WELCOME to the Parker-Benton Post 1392
Indian Lake, NY
The post was established on the 25th. It ws named after two local servicemen who were killed in action during WW II, Beecher Parker and Elmer Benton. Beecher Parker was killed in Italy on 6 January, 1944 and was awarded the Silver Star for bravery in action, posthumously. His company was pinned down by heavy enemy fire, and he as part of a
wire team, went out to string a communication line to the cammand post. The irony is that they succeeded uninjured. Then the line was knocked out and they went out again to repair it and that was when he was killed. His body was returned to the USA in 1949 and he was buried in Cedar River Cemetery. Elmer Benton was in the navy as a turret gunner on an LST and was killed in action on 28 April, 1944, he had just turned 18. He was on LST 531 which was involved in Operation Tiger, an amphibious training exercise off the southern coast of England, in preparation for D Day. German E boats attracted by the unusually high radio activity homed in and found this large non-combatant force. The fast German boats quickly closed in to torpedo as many as they could, then scoot away. Three LSTs were lost, one was crippled badly, another exploded in flames and LST 531, sank in 6 minutes. Elmer was killed along with most hand on board, there were only a few survivors. In all, that day, 749 troops were lost which was the highest number of casualties ever lost in a training exercise during the entire war.
