Parker, Edwin Pearson Jr.

Parker, Edwin Pearson Jr., born 27-07-1891 in Wytheville, Virginia, the son of Edwin Pearson Parker and Mary Lillington Hardin.

Edwin graduated from the old Western High School and subsequently attended George Washington University. Upon the graduation in summer 1912, he was commissioned in the Field Artillery Branch of the United States Army. Parker was stationed on the Mexican Border during the Pancho Villa Expedition and during World War I, he was stationed at the Panama Canal Zone and saw no service overseas.

Following the armistice with Germany in November 1918, he was ordered to France and took part in the occupation of the Rhineland. Parker was later ordered back to the United States and served as an Assistant Professor of Military Science and Tactics, first at Ohio State University,[6] and then at Harvard University.

Parker was ordered to the Army Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in May 1923 and completed the Field Artillery Officers’ Advance Course one year later. Upon the completion of the course, he was sent to the course at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and graduated in June 1925.

Edwin served in the Panama Canal Zone, the son of Edwin Pearson Parker and Mary Lillington Hardin. Edwin graduated from the old Western High School and subsequently attended George Washington University. Upon the graduation in summer 1912, he was commissioned in the Field Artillery Branch of the United States Army. Parker was stationed on the Mexican Border during the Pancho Villa Expedition and during World War I, he was stationed at the Panama Canal Zone and saw no service overseas.

Following the armistice with Germany in November 1918, he was ordered to France and took part in the occupation of the Rhineland. Parker was later ordered back to the United States and served as an Assistant Professor of Military Science and Tactics, first at Ohio State University, and then at Harvard University.

Parker was ordered to the Army Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in May 1923 and completed the Field Artillery Officers’ Advance Course one year later. Upon the completion of the course, he was sent to the course at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and graduated in June 1925.

In the years between the wars he graduated from the Field Artillery School, the Command and General Staff College and the Army War College. He had a number of assignments with Reserve Officer Training Corps units at various universities and with the National Guard. He organized the 78^th Infantry Division,  in 1942. The division was called the Lightning Division and had a white bolt of lightning on a red semicircle as its shoulder patch took part in the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. World War II individual awards of the division: one Medal of Honor recipient, Jonah Edward “Eddie” Kelley

of the 311^th Infantry. Kelley led a squad in repeated assaults on German-held buildings  in Kesternich, where he was killed age 21, on 31-01-1945: nine Distinguished Service Crosses; 599 Silver Star medals; 3.909 Bronze Star medals and 5.454 Purple Hearts. 1.368 officers and enlisted men had perished. Killed in action 1.427, wounded 6.103 and died of wounds 198. Later it captured a section of the Siegfried Line, a major German defensive system, crossed the Roer River on 28-02-1945 and joined the offensive towards the Rhine. In the course of this drive the 9^th Armored Division, nickname “Phantom” under command of Major General John William. Leonard , seized the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen before the Germans could blow it up. Troops of the 78^th Division were the first to cross after the 9^th Armored Division, nickname “Old Reliables” and they expanded the bridgehead. The 9^th had the next casualties, killed 4.581, wounded 16.961, missing 750 and captured 868, in 264 days of combat. Parker was assigned as Commanding General of XXIII Corps  in 1945. After the war, General Parker held a number of assignments in Germany and in Chicago, where he was Deputy Commander of the 6^th Army and in Washington, where he was Provost Marshal General of the Army.

Death and burial ground of Parker, Edwin Pearson Jr.

He retired in 1953. Edwin Parker died of congestive heart failure 07-06-1983, old age 91, at his home in Washington and is buried on the Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, District Columbia, Plot: Chapel, Lot 12 1/2. His wife, Hannah Somerville Matthews Parker (1893- 21-04-1998, age 104) is buried beside him.. They had four sons: Henry S. (1916-1985), Edwin P. III (1919-2014) and Nicholson (1921-2016), Somerville Parker (1933-2015). Henry earned the Medical degree from George Washington University Hospital and reached the rank of Colonel in the Army Medical Corps; Edwin III earned his Medical degree from the University of Virginia and served as Flight Surgeon of the Marine Bombing Squadron 612 in the Pacific during World War II and Nicholson graduated from West Point Military Academy in June 1943 and retired as Colonel in 1969.

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