Page 30 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2025 - Online Magazine

by Larry Williams
ubbock native Mark
Parramore spent 20 years in
Lthe U.S. Navy. He was the
second child born to George and
Shirley Parramore on February
3, 1963. His dad, a Navy veteran,
spent 35 years with the Lubbock
Police Department. Mark attended
Coronado High School where he
participated in football, baseball,
and track. After graduating in 1981,
he joined the Navy like his father
and uncle Don. “I wanted to see the
world.”
“I enlisted in the Navy in
November 1981 and was sent to the
Naval Training Center in Orlando,
FL for 13 weeks of basic training.
The swimming part of it was fine
with me. I used to go swimming at
the Maxey Park pool a lot. Most of
the training wasn’t too bad, but I
30 Lubbock Senior Link
heard that the gas chamber training and food to other ships while
was hard. Thank goodness, it was deployed in support of the Fleet.”
broke down when it came time for
my class to go through it! We got We left for Kuwait in November
more training on a landlocked ship 1990 and were on the water for 110
called the USS Bluejacket, and after days. During my nearly four years
that, I attended firefighting school. on the Sacramento, we sailed to the
Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf.
“My first assignment was in I was in the Philippines in 1990,
March 1981 to the USS Cape Cod, where I ran into my Uncle Don
a destroyer tender docked in San while on shore leave. He couldn’t
Diego. Our first deployment was believe it was me. I hadn’t seen him
to San Francisco and Everett, in eight or nine years. He was still
WA. From March 1983 to April in the Navy.
1983, we deployed to the Pacific
and Indian Oceans. From May “In 1989, while I was on leave
1984 to November 1984, I was visiting a friend, I met a young lady
named Amy Elliott. We kept in
assigned to the USS Belleau Wood touch and eventually got married
which also sailed the Pacific and on December 28, 1991, in Seattle.
Indian Oceans. I left the Navy in No family members attended, and
November 1985 and returned to even my best man didn’t show
Lubbock.” up! But I did get in good with my
Mark’s return home was somewhat mother-in-law when I sent her
of a letdown. “I had a hard time and Amy roses from Bahrain, near
finding a steady, well-paying job. Saudi Arabia. Once, while docked
After a few years, my dad said,
‘Son, get out of this town! You’re
hanging out with the wrong crowd
and going to get in trouble.’ So, I
decided to re-enlist in the Navy.
I joined the Naval Reserve unit
in Lubbock in July 1987 and in
January 1988, I went on active
duty. I was sent back to San Diego
for further training and was then
assigned to the USS Sacramento in
Bremerton, WA. The Sacramento
was a fast combat support ship.
Our job was to pass ammo, fuel,