Harold Pardue recently received service medals for his service in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Pardue's medals were difficult to get because some of his service work was classified.

Pardue gets long overdue recognition

After residing in Alleghany with family for about five years, Harold Pardue was drafted into the service and during his time at Guantanamo Bay, he witnessed the explosion of the Bay of Pigs, an event that went down in history.

Last month, he received the Armed Forces Expeditionary medal and the Navy Expeditionary medal, honors that had been bestowed upon other members of his squadron nearly 50 years ago.

Life in the Military

After spending five years in Alleghany with an aunt and uncle, at the age of 19 Pardue found himself being drafted into military service.

"I got this nice little letter from Uncle Sam that said, 'We want you' with the finger pointing," he remembers. "Rather than go in the Army, I thought I'd go in the Navy. I thought maybe they wouldn't shoot at me. Wrong, awful wrong." That was Oct. 27, 1959.

Recounting the experience, Pardue said after taking a bus to Raleigh, he boarded his first airplane, which took him from Raleigh to Washington, D.C. and a connecting flight took him to Great Lakes, Ill., where he joined his comrades.

Making note of the slight chill in the October air here in Alleghany, Pardue said there was four inches on snow on the ground when he arrived in Chicago.

"They unloaded us onto a nice little bus and took us to our barracks. We slept there that night and the next morning, they took every piece of clothing you had except your underwear. They took everything that we had brought from home including your belt, your comb, your razor, your toothbrush. Just as soon as it came your turn, you got a new one. Everything was so synchronized. It might not be orderly, but it's synchronized. They put you in a 2x2 foot square and my number was 121, of course there were 121 more just like me."

The following day, Pardue said he received a suprise. "My big shock came the next day when everybody else got suited for clothing. Being a little taller than most, I had knee-high trousers and elbow length shirts and no hair. That's the first thing they did. Before you got new clothing, you got all your hair cut off. It was one of the long hair eras during the 'hippie' movement. It was shoulder length."

 

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