PARKER, DAVID WAYNE
Name: David Wayne Parker
Rank/Branch: E4/US Army
Unit: Company E, 20th Infantry, 173rd Support Battalion
Date of Birth: 02 December 1947 (DeKalb County GA)
Home City of Record: Stone Mountain GA
Date of Loss: 06 February 1969
Country of Loss: South Vietnam/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 125758N 1092451E (CQ280338)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 5
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Air mattress
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
Refno: 1371
Source: Compiled 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 in 2020.
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: Cpl. David W. Parker was off duty on February 6, 1969, and went
swimming at a beach in Phu Yen Province, South Vietnam. A wave washed Parker
from his air mattress, and then another wave and subsequent undertow took
swept him under, and he was not seen again.
Extensive searches from land and sea were conducted over a wide area,
without success. Although some Defense Department records indicate that
Parker was aboard a boat when he was lost, the U.S. Army has confirmed that
there was no boat involved in the loss of Parker.
David W. Parker is listed among the missing in Southeast Asia because no
body was ever found to return home. His family can be as sure as it is
possible to be without the confirmation of remains that he is dead. For many
of the others who are missing, however, simple answers are not possible.
Some were known to be prisoners, but simply were not released at the end of
the war. Others were alive and in radio contact with would-be rescuers.
Still others simply disappeared without a trace.
As reports mount that many Americans are still alive in Southeast Asia, it
becomes more and more evident that the Vietnam war had not ended for perhaps
hundreds of American military and civilian personnel and their families.
There can be no honorable end to the war until these men are returned home.
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02/2020
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000001UDlEAM
Specialist 4 David Wayne Parker entered the U.S. Army from Georgia and served in Company E, 173rd Support Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade. On February 6, 1969, he was floating on an air mattress when a large wave swept him into the water at a South Vietnam beach. Another large wave along with an undertow pulled him under the water and he was not seen again. Attempts to locate him following his disappearance were unsuccessful, and his remains were not recovered. Following the incident, the Army promoted Specialist 4 Parker to the rank of sergeant (SGT). Today, Sergeant Parker is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Based on all information available, DPAA assessed the individual's case to be in the analytical category of Non-recoverable.
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