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VFW Post 124 Baguio City, Philippines

Veterans of Foreign Wars of the USA
“Cdr. Chick Parsons” Post 124

POST 124 HISTORY

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 124 in Baguio City, Philippines was organized in 1996 as a Fraternal, Patriotic, Historical, and Educational Organization to preserve and strengthen comradeship amongst its members; to assist worthy comrades; to perpetuate the memory and history of our dead; and to assist their widows and orphans, etc.

Assisted by George “Bill” Lawrence and Antoni Pogozelski, the prime mover and organizer was Lawrence “ Larry” Senato.  The Post was named in memory of a remarkable officer, Commander CHARLES  ‘CHICK’ PARSONS who was from Shelbyville, Tennessee.

Chick left for Manila in 1922 to join his uncle.  He never dreamt that he would become America’s master spy in the Philippines some two decades later.  The Second World War erupted in the Philippines; Chick who was a Reserve Commission Officer immediately put on his uniform and reported for duty.  For the year preceding the landing of our allied forces on Leyte Beach, Chick Parsons had been a powerful name that must not be spoken but was always in the thoughts of eighteen million Filipinos and of the members of the General Douglas Macarthur staff.  His contribution to Americans and Filipinos alike was beyond estimate, for we shall never be able to compute how many lives the careful planning of the invasion from the inside, by information, saved supplied by Chick and the Guerilla Army.

Carlos P. Romulo, a Retired Major General of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and former Ambassador to the United Nations  said; “I know of no one who has contributed to our war effort as effectively as Charles Parsons.  In fact, I consider him the outstanding hero who, during the Japanese occupation, risked his life to infiltrate into the Philippines and was able to report to General Macarthur and President Manuel L. Quezon.  That day in Manila I realized that men like Chick Parsons and the Filipino who fought with him in the cities like Manila, never die”.