ROCK ISLAND, IL — Plot U-330 in the Rock Island National Cemetery, located on the grounds of the Rock Island Arsenal, is where a man named Eugene Parker is buried. Parker, a WW2 veteran of the Navy, and postwar veteran of the Air Force, was born Dec. 15, 1923, in Moline, IL. At the age of 16 he enlisted in the Navy, became a qualified aerial gunner, and saw combat in the Pacific including watching his ship sink from Japanese torpedoes. After the war he joined the Air Force serving in Greenland, Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas, and returning to the South Pacific before being honorably discharged in 1950.
Following his military service Parker helped in the construction of Cape Canaveral, worked in the salt mines of Michigan, worked for United Airlines in Chicago, Denver, and Hawaii, and worked at the John Deere Foundry before retiring in 1981. He was a lifetime member of VFW Post 2153 in Moline and served as Commander. He was also a member of Amvets Post 145 in East Moline as well as the American Legion. Parker was a member of the Honor Guard for hundreds of veterans’ funerals on Arsenal Island.
He died on October 30, 2010. Outside of some friends, the story of Eugene Parker would go to the grave with him. His wife Sara preceded him in death, and the couple apparently didn’t have any children. So, it is little surprise portions of his estate wound up in an auction house, including a framed shadowbox containing the many medals he had earned during his time in uniform.
John Hatcher, from Iowa City, was at the auction house when Parker’s medals came up for bid. Doug Thompson, himself a Navy vet, and Chaplain for Solon American Legion Stinocher Post 460 explained Hatcher decided to bid on the medals in an effort to keep them together rather than potentially be sold off separately to collectors or melted down.
“John, much like myself, felt this was like a living historical document, if you will, of one veteran’s life,” Thompson said. Hatcher won the auction and set about finding an appropriate place for the medals to be displayed. His quest led him to Post 460. “I was at the Legion that day, and Denny (Hansen) called me over and as soon as I saw them I recognized them as being Navy. We talked about it, but we don’t have any room on our walls, in fact we have some things in storage in our basement, because we just don’t have any place to display them. And it breaks our hearts because we wish we had a bigger space to be able to display everything people would want us to.”
Hansen and Thompson offered to find an appropriate home for the medals. Hansen was able to locate Parker’s obituary, providing the men with their first lead. Hansen contacted the veterans organizations in the Quad Cities, but they had the same problem, no place to properly display Parker’s medals, although they knew him.
“And that’s pretty typical,” Thompson said. “Most Legion halls and VFWs aren’t very big.” With things at a standstill, Thompson took the medals home, but continued the search. “I read and re-read his obituary several times, and you know, you can read something four or five times and the little lightbulb in your brain does not click on. My little lightbulb was not clicking on. It was flickering from time-to-time though. So, I started calling other Legion posts but I kept hitting the same brick wall, nobody had any space.”
Thompson decided to try a different approach and began calling military museums. He quickly discovered most are military branch specific, and very particular about what items they accept and display. “They’re very focused on what they’re looking for,” he said. Frustration and discouragement were taking their toll. Again, Thompson read Parker’s obituary, looking for any clue, any hint of a place where his medals might go. “Every time I read it, I would learn something new about this guy.”
He called the National Personnel Records Center and National Archives in St. Louis, a repository for military records. However, a fire in 1973 destroyed between 16 and 18 million records. Compounding the difficulty for Thompson, he did not have Parker’s service (serial) number. Unfortunately, they said, they were unable to help.
By now they were no longer “Gene’s Medals,” they were Gene, in his mind.
Yet another reading of the obituary started his “little light bulb” flickering, but this time it was getting brighter and brighter. “I read he was a member of the Honor Guard, like I am and Denny (Hansen) is, and he helped with literally hundreds of funerals at the National Cemetery at the Arsenal.” He discovered there is a museum there and tried them. “I called, and called, and called, and the phone rang, and rang, and rang, and nobody ever picked up.” He finally tried the main switchboard for Arsenal Island and was told the museum was undergoing renovation, which was why nobody was answering. He asked for the curator’s personal number, which the operator was understandably reluctant to give out. But she connected him with her friend Margo Davis, Center Operations Supervisor, USO Rock Island Center, who knew the curator in an effort to relay the message.
“A few days later my phone rings and it’s the curator, and he said their museum is strictly for the U.S. Army.” For once though, the all-too-familiar brick wall was breached when he told Thompson that Davis was willing to display them in the USO. He added it would be a perfect venue as the USO gets upwards of 1,000 visitors per week. Thompson called Davis at the USO and found out they have a small Navy museum on the base. If for whatever reason the museum cannot or will not take them, she promised she would keep them on display in the USO.
Hansen, Hatcher, and Thompson delivered the medals to Davis.
“For me it was almost a bittersweet thing. Even though I did not know Gene himself, I read his obituary so many times I felt like I knew him. His medals had sat in my home for almost a year.” And now, “Gene” was finally going home.
Again, he read the obituary while writing some information to go with the medals, and that light bulb shined bright as he read Burial will be in the National Cemetery on Arsenal Island with Military Honors by the Milan American Legion Post 569/200 and the VFW Post 1303.
“I thought, oh my God, he’s home.”
Preserving a veteran’s legacy
May 25, 2022
Denny Hansen and Doug Thompson flank John Hatcher and Margo Davis, Center Operations Supervisor, USO Rock Island Center as they hold a shadowbox containing medals earned by Eugene Parker, a Navy and Air Force veteran buried in the Rock Island National Cemetery at the Rock Island Arsenal.
Eugene Parker
About the Contributor
Chris Umscheid, Editor
Chris Umscheid is the editor of the Solon Economist.