The Personal Testimony of  Dr. David Parsons

This is my story.  You have 5 options:

The written testimony is below with photos, just scroll downbut it is also available in:

English Abbreviated

Spanish

Spanish Abbreviated

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zO80Xu_8R4

The full written testimony is below:

I am color blind.  No one can fly military aircraft who is color blind.  

As a child, I had five seizures between the ages of 5 to 12.  No one can fly military aircraft who has ever had a single seizure.  

With all these seizures, I had total loss of consciousness.  No one can earn their military wings if they have had a single loss of consciousness  

I was on big time anti-convulsant medicine from age 12 into college, and I wore glasses.  

Anyone of these conditions disqualifies a person from military flight training.  

None of this made any logical sense, as there was NO WAY I should have been allowed anywhere near a military airplane — let alone the single seat fighters — but, there was a power beyond me that determined I was to fly military jets in combat.  

T-38 Falcon, advanced supersonic trainer for USAF flight training. 

There is no test that will tell you if you will be any good as an aviator.  But when I climbed into the cockpit, it fit me perfectly.  One year later, I graduating at the top of my class and received my wings.  I then went to fly fighters for the US Air Force.  In the first two fighters I flew, I won the Top Gun award. Then, it was off to Vietnam.

Combat was immediate and brutal.  In the first three months of my tour, six of my classmates were killed.  By the end of my combat tour there were  many more friends who paid the ultimate price .  

OV-Bronco armed for 5 1/2 hour mission over Cambodia.

I flew the OV-10 Bronco, a brand new fighter type observation aircraft, yet fully armed; it was designed for jungle warfare. I always flew very low and very slow to optimize my visibility of ground action.  Because of that I was very vulnerable; our pilots had one of the highest fatality rates as we were constantly over the enemy.  

Let me tell you about my mission.  I lived with the US Army unit that I supported.  I attended daily briefings to know where the enemy was suspected to be, and where our troops were deploying.  I had our guy’s radio frequencies and could always be in contact when they got into trouble.  

I took enemy ground fire virtually every mission and deployed my rockets and automatic gunfire daily.  These missions were intense.  We carried both high explosive and white-smoke marking rockets, four internally mounted machine guns and sometimes a minigun that fired 6000 rounds per minute.  

Our mission was very effective at suppressing enemy assaults and advancement.  I could help the fighting men on the ground by identifying their position, then assaulting the enemy with my weapons.  When excessively hostile, I could direct Army artillery or call in fighter aircraft support with powerful explosive weapons. 

OV-10 assaulting Viet Cong with high explosive rockets over Vietnam.

During attacks, the ground fire from the enemy was fierce both for me and our ground forces.  The soldiers loved my being overhead; my presence often saved lives and limbs.

Returning from missions, I felt undeniable victory.  Each successful mission boosted the sense that I was something special.  I felt invincible and volunteered to fly extra sorties, especially night combat.  In that year I flew more than 450 combat missions.  

Even though I was only a 1st Lieutenant, I was selected to be the unit’s combat instructor pilot.  My job was twofold: 1) to upgrade all incoming pilots to combat ready status by taking them daily on hostile missions, and 2) reevaluate all combat pilots to make sure they were safe and effective.

I was then chosen to be in a select group to lead the initial air invasion into Cambodia.  These missions were even more harrowing as we now faced the North Vietnamese Army with tanks, trucks and anti-aircraft defenses.  Our attacks were devastating on the invading enemy but, for us, these missions were even more intense and dangerous.

By the time I completed that tour, I was awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry and a chest full of medals.  I had become, in every measurable way, a Top Gun — recognized, decorated, respected.  The ATTITUDE that I was something very special in a combat airplane had become who I was.  The ATTITUDE was pride and pride had taken root;

The Bible warns us about pride; Proverbs says “Pride disgusts the Lord.”  The Seven Deadly Sins lists pride first.

My story may be unique, but the pride problem is common.  I hope many of you will identify.  I was a man possessed by pride.

My spiritual life before Vietnam had been shallow.  I grew up in a small Oklahoma town with wonderful Christian parents.  I was a “good kid” and did the right things, but my faith never matured.  Jesus was the lead actor in Bible stories — not a living Lord.

As a top gun combat fighter pilot, the falling away from anything spiritual began.  God was replaced with THE ATTITUDE, the attitude that I could fly combat better than anyone else.  I had become my own false god.

Remember the color blind kid with seizures and loss of consciousness?  Unknown to me at that time, the Lord was actively guiding my life.  I was completely unaware.  

Then the dream assignment came: the F-105 Thunderchief.  One man, one engine with raw speed and power — “the Thud” was the fastest low-altitude fighter in the Free World    For so many, this was the dream aircraft.  

The F-105 Thunderchief.

When I arrived at the Fighter Weapons School, the instructors criticized me because my background was as a forward air controller. They wanted “real combat fighter pilots.”  I should have been humbled; instead, I was challenged. 

If you saw the original movie Top Gun, the lead character so desperately wanted to be the Top Gun that he would do anything to win it, including violating the rules of engagement.  I did not violate the rules of engagement and by the third strike mission, I beat my instructor.  Over the 17 strike missions in the program, the other instructors wanted to fly against me to prove that no student could beat them; each time I came back victorious.

On the final flight, they put me up against the wing’s Top Gun, a seasoned veteran with 100 bombing missions over North Vietnam. We fired the guns and rockets.  We flew high and low angle bomb runs.  When the smoke cleared, there was a new Top Gun.  A student had won that hallowed honor for the first time.

Thomas Wolfe, in his book The Right Stuff, wrote about the ego of the fighter pilot.  He said, “There is no ego in any other profession that rivals that of the fighter pilot except one — the surgeon.”  The week I won Top Gun, I was accepted to medical school at the University of Texas.

I was on my way up the ladder of secular success, and the ATTITUDE was out of control.

Medical school was difficult after the life in the fast lane, but when I finished, I graduated with the same honors that I had won in fighters.  The ATTITUDE was reborn in medicine. 

Where was Jesus in all this?  Long forgotten. 

Years later, I was now both a full Colonel and a full Professor.  I specialized in Pediatrics but after serving in Albuquerque for a few years, I realized that I really wanted to perform surgery on children.  I returned for 5 additional years of study to become a Pediatric Head and Neck Surgeon.

I studied under some of the top surgeons in the world in London and Sydney, Australia.  They not only taught me surgery, but they taught me how to advance our specialty.  I began doing research and wrote over 130 articles for medical journals, I edited the largest selling book in the world on Pediatric Sinus Care and designed over 45 surgical instruments. 

I was active duty in the USAF and, by law, could not personally profit from the sale of these instruments.  So, the manufacturers put my name on each instrument.  As a result, my name became known across the surgical world. I was invited to lecture around the globe.  The ATTITUDE?  I had gone from Top Gun Fighter Pilot to Top Gun Surgeon.

Deuteronomy 8:17 warns, “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’” 

Am I boasting?  YES!  But… you need to understand how high my mountain of success was so you can grasp how monumental the fall was when it all collapsed.  

My ego eventually clashed with the powers that be.  The General and his staff began inquiries into whether I was receiving improper financial benefit from the instrument manufacturers. They were wrong — I never took money — but investigations multiplied. I was put under house arrest at one point. Though innocence was eventually established, the investigations, the suspicion, and the damage to reputation were enough: my career, my empire, that I had built with hard work, began to crumble and was ultimately destroyed. The fall was devastating, crushing, and I felt completely hopeless.

The General and his staff began inquiries into whether I was receiving improper financial benefit from instrument manufacturers. They were wrong — I never took money — but investigations multiplied. I was put under house arrest at one point. Though innocence was eventually established, the investigations, the suspicion, and the damage to reputation were enough: my career, my empire, that I had built with hard work, began to crumble and was ultimately destroyed. The fall was devastating, crushing, and felt hopeless.

In that Godless despair I reflected on my wife, whose life displayed peace and joy rooted in Jesus.  So, for the first time in my life, I said “yes.”

Three friends, who didn’t know one another, independently approached me not knowing that I was in crisis mode.  The first asked me to go with him to Mexico to medically help poor rural people. The second invited me to Bible study. The third urged me to attend a Christian men’s retreat called Walk to Emmaus. I was an intellectual skeptic by nature, but out of emptiness and desperation I said “yes” to each.

The Bible study had a powerful effect and the mission work deeply touched my heart.  But the Walk to Emmaus exposed me to Grace — the unmerited, profound love of God given freely to each one of us.  It isn’t earned, in fact, you can’t earn it, no matter how good you are.  I had no clue as I was not only a non-believer, I was a rejector of Jesus.  

On the retreat, I was profoundly moved.  I remember our small group leader took us to the chapel to talk and to pray together.  We sang acapella the beautiful hymn “Here I am Lord,” from the ancient Book of Isaiah and the words of the song “Here I am, Lord. Is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me” these words went straight to my heart.

For the first time I saw how little I had to show God and I was truly humbled.  At that moment, I could see through my pride and my anger toward the men who falsely accused me.  For years I had wanted others to change, and to accept MY way.  NOW, I recognized “I” was the problem.  I needed to be the one to change; without my self-centered behavior, none of these issues would have ever happened. 

I laid my sins and my pride on the altar in that little country chapel and, for the 1^st time ever, I asked God to forgive me.  I broke down, curled into the fetal position on the floor, and cried until I had nothing left.  Right there, I made the decision to truly believe in Jesus and asked Him to enter my life and take control of it.  

And He did.  My life was changed. 

Professor (Dr.) David at the University of Missouri, 1993.

In John 6:28-29, Jesus, the disciples, some of the Pharisees and others were walking along the road.  “Then they asked Him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’”  Notice “works” is pleural.  That means the asker wanted a list of ALL the things a person MUST do to be able to enter Heaven.  Jesus was asked, ‘What is the “have to do list” for salvation.’

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.”   As Jesus says “work” it  is singular.  “The list" is ONE thing only.  True Christianity says salvation is simply believing in Jesus and NOT performing a list of must-do good works.

The Apostle John repeats this message to us more than 15 times in the first 11 chapters of his book.  John 3:16 says the same thing.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”  That single act of faith — not a list of works — is what Christianity offers for eternal salvation. 

As that truth sank in, peace, contentment, and joy began to replace the emptiness. My life gained a purpose far greater than the medals, titles, and applause. My decisions began to center on a daily walk with Christ.

Once I accepted Christ, God used the platforms I had already been given — author, lecturer, professor, surgeon — to do something far beyond my earlier ambitions. He assembled teams of Christian doctors to take surgical missions to the Third World. What began as a single surgical trip expanded to work in more than a dozen countries and, by God’s grace, continues to grow.

These teams were some of the finest doctors our country had, and most of them loved Jesus. The grace and passion of those relationships inspired repeated returns: a second trip, a third, and now more than a hundred missions.

Our work had multiple faces.  One model was taking a team of 90–100 professionals to small rural villages, converting a school compound into a makeshift medical/surgical hospital with dirt floors, and caring for thousands of patients. Every patient and accompanying family member would hear the Gospel in their language multiple times. My surgical specialty was cleft lip and palate repair, and I always coupled surgery with a heart to share Jesus. Many families came to faith, and Bible studies and home churches were started that continue today. 

Another model was working in major teaching hospitals in the Third World.  We donated millions of dollars worth of donated new or high quality used equipment to teach their professors about new and modern surgery.  Such stops included cities all over Vietnam, Cuba, Honduras, Eastern Europe, Mexico, South Africa, Cambodia and more.

Professors and hospital leaders often asked, “Why are you doing this?” That question became an opening to quietly share Jesus.  Quietly because  overt evangelism risked arrest; where that was true, we worked by relationship building and example.

We worked using the Pyramid Principle.  We started at the peak, teaching their most respected surgeons first.  Whenever possible, we would share Christ as well.  They would then teach their younger staff and, if the work bore fruit, some of them would also share their new faith. Year after year, we returned to update surgical skills and witness for Christ. 

The world was changed and it was all through God’s amazing Grace — and He let us help!

I did NOT plan any of this; I was simply obedient, willing and prayerful!  From the first baby step, the Lord created the plan and opened doors.

The validity of our witness is not proven in immediate results.  Some Christians plant, some water, some harvest.  As disciples, we are not called to be successful but to be faithful.  

But there is one more story you might enjoy.

One story that highlights patience and God’s timing is from Cuba. 

Our first trip to Havana in 2000 required caution; we went knowing we couldn’t say “Jesus” publicly.  So our goal was twofold, build friendships and teach modern surgery.  There was only one Cuban surgeon who spoke English, Luis, and he was a junior resident in ENT.  He was always with us and his translation in the operating theatre was essential.  

Luis was raised by a father who praised Fidel and criticized Christian beliefs.  Every year, we took Luis to dinner and, in private, and tried our best to share Jesus.  Luis politely laughed at our faith and quoted his father.

For 17 years we repeated this same plan and for 17 years we received polite laughs.  But in that time, Luis became an absolutely outstanding sinus and head and neck surgeon.  

Then in year 18, a category-5 hurricane devastated a small village of 500 homes.  All were leveled.  So this trip, instead of only teaching in the major cities, we used our funds to buy building materials, cleaning supplies and food.

As we went through the village, we gave away everything we had and fearlessly shared Jesus.  Luis translated.  Many of the people were deeply touched and prayed with us to invite Jesus into their hearts.  

About sunset, Luis stepped forward and said, “I want what Jesus offers!”  

We were shocked and thrilled.  Today, Luis is one of the top surgeons in Cuba but far more important, he is one of the top evangelists!   After 18 years of our faithful presence, God gave our teams conversions, new churches, trained surgeons, improved health care and an ongoing testimony of grace.  Thank you Lord!

Luis and his believing daughter Davida.

Let me summarize what I learned through all this with four points.  How does each relate to you.

#1 - There is a God!  He created the universe and He loves you as His child.  He is present and active in your life, sometimes in ways you cannot logically explain — like a color‑blind, seizure‑disordered kid who somehow flew sophisticated fighters. Open yourself to how He is moving in your life.

#2 - God is holy and perfect.  Sin is anything that keeps us from that perfection.  Because of our sin, our relationship with God is strained.  My pride separated me from Him.  

#3 - God is also just and loving. Justice requires punishment for sin, which would mean eternal separation. But God, in His unconditional love, made a provision: Jesus took the punishment in our place. Because Jesus was punished for our sins, forgiveness is available as a free gift — but it must be accepted.

#4 - The only thing you have to do to receive God's Forgiveness, Unconditional Love and Eternal Presence in your life is to prayerfully ask for it.  That’s the option that I finally selected.  Simply admit to God that you know you have sin in your life, you know that you can't get rid of that sin on your own.  But you know that Jesus can... and did.  By believing Jesus did this for you, you are assured of being eternally with Him.   

This simple act of faith is THE most important decision of your life.

If these words reflect a longing in your heart, you can pray this prayer. God cares more about the posture of your heart than the exact words.  I would encourage you to make this your prayer."  

Dear God, I know that I am a sinner. 

I know I deserve punishment for my sin,  

but I believe you love me so much  

that you sent Jesus to die for me. 

I believe that Jesus’ death on the cross  

is enough to take away my sin.  I believe in Jesus.

I ask for Your forgiveness,  

and thank you for already having forgiven me. 

Right now I invite Jesus into my heart and ask You to change my life forever.

Amen, and thank you.

If you decided to pray this prayer and would like next steps — a Bible reading plan, ways to find a supportive church or small group, or resources for new believers — I’m glad to provide suggestions.

Testimony is also available as:

English Abbreviated (only a couple of pages)

Spanish Same as above en Espanol
Spanish Abbreviated (only a couple of pages)