Henry Parham, last survivor of Black unit on D-Day, dead at 99

PITTSBURGH — Henry Parham, believed to be the last surviving member of an all-Black unit to land at Normandy on D-Day, died July 4 of bladder cancer. He was 99.

>> Read more trending news

Parham died at the Pittsburgh VA Medical Center, according to his obituary.

Parham belonged to the 320th Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion, which was the only Black unit to land on Omaha Beach on the morning of June 6, 1944, according to the Veterans Breakfast Club website.

Parham was born Nov. 21, 1921, in Greensville County, Virginia, according to Virginia birth records. He was the son of a farmer, census records show. After moving to Richmond, Parham was drafted into the U.S. Army when he was 21, according to his obituary and online military records.

Parham’s first combat experience came on D-Day, and his unit was responsible for raising and maintaining barrage balloons, according to his obituary. The balloons were deployed above the beach to force German bombers to fly at higher altitudes, making it more difficult for them to strafe Allied troops landing on the beach.

“We handled 300 air tanks, it was pretty heavy stuff,” Parham said in an August 1992 interview.

Parham and his unit remained on Omaha Beach for 68 days.

“We were considered a special outfit, which meant a lot to us,” Parham said in the interview.

Parham recalled the beach at Normandy as “heavily mined” and dangerous, with “bullets flying in the water.”

“When we hit the beach, we were due at 6:30 in the morning but it was 2 o’clock before we could land,” Parham said in his interview. “They dumped us off in water up to our necks. We had one guy who was so short, we had to carry him to the shore.”

After World War II, Parham worked as a heavy equipment operator at the Buncher Co. in Pittsburgh, according to his obituary. He later volunteered at the local VA hospital.

In 2013, Parham was honored by the French government with the Legion of Honor medal.

©2021 Cox Media Group