SYNOPSIS:

The USS CORAL SEA participated in combat action against the Communists as early as August 1964. Aircraft from he squadrons flew in the first U.S. Navy strikes in the Rolling Thunder Program against targets in North Vietnam in early 1965 and participated in Flaming Dart 1 strikes. The next year, reconnaissance aircraft from her decks returned with the first photography of Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) sites in North Vietnam. The A1 Skyraider fighter aircraft was retired from the USS CORAL SEA in 1968. The CORAL SEA participated in Operation Eagle Pull in 1975, evacuating American personnel from the beleaguered Saigon, and remained on station to assist the crew of the MAYAGUEZ, which was captured by Cambodian forces in 1975. The attack carriers USS CORAL SEA, USS HANCOCK and USS RANGER formed Task Force 7, the carrier striking force of the U.S. Seventh Fleet in the Western Pacific.

One of the aircraft that launched from the decks of the USS CORAL SEA was the Vought A7 Corsair II. The Corsair was a single-seat attack jet utilized by both the Navy and the Air Force in Vietnam, and had been designed to meet the Navy's need for a subsonic attack plane able to carry a greater load of non-nuclear weapons that the A4 Skyhawk. The aircraft's unique design completely frred the wing space for bomb loading; the Pratt and Whitney jet engine was beneath the fuselage of the aircraft. The Corsair was used primairly for close air support and interdiction, although it was also used for reconnaissance. A Corsair is credited with flying the last official combat mission in the war-bombing a target in Cambodia on 15 August 1973.

Lt. John J. Parker was an A7A pilot assigned to Attack Squadron 86 on board the USS COARL SEA. In early March, 1970, the carrier was conducting flight operations in the South China Sea. On March 4, Parker launched in his A7A, and immediatley after takeoff, crashed into the sea. A search and rescue helicopter was immediately on the scene, but was unable to find LT. Parker. He was initially listed as Missing, but later changed to Reported Dead.

(NOTE: Even thought the Air Force records indicate that the CORAL SEA was conducting flight operations in the South China Sea, Parker's loss coordiates as given by the Defense Department are unquestionably in North Vietnam waters--in the Gulf of Tonkin, about 100 miles offshore east of Ha Tinh. Perhaps the carrier was on Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin and dispatching aircraft south.)

Parker is listed with honor among the Americans still prisoner, missing or unaccounted for in Southeast Asia because his body was never recovered. Others who are missing do not have such clear cut cases. Some were known as captives; some were photographed as they were lead by their guards. Some were in radio contact with search teams, while others simply disappeared.