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An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
An airman lights a candle during POW/MIA recognition week at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. Photo: A1C Aaron Jenne, U.S. Air Force, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of Raymond Francis Parks.

The Wall › Panel 1E › Ohio › Raymond Francis Parks

RAYMOND FRANCIS PARKS

Staff Sergeant · U.S. Army

October 29, 1931 – July 14, 1962

Service record

Raymond Francis Parks, of Dennison, Ohio, served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army. He was lost on July 14, 1962, in Laos, and was later declared dead. His name is inscribed on Panel 1E, Line 25 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 1E · Line 25

Position of Panel 1E on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Names are inscribed in the order of loss, starting at Panel 1E at the apex and ending at Panel 1W. At the Memorial, find the panel number at the base and count down from the top line.

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Service

Branch
U.S. Army
Rank
Staff Sergeant (SSG)
Service
Regular
Unit (as recorded)
7 SPFC GP ABN 1 SF TDY MAAG LAOS
Born
October 29, 1931
Home of record
Dennison, Ohio (Tuscarawas County)

Casualty

Date of loss
July 14, 1962
Country
Laos
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Presumed Dead
Circumstance
Aircraft Crash — crew
First reported
Missing
Remains
Not recovered as of the 2008 DoD record

Context · from the records

What was happening

Two names on the Wall carry the date July 14, 1962. In July 1962, 7 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

The record places this loss in Laos, outside South Vietnam — most often the sign of an air crew lost over the North or the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

His remains had not been recovered when the 2008 record was compiled. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency continues to search for Americans still missing from the war; families can find case information through dpaa.mil.

Read the history

On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 1E, Line 25

From Dennison

Source. U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Casualty Analysis System, Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File (as of April 29, 2008), Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Record Group 330, National Archives (NAID 2240992). Panel and line as recorded in that file. This page presents the official record and its historical context; no biography has been written for him yet. See something wrong? Report a correction.