AUSTIN, Texas— Today, Texas Land Commissioner and Veterans Land Board (VLB) Chairwoman Dawn Buckingham, M.D., is proud to introduce the next installment of the series highlighting the VLB's Voices of Veterans oral history program. This week, we highlight the service of Technical Sergeant John Parra, who served in the U.S. Air Force.
Parra was born at Fort Benning in Georgia. Shortly after his birth, his father, who was in the Army, served three tours back-to-back in Vietnam. Parra has three brothers, and his younger brother joined the Army.
He joined the U.S. Air Force from the delayed enlistment program in January 1984 to become a Security Specialist and went to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. When asked about his first few days at boot camp as a recruit, Parra said with a chuckle, “My dad was an Army drill instructor, so we grew up with that. The loud life. It was something I was accustomed to. I was actually used to more of the yelling than we got at boot camp.”
When Parra broke his thumb during missile silo training at technical school, he did not want to be “washed back” due to his injury. So, Parra said, “We did what any good airman would do: We improvised. We tapped my thumb to the palm of my hand, and I went through the last three weeks of technical school like that.”
He was assigned to the 96th Security Forces Squadron at Dyess Air Force Base, which Parra described as “200 miles from anywhere.” He was there until December 1987. He was then reassigned to RAF Fairford in England, where he acted as base police and lived with his wife and two children. In 1991, Parra returned to Dyess and became an alarm system operator, which he described as the “eyes in the sky’ for aircraft security.
Parra went to Thule Air Base in Greenland in 2003 and described it as the “best place I went to. People say you are being punished by going there, but I enjoyed my time there […] We arrived during the dark season. With the wind chill, it was about minus 50 degrees when I got off the plane.”
He continued security work as a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) and an Interface Control Officer (ICO) and oversaw eight positions. He also recollected that “the great thing about Greenland is that there are no entry gates. The only way off and on that base is by dog sled, boat, or aircraft.”
Greenland was Parra’s last military deployment. He left Greenland and returned to Lackland Air Force Base. When asked why he wanted to retire, Parra chuckled and explained that, “I could have stayed in for another three years […]. My son had already decided he was going to join the military, and there could only be one of us in the military at a time. So, he got ready to join, and I got ready to retire.”
Parra passed the torch to his son at the end of his 21-year-long military career, and as of his interview, his son was still in the Army, having served 20 years.
To listen to Technical Sergeant John Parra tell his story, click the button below:
Technical Sergeant John Parra's Story
Veterans can email VoicesofVeterans@glo.texas.gov to tell their stories. Please note that the Veteran must be a resident of Texas at the time of their interview.
Voices of Veterans is a state agency's first Veteran oral history program. It records the stories of Texas Veterans through their time in service and after returning home from combat.
The VLB records interviews with Veterans over the phone or in person. Their interviews are then permanently archived in the Office of Veterans Records at the GLO, where they join the historical documents of other Texas heroes such as Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Barret Travis.
Veterans' interviews are also available to researchers, historians, genealogists, and the public. These precious records inspire future generations and remind us of our Veterans' sacrifices.
To listen to the over 500 archived stories of Veterans documented through the GLO's Voices of Veterans oral history program, click the button below:
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Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, M.D., brings a lifetime of experience to the Texas General Land Office (GLO). In 2016, she became the first Republican elected to the Texas State Senate from Travis County and the first woman to represent Texas Senate District 24. She made history again in 2022, winning a statewide election to become our state’s first female Land Commissioner.