WOODROW WILSON PARKER II
Remains returned/identified 10/01/98
Rank/Branch: O2/US Air Force
Unit: 480th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Da Nang
Date of Birth: 18 April 1943
Home City of Record: St. Petersburg FL
Date of Loss: 24 April 1968
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 173600N 1062800E (XE562479)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Refno: 1141
Other Personnel In Incident: Bobby G. Vinson
(missing)
Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 March
1991 from one or more of the following: raw data
from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published
sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W.
NETWORK 1998.
REMARKS: DEAD/CS-317-09142-72
SYNOPSIS: The Phantom, used by Air Force, Marine
and Navy air wings, served a multitude of functions
including fighter-bomber and interceptor, photo
and electronic surveillance. The two man aircraft
was extremely fast (Mach 2), and had a long range
(900 - 2300 miles, depending on stores and
mission type). The F4 was also extremely
maneuverable and handled well at low and high
altitudes. Most pilots considered it one of the
"hottest" planes around.
LtCol. Bobby G. Vinson was the pilot and 1Lt.
Woodrow W. Parker II the bombardier/navigator, of
an F4D Phantom sent on a scramble mission with
another aircraft from Da Nang Airbase, South
Vietnam on April 24, 1968.
Vinson was orbiting the area looking for targets
over Quang Binh Province, a few miles southwest
of the city of Quang Khe and radioed he was
decreasing altitude for a better sighting of
ground targets. Shortly thereafter, a fireball
was seen on the ground by the crew of the other
aircraft. Radio contact with Parker and Vinson was
unsuccessful. However, the possibility existed
that the two were able to safely eject from the
aircraft, and they were not listed as killed in
action but missing in action.
Alarmingly, evidence continues to mount that
Americans were left as prisoners in Southeast Asia
and continue to be held today. Unlike "MIAs" from
other wars, most of the nearly 2500 men and women
who remain missing in Southeast Asia can be
accounted for. If even one was left alive (and
many authorities estimate the numbers to be in
the hundreds), we have failed as a nation until
and unless we do everything possible to secure
his freedom and bring him home.
Bobby G. Vinson was promoted to the rank of
Colonel and Woodrow W. Parker to the rank of Major
during the period they were maintained missing.
---------------------
AP
date unknown, 1998
Car kept as tribute to lost pilot
The Associated Press
Martinez GA. -- Twice a month the 1967 Buick
Wiildcat in retired Col. Woodrow W. Parker's
garage gets a fastidous cleaning.
Not because it's driven to filth so often, nor
because Parker is fanatical about car hygiene.
The gleaming blue Buick belonged to the colonel's
son, Air Force Maj. Woodrow "Woodie" Parker II,
who left 30 years ago to fly an F-4 Pantom in
Vietnam and never returned. The father keeps it
clean in the faint hope that his son is still
alive.
The younger Parker, a year out of The Citadel in
Charleston, had turned 25 six days before he was
lost in action on his 10th mission in Southeast
Parker was classified as missing for 10 years.
Today, he is listed as killed in action.
The military says DNA tests performed on
recovered bones a few years ago prove that Woodie
Parker died in Vietnam, but his parents persisted
and the governemnt agreed to conduct a second
round of forensic tests. The Parkers hold a faint
hope that the new tests will show that their son
could be alive.
Subject: DoD Memoranda For Correspondents
No. 165-98
MEMORANDUM FOR CORRESPONDENTS October 1, 1998
The remains of two American airmen previously
unaccounted-for from the war in Southeast Asia
have been identified and returned to the United
States for burial.
The first set of remains is identified as those
of Maj. Woodrow W. Parker II, U.S. Air Force, of
St. Petersburg, Fla. The other set of remains is
those of Parker's aircraft commander. At the
wishes of the commander's family, the identity of
these remains will not be released. Since the end
of American participation in the war in 1973, the
remains of 504 Americans have been recovered and
identified; 2,079 remain unaccounted-for.
On April 24, 1968, Parker and his aircraft
commander were on a combat mission over Quang
Binh province, North Vietnam, when their F-4D
Phantom crashed amid a large fireball. The flight
leader was unable to establish radio contact. No
parachutes were observed, nor was there an
emergency signal detected.
Hostile threats in the area precluded airborne or
ground search and rescue operations.
In April 1992, a joint U.S.-Vietnam team, led by
the Joint Task Force- Full Accounting, interviewed
several local informants in a village near the
location of the loss. Three informants turned
over human remains and survival-related items
that had been collected at the crash site years
earlier. In July of 1992, a second joint U.S.-
Vietnam team returned to the site and recovered
aircraft wreckage and crew-related equipment. A
third joint team excavated the crash site during
Aug.-Sept. 1993 and recovered aircraft wreckage,
life support equipment and several skeletal
Anthropological analysis of the remains and other
evidence by the U.S. Army Central Identification
Laboratory Hawaii confirmed the identification of
Parker and his aircraft commander. The U.S.
government welcomes and appreciates the
cooperation of the government of the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam that resulted in the
accounting of these servicemen. We hope that
such cooperation will bring increased results in
the future. Achieving the fullest possible
accounting for these Americans is of the highest
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