John Henry Parker (General)
| John Henry Parker | |
|---|---|
Col. John Henry Parker, U.S. Army, circa 1917
|
|
| Nickname(s) | "Gatling Gun Parker" |
| Born |
September 9, 1866 Sedalia, Missouri |
| Died | October 14, 1942 (aged 76) San Francisco, California |
| Allegiance |
 United States of America
|
| Service/branch |
 United States Army
|
| Years of service | 1892–1924 |
| Rank |
 Brigadier General
|
| Battles/wars |
Spanish–American War Pancho Villa Expedition World War I |
| Awards |
Distinguished Service Cross (4) Distinguished Service Medal Silver Star Purple Heart |
General John Henry Parker aka "Gatling Gun Parker" (September 9, 1866 – October 14, 1942) was a brigadier general in the United States Army. He is best known for his role as the commander of the Gatling Gun Detachment of the U.S. Army's Fifth Army Corps in Cuba during the Santiago campaign in the Spanish–American War.
John Henry Parker was born and raised in the small town of Sedalia, Missouri. Nominated by his congressman to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point, he graduated in 1892, and was assigned in June of that year as a 2nd Lieutenant to the 13th Infantry Regiment.
Known as "Blackie" to his fellow officers, Parker was tasked with the charge of training soldiers of the Machine Gun Detachment in the use of their weapons. In the 1890s, duty with the machine gun detachment was regarded as of little value by most Army officers, and the detachment was frequently used as a dumping ground for men deemed unsuitable or undisciplined by their commanders. Nevertheless, Parker successfully carried out his assignment, and was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on June 11, 1892.
At the time, all of the Army's artillery and ammunition supplies were transported by draft animals (usually, horses). It was becoming evident to many army commanders, both in the United States and abroad, that draft animals—the sole source of transport away from railroad tracks—were highly vulnerable to modern artillery fire at ranges under 1,500 yards, especially when contained in slow-moving trains of horse-drawn carriages and heavy wagons. The inability of army ground forces to bring gunnery and ammunition trains closer than 1,500 yards to an opponent with modern artillery support effectively prevented the short-ranged American black powder cannon of the day from providing any effective counterbattery fire to advancing infantry. In 1897, after considering the issue, Lt. Parker submitted a paper to the Army General Staff in which he advocated the use of highly mobile machine gun detachments. These machine gun detachments would be equipped with portable machine guns capable of being dismantled and transported to the front, together with sufficient supplies of ammunition and spare parts carried in highly mobile carriages and wagons. Parker visualized the detachments as independent from the slow-moving artillery and ammunition trains, constantly redeploying to avoid being targeted by enemy artillery, while using terrain masking to provide cover for the men and their transport animals. As self-contained, mobile units, the machine gun detachments could be used by a commander to provide effective covering fire for the artillery trains until they could get within effective range of the enemy lines. Unfortunately, Parker's treatise was ignored by the Army, though he continued to advocate the use of the machine gun in an offensive role.
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