Hometown: Omaha, NE
Branch: U.S. Navy
Unit: USS LST-375
Military Honors: Medal of Honor, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: July 10, 1943 - KIA in Sicily, Italy
Age: 23
Conflict: World War II, 1939-1945

After successful operations in North Africa following the United States’ entry into World War II (1939-1945), Allied strategists turned their attention to an invasion of Europe. The first step would be Operation Husky, a massive amphibious assault on the island of Sicily. As ships, men, and military assets were being staged, a small accident threatened to give away the whole operation. One man gave his life to prevent disaster.

John Parle was born on May 26, 1920, to Harry and Mary (McEvoy) Parle in Omaha, Nebraska. John was the oldest of nine children. His parents said that as a boy, John came across as shy, but at home he was “full of wisecracks.”

In his youth, John told his family that he wanted to be a Catholic priest and later attended seminary. After a few months, he realized it wasn’t a good fit and returned home. He instead went to Omaha’s Creighton University and studied accounting.

While at Creighton, Parle joined the Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC) during his junior year in 1941. With America officially entering World War II in December 1941—following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii—Parle enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve as an Apprentice Seaman on January 11, 1942.

After graduating from college, Parle was sent to the United States Navy Reserve Midshipmen’s School at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. On Jan. 28, 1943, he was commissioned into the active-duty Navy as an Ensign.

Following a brief assignment at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, Parle was assigned to the Northwest African Amphibious Force and the USS LST-375 (Landing Ship, Tank). In early July 1943, Allied forces were amassing off the shores of Sicily. Ensign Parle was a ship’s officer in charge of small landing boats on LST-375.

Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, was about to begin. According to the U.S. Department of Defense:

On July 9, 1943, the night before the invasion, Parle’s ship was among tens of thousands of Allied forces preparing for the surprise landing. Around 1:30 a.m. on July 10, his LST had started to swing its smaller landing craft onto the ship’s small cranes to prepare to lower them into the water.

One boat was loaded with ammunition, explosives, detonating fuses and smoke pots, which were used to create large smokescreens that troop ships could hide behind. One of those smoke pots accidentally ignited.

Parle happened to be walking past and saw the smoking pot—and a fuse burning. Realizing that if the boat’s contents ignited, the resulting fireworks would give away the entire operation, he leaped into the unoccupied boat. Ens. Parle’s fast actions would save the operation, cost him his life, and earn him the Medal of Honor. His citation reads:

For valor and courage above and beyond the call of duty as officer-in-charge of small boats in the USS LST 375 during the amphibious assault on the island of Sicily, 9-10 July 1943. Realizing that a detonation of explosives would prematurely disclose to the enemy the assault about to be carried out, and with full knowledge of the peril involved, Ens. Parle unhesitatingly risked his life to extinguish a smoke pot accidentally ignited in a boat carrying charges of high explosives, detonating fuses and ammunition. Undaunted by fire and blinding smoke, he entered the craft, quickly snuffed out a burning fuse, and after failing in his desperate efforts to extinguish the fire pot, finally seized it with both hands and threw it over the side. Although he succumbed a week later from smoke and fumes inhaled, Ens. Parle’s heroic self-sacrifice prevented grave damage to the ship and personnel and insured the security of a vital mission. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.

Ensign John Joseph Parle was lost at age 23. On July 29, 1944, the U.S. Navy commissioned the destroyer escort ship USS Parle (DE-708) in his honor. In 1993, Creighton University dedicated its Military Science building—which houses its ROTC program—to Ensign Parle.

Sources
Katie Lange, U.S. Department of Defense—Medal of Honor Monday: Navy Ensign John J. Parle
Congressional Medal of Honor Society: John Joseph Parle
Naval History and Heritage Command: Parle (DE-708)
HonorStates.org: John Joseph Parle
The United States Navy Memorial: John Joseph Parle
Burial Site: Find a Grave