriages happened on the 6th and 21st. That's the only time we had any money."

World War II ended before Parks was sent overseas. Not too much later he got a big taste of faraway places when he was assigned to a 13-month goodwill voyage aboard the cruiser USS Helena.

Parks flew to England, boarded the Helena and sailed for parts unknown. Every few days he flew missions in his Curtiss SC-1 scout/observation plane to keep his flight status current. He also got to see some extra sights. All were memorable.

The Helena stopped in Scotland in time to see Edinburgh residents get their first taste of ice cream since the war started. The ship also stopped in Toulon, France, and Naples, Italy, where some postwar resentment clearly lingered. One night as the crew of the Helena watched a movie on the deck, a man felt a sting in his shoulder and realized he had been shot by a sniper on shore.

"That was a tense moment," Parks says. "We were always a little more careful after that."

Parks cruised through the Suez Canal and remembers looking out to see nothing but sand on either side of the ship. He recalls Ceylon, where oxen plowed the fields and women beat their laundry on rocks. In Hong Kong, he stayed aboard a British ship and took his first hot bath in months.

But the highlight of Parks' cruise was Tsing Tao, China. Not because of the spectacular sights, but because in Tsing Tao, Parks learned his first son had been born.

When Parks returned home, Elizabeth was waiting with the 9-month-old baby.

"I was glad to see him, but I was more excited about seeing her," Parks says. "It was a great time."

Parks went back to Pensacola for a three-year stint as a flight instructor. But after 1,000 accident-free flights, he began to get bored.

"I was tired of it," he says. "I needed a change.

He transferred to photo reconnaissance and spent six months learning how to take, develop and print aerial photos. He also got to fly the F8F fighter.

"I loved that plane," he says. "It was the hottest thing I'd ever flown."

The flights were fine, but the landings were tricky. The recon planes were catapulted off the deck to begin a mission, but landed in the water, supported by a large central float and two smaller floats under the wings.

When pilots returned from missions they had to walk out on the plane's wing and attach cables from the ship that hoisted the plane back aboard."

"It got tricky at times, and it could be dangerous," he says. "But that was the job and you learned to do it."

After his training ended, Parks was qualified for aircraft carrier landings and went to the Naval Air Station in Miramar, Ca., to begin work as a combat photo reconnaissance pilot. He also started flying Grumman F9F jets.

In 1951 Parks was assigned to the aircraft carrier Essex and went to fight in Korea as a combat recon pilot on an F9F jet.

The Essex split its time between Yokosuka, Japan, and battle stations off the east coast of Korea. Parks made a total of 100 carrier landings, including 64 photo recon missions. His efforts earned him three Air Medals. Parks says he was only hit by enemy fire once, but it wasn't for lack of effort on the Koreans' part.

On one mission Parks was assigned to photograph a crossroad where top Korean officials were expected to gather for a meeting. Parks usually took photos from 5,000 feet, but this time he had to fly within 1,000 feet of the target to get more accurate pictures.

As he neared the target, Parks was bothered by the noise from the plane's heater and switched it off. As the heater noise died away all he could hear was the sound of guns firing his way.

"As soon as I heard that I turned the heat back on and kept going," he says. "I didn't need to hear that gunfire."

In Korea, Parks' recon plane was sometimes accompanied by a fighter flown by Neil Armstrong, who later became the first man to walk on the moon. Parks and Armstrong went to Japan together three times, and Parks followed his former buddy's career with interest.

"When I saw him walk on the moon I was very proud," Parks says. "He was a good man, and I wasn't surprised he did so well."

While he was overseas, Parks' second son was born. Seven grandchildren and five great grandchildren followed.

After duty in Korea, Parks taught instrument flying in Texas. After a brief stop in California, he was sent to Georgia Tech to get a college education like most of the other pilots he flew with, many of whom were Naval Academy graduates.

While at Georgia Tech, Parks' life began to change. He and Elizabeth were active at First Baptist Church in Avondale Estates, and the more Parks talked to his pastor and fellow church members, the more he felt like he was being called to the ministry.

"I had always studied the Bible and tried to live a good Christian life," he says. "But I felt like I needed to do more."

Parks resigned his Navy commission and finished his Georgia Tech degree, then enrolled at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He was ordained a Baptist minister in February 1960 and accepted a call as pastor of the Bethsaida Baptist Church in Riverdale, Ga.

After stops at two South Carolina churches, Parks earned a Master's of Divinity degree and, in 1973, came to First Baptist Church of Newnan to serve as Assistant Pastor and Minister of Education.

"It was all as fulfilling as I had hoped," he says. "I knew I was doing what I was meant to."

In 1981 Parks was called as pastor of First Baptist Church in Hogansville and stayed until 1988, when he retired. For the first time.

After two years, Parks felt the urge to go back in the ministry. But this time he went back to his Methodist roots. Over the next 12 years he pastored four Methodist churches in the LaGrange District of the North Georgia United Methodist Church Conference. Parks finally retired for good in 2001.

"I had some frightening times in the military, and even after I entered the ministry, some of my church experiences were unpleasant," Parks says. "But I always knew where to turn when I had trouble. Some people wait until the last thing to turn to the Lord, but that's the first place you need to go. I knew that was the place that always furnished the answers."