Joseph Parker was chief test pilot and Director of Flight Operations at Republic Aviation. He was killed when the P-47N Thunderbolt he was flying crashed on take off from the airfield on the island of Ie Shima in the South Pacific, just days before Japan surrendered. Joe Parker was the first Republic test pilot to do a compressability dive, speed runs, high altitude flying, spins and high altitude ignition pressurization. Ie Shima is located three miles west of Okinawa. Joe Parker was buried very close to the grave of the famed WW II correspondent, Ernie Pyle, who was killed in the battle for Ie Shima.
