Post by connie on Oct 4, 2021 10:35:15 GMT -5
Parker, Richard Bordeaux, 1 Lt, 422-AT- 1st platoon leader, POW Stalag IV-B, Oflag64
Oflag 64: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5031/thread
Notes from Biography on Indiana Military Site
www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/Prisoner%20of%20War/PW%20Camps/Oflag%2064%20Schubin/RichardParker/ParkerWarDiary.htm
Parker experienced the bombing of Limburg. Then..."We left Limburg on the 26th with great rejoicing; we were actually looking forward to a permanent camp. We crept through Germany for five days, stopping frequently and always moving slowly. I might add at this point that it is extremely uncomfortable not to be able to lie down for nine days....
On the 30th of December we arrived at Stalag IV B, Muehlberg. We stood in the open for three hours before finally entering the delousing chamber, but it was worth it - for here we had the most wonderfully hot shower of our lives. It was so hot that we all felt faint and light-headed upon emerging from it. I was so dirty the Germans sent me back three times before they'd let me get dressed, each time it got better.
After the delousing we were processed and taken to a barracks. There was no American compound at IV B so we were taken in by RAF non-coms. They had hot tea and soup waiting for us, and water to shave in. Those boys were wonderful to us...
It was almost amusing to find that I was in a barracks with my platoon. How that group managed to stick together I don't know, but it certainly was good to see them, even if they were ragged and haggard. I'll never see a nicer, more cooperative platoon...
We stayed in the IVB ten days, receiving one Red Cross package (English) per two men.... We left Muehlberg on January 8 for Of lag 64, a camp for American officers at Szubin, Poland. That trip was fraught with trials, We occupied half of each box car and the guards occupied the other half. There was a barbed wire fence between us. When we had a "rest stop", we either had to climb over the fence to the guard's door or have them get out and open the door on our side...
We arrived at Oflag 64 on the 10th of January. I found that Colonel Goode, who lived across the street at Ft. Leavenworth, was the senior American officer, that each man got a parcel a week, that cigarettes were plentiful and that it was colder than hell. Hesse and I moved into a cubicle with 6 other officers. One a high school classmate of my brother's, and another a good friend of Hesse's. I got a wool undershirt and two blankets, got a copy of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall" from the camp library, crawled into my sack...
When the Russian drive commenced, we all speculated on what the future held for us. That the Germans would evacuate us we didn't doubt for a minute, but as each day came and the Russians drew nearer, we saw no signs of our impending departure other than a constant stream of refugees pouring down the roads in wagons, trucks, cars, carriages and on. foot. Finally, on the morning of the 20th (January), we were told to be prepared to move at any time.
Other Notes on Indiana Military Site www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/Prisoner%20of%20War/PW%20Camps/Oflag%2064%20Schubin/RichardParker/Parker-Richard.pdf
Military Wikipedia Notes military.wikia.org/wiki/Richard_Bordeaux_Parker
Parker was the son of Col. Roscoe Parker, a U.S. Army officer (Cavalry), and grew up in U.S. Army posts across the southwest with a stint in Vermont and another in Kansas. He attended Kansas State University, graduating in 1943. After college, Parker served as an infantry officer with the 106th Infantry Division (first platoon of the Anti-Tank Company of the 422nd Infantry Regiment) during World War II, where he was captured by the Germans at the Battle of the Bulge and briefly imprisoned.[1] After the war, he returned to Kansas State, where he earned a master's degree, before joining the U.S. Foreign Service in 1949. Captured at the same time as Parker, was Donald Prell, who commanded the second platoon of the Anti-Tank Company...
2011 Washington Post Obituary www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/04/AR2011020406583.html
Richard B. Parker, 87, a career Foreign Service officer and Middle East expert who served in the 1970s as the U.S. ambassador to Algeria, Lebanon and Morocco, died Jan. 7 at the Grand Oaks retirement facility in Washington. He had vascular disease. Mr. Parker retired from the State Department in 1980 after more than 30 years of service. He also held diplomatic posts in Australia, Israel, Jordan and Egypt.In retirement, he was a diplomat-in-residence at the University of Virginia, where he taught classes on foreign policy in the Arab world and served as an editor of the Middle East Journal.
The depth of his expertise in Arab culture led him to write scores of academic papers on a variety of topics, including Lebanese proverbs and Arabic graffiti in Middle Eastern men's restrooms.
Mr. Parker's interest in the Middle East began soon after his release from a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. An Army antitank platoon officer, Mr. Parker was captured by German soldiers after his unit was overwhelmed during the Battle of the Bulge. He was sent to a prison camp in occupied Poland and spent 34 days in captivity before the camp was liberated by Russian soldiers.During his repatriation, Mr. Parker traveled through the present-day Ukrainian city of Odessa, the Turkish Straits and Port Said in Egypt. He became fascinated with the majesty of Istanbul's architecture and the intricacies of Arab culture.
He joined the Foreign Service in 1949 and specialized as an Arabist. He spoke Arabic with native fluency and became a respected adviser on Middle Eastern politics to Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. In his diplomatic assessments, Mr. Parker was known to write with an acerbic wit and offer his opinions with blunt honesty.
In 1974, he became the first ambassador to Algeria since the United States severed formal diplomatic relations with that country seven years earlier. Mr. Parker was selected to become the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon in 1977 after the assassination of his predecessor, Francis E. Meloy Jr. His last diplomatic position came in 1978 as ambassador to Morocco...
Oflag 64: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5031/thread
Notes from Biography on Indiana Military Site
www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/Prisoner%20of%20War/PW%20Camps/Oflag%2064%20Schubin/RichardParker/ParkerWarDiary.htm
Parker experienced the bombing of Limburg. Then..."We left Limburg on the 26th with great rejoicing; we were actually looking forward to a permanent camp. We crept through Germany for five days, stopping frequently and always moving slowly. I might add at this point that it is extremely uncomfortable not to be able to lie down for nine days....
On the 30th of December we arrived at Stalag IV B, Muehlberg. We stood in the open for three hours before finally entering the delousing chamber, but it was worth it - for here we had the most wonderfully hot shower of our lives. It was so hot that we all felt faint and light-headed upon emerging from it. I was so dirty the Germans sent me back three times before they'd let me get dressed, each time it got better.
After the delousing we were processed and taken to a barracks. There was no American compound at IV B so we were taken in by RAF non-coms. They had hot tea and soup waiting for us, and water to shave in. Those boys were wonderful to us...
It was almost amusing to find that I was in a barracks with my platoon. How that group managed to stick together I don't know, but it certainly was good to see them, even if they were ragged and haggard. I'll never see a nicer, more cooperative platoon...
We stayed in the IVB ten days, receiving one Red Cross package (English) per two men.... We left Muehlberg on January 8 for Of lag 64, a camp for American officers at Szubin, Poland. That trip was fraught with trials, We occupied half of each box car and the guards occupied the other half. There was a barbed wire fence between us. When we had a "rest stop", we either had to climb over the fence to the guard's door or have them get out and open the door on our side...
We arrived at Oflag 64 on the 10th of January. I found that Colonel Goode, who lived across the street at Ft. Leavenworth, was the senior American officer, that each man got a parcel a week, that cigarettes were plentiful and that it was colder than hell. Hesse and I moved into a cubicle with 6 other officers. One a high school classmate of my brother's, and another a good friend of Hesse's. I got a wool undershirt and two blankets, got a copy of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall" from the camp library, crawled into my sack...
When the Russian drive commenced, we all speculated on what the future held for us. That the Germans would evacuate us we didn't doubt for a minute, but as each day came and the Russians drew nearer, we saw no signs of our impending departure other than a constant stream of refugees pouring down the roads in wagons, trucks, cars, carriages and on. foot. Finally, on the morning of the 20th (January), we were told to be prepared to move at any time.
Other Notes on Indiana Military Site www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/Prisoner%20of%20War/PW%20Camps/Oflag%2064%20Schubin/RichardParker/Parker-Richard.pdf
Military Wikipedia Notes military.wikia.org/wiki/Richard_Bordeaux_Parker
Parker was the son of Col. Roscoe Parker, a U.S. Army officer (Cavalry), and grew up in U.S. Army posts across the southwest with a stint in Vermont and another in Kansas. He attended Kansas State University, graduating in 1943. After college, Parker served as an infantry officer with the 106th Infantry Division (first platoon of the Anti-Tank Company of the 422nd Infantry Regiment) during World War II, where he was captured by the Germans at the Battle of the Bulge and briefly imprisoned.[1] After the war, he returned to Kansas State, where he earned a master's degree, before joining the U.S. Foreign Service in 1949. Captured at the same time as Parker, was Donald Prell, who commanded the second platoon of the Anti-Tank Company...
2011 Washington Post Obituary www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/04/AR2011020406583.html
Richard B. Parker, 87, a career Foreign Service officer and Middle East expert who served in the 1970s as the U.S. ambassador to Algeria, Lebanon and Morocco, died Jan. 7 at the Grand Oaks retirement facility in Washington. He had vascular disease. Mr. Parker retired from the State Department in 1980 after more than 30 years of service. He also held diplomatic posts in Australia, Israel, Jordan and Egypt.In retirement, he was a diplomat-in-residence at the University of Virginia, where he taught classes on foreign policy in the Arab world and served as an editor of the Middle East Journal.
The depth of his expertise in Arab culture led him to write scores of academic papers on a variety of topics, including Lebanese proverbs and Arabic graffiti in Middle Eastern men's restrooms.
Mr. Parker's interest in the Middle East began soon after his release from a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II. An Army antitank platoon officer, Mr. Parker was captured by German soldiers after his unit was overwhelmed during the Battle of the Bulge. He was sent to a prison camp in occupied Poland and spent 34 days in captivity before the camp was liberated by Russian soldiers.During his repatriation, Mr. Parker traveled through the present-day Ukrainian city of Odessa, the Turkish Straits and Port Said in Egypt. He became fascinated with the majesty of Istanbul's architecture and the intricacies of Arab culture.
He joined the Foreign Service in 1949 and specialized as an Arabist. He spoke Arabic with native fluency and became a respected adviser on Middle Eastern politics to Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. In his diplomatic assessments, Mr. Parker was known to write with an acerbic wit and offer his opinions with blunt honesty.
In 1974, he became the first ambassador to Algeria since the United States severed formal diplomatic relations with that country seven years earlier. Mr. Parker was selected to become the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon in 1977 after the assassination of his predecessor, Francis E. Meloy Jr. His last diplomatic position came in 1978 as ambassador to Morocco...