REAR ADMIRAL LEWIS S. PARKS, USN, accounts for three awards of the Navy Cross. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Admiral Parks was a lieutenant commander on 12 April 1939 when he reported aboard USS POMPANO as Commanding Officer. That fleet-type submarine was in the Pacific when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Her first war experience was on that date when Japanese planes attempted to strafe POMPANO about one hundred miles off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii.

The following year, as a result of combat operations against the Japanese, he was awarded the Navy Cross. For extraordinary heroism despite intensive enemy air and surface anti-submarine patrols and the fact that his ship was partially disabled as a result of bombing and depth charge attacks, he successfully attacked and sank ships of about 17,000 tons.

RADM Parks joined the Legion of Valor in 1971 and resided in Florida. View RADM Parks’ First Gold Star and Second Gold Star.