PARKER, UDON

Name: Udon Parker
Rank/Branch: E4/US Army
Unit: Company B, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry,
1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division
Date of Birth: 15 November 1943
Home City of Record: Phenix City AL
Date of Loss: 13 March 1966
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 130542N 1090755E (BQ975483)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 3
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: Ground
Refno: 0270
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 30 June 1990 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:

SYNOPSIS: SP4 Udon Parker was a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 327th
Infantry and was participating in a combat operation on March 13, 1966 in
Phu Yen Province, South Vietnam.

SP4 Parker fell into a stream about ten miles west of the city of Tuy Hoa,
wearing his full pack and gear. This occurred during monsoon season when
streams and rivers in Vietnam were particularly fast-moving and treacherous.
SP4 Parker rose to the surface once and was not seen again.

Search efforts failed to turn up any trace of Parker. About 10 yards
downstream was a waterfall, and it was believed that the fast-moving current
pulled him down and carried him downstream.

For Udon Parker, death seems a certainty. For hundreds of others, however,
simple answers are not possible. Adding to the torment of nearly 10,000
reports relating to Americans missing in Southeast Asia is the certain
knowledge that some Americans who were known to be prisoners of war were not
released at the end of the war. Others were suspected to be prisoners, and
still others were in radio contact with would-be rescuers when last seen
alive. Many were known to have survived their loss incidents, only to
disappear without a trace.

The problem of Americans still missing torments not only the families of
those who are missing, but the men who fought by their sides, and those in
the general public who realize the full implication of leaving men
unaccounted for at the end of a war.

Tragically, many authorities believe there are hundreds of Americans still
alive in captivity in Southeast Asia today. What must they be thinking of
us? What will our next generation say if called to fight if we are unable to
bring these men home from Southeast Asia?

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