Jospeh Parker Jr. obit

Joseph Parker, Navy's last Omaha Beach doctor, dies

 

He was not on the list.

GREENSBORO, Ga. (AP) - The last surviving Navy doctor who landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy during the D-Day invasion of World War II has died, according to a funeral director and a researcher.

Dr. Joseph Lee Parker Jr., of Greensboro, Ga., died Sept. 27 at St. Mary's Good Samaritan Hospital in Greensboro. He was 95.

Kenneth Davey, who has done extensive research of military records associated with the Allied invasion, said the Waycross, Ga., native was the last surviving Navy physician on Omaha Beach.

Davey said Parker was a member of the 6th Naval Beach Battalion. Parker's obituary from McCommons Funeral Home said he treated the wounded, including Allied and German troops, for 21 days.

Services were held Sunday in Greensboro, about 70 miles east of Atlanta.

Parker was awarded the French Legion of Honor medal in 2011, according to the 6th Naval Beach Battalion website. Parker and 16 other veterans were honored for their service during the war.

According to a 1999 interview with a historian that was posted on the website, Parker attended the University of Georgia. He went on to medical school in Augusta, and went in the service as an intern at the University Hospital in Augusta.