Parker, Thomas Aquinas Navy hospitalman 1

Thomas Aquinas Parker, age 29, from Oxford, Indiana, Benton County

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Wednesday, April 5, 1967
Death details:  On April 5, 1967, an UH-1E  Iroquois (bureau number 151852-WB7) carrying four crew members took part in a medical evacuation mission in South Vietnam. As the aircraft hovered in preparation to take aboard an injured man, it was hit by enemy fire, exploded, and crashed in the vicinity of (GC) BS 753 015. The remains of three crew members were recovered; however, a search of the area was unsuccessful in locating the fourth crew member.

Hospital Corpsman First Class Thomas Aquinas Parker entered the U.S. Navy from Indiana and was assigned to Marine Air Group 36. He was a crew member aboard this Iroquois when it crashed. He was lost with the aircraft, and could not be found after the crash. He remains unaccounted for. Today, Petty Officer Parker is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Indianapolis News (1967)