D-DAY’S FORGOTTEN BLACK HEROES

It was the water that surprised Henry Parham – so much water. Soldiers weighted down with too much gear were drowning before his eyes as Parham, a 22-year-old soldier in the United States Army, dropped into the sea off Omaha Beach. He struggled to keep his head above water as he slogged his way to the sand. It wasn’t a much better option there, as enemy fire cut down men all around him.

Parham, a bus porter back home in Virginia, was a member of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, the only black combat