Episode 17: Cochinchina is Burning - America's First Casualty in Vietnam

Thanks to his fluency in French and familiarity with France from his time there as a newspaper correspondent in the early days of the war - followed by a short stint as an officer in the Polish Army, Lieutenant Colonel A. Peter Dewey was recruited into the new intelligence and espionage organization the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS. As a member of the OSS he jumped behind enemy lines into occupied France and helped train French resistance fighters. 

In the Pacific Theater, other OSS officers trained other guerilla forces to fight against Japanese occupation of their countries. This picture shoes OSS officers with Vietnamese guerillas including Ho Chi Minh (center-right) and his Vo Nguyen Giap (left - wearing tie), considered one of the greatest military strategists of the 20th century.

Following Germany's surrender, Dewey and a small OSS team was sent to Saigon in the southern part of French Indochina which was made up of the three division of Vietnam - Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina - as well as Cambodia and Laos.

After Dewey's accidental killing by a members of the Vietminh's Advanced Guard Youth, his body was initially dumped in a well and later recovered and buried. His exact whereabouts today are unknown. To honor his memory, the Vietminh erected this memorial to Dewey on a street in Saigon renamed in his honor. Not surprisingly, this monument is no longer standing.

In an ironic turn of events, just before his death in late-September through at least December 1945, British authorities waiting for the return of French forces rearmed Japanese POWs and set them to guarding streets, protecting Europeans, and fighting guerilla Vietnamese fighters.

Since his body was never recovered, LTC doesn't have a grave at Arlington, but a cenotaph, a memorial marker. His is collocated on the headstone of his father and mother in Section 3, Grave 4272-A-3-4.

Episode 16: Lockerbie

On December 21, 1988, 270 people were killed in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, including 190 Americans.

The iconic image of the Pan Am Flight 103 terrorist attack was the aircraft's nose section which came to rest on its side with the plane's name Clipper Maid of the Seas mostly visible.

When Flight 103 came down on the sleepy town of Lockerbie, Scotland just after 7 pm, the hardest hit street was Sherwood Crescent, where all 11 on-the-ground casualties were. The wings and part of the fuselage carved out a crater approximately 40 feet by 150 feet. All but one house on that street was destroyed in either the initial impact of the subsequent fires from the 200,000 pounds of jet fuel.

Though we now know this attack was ordered by former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and carried out by no less than three operatives, only one person was ever convicted and served jail time. He only served 10 years of a lifetime sentence but was released on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with terminal cancer and has since died.

In December 2020, the United States formally indicted the third accomplice (the second was acquitted in an earlier trial before his participation was confirmed after the fall of the Gaddafi regime), but the current Libyan government has yet to extradite him to the United States for trial.

Arlington National Cemetery's Lockerbie Memorial Carin is located in Section 1 and was dedicated in 1993. Made from 270 sandstone blocks quarried just a few miles from Lockerbie. The chief architect of the project lost his daughter on the flight.

The plaque reads: IN REMEMBRANCE OF THE TWO HUNDRED SEVENTY PEOPLE KILLED IN THE TERRORIST BOMBING OF PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS FLIGHT 103 OVER LOCKERBIE, SCOTLAND 21 DECEMBER 1988 

PRESENTED BY THE LOCKERBIE DISASTER TRUST TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

35 of the victims were students from Syracuse University. The school built the Place of Remembrance to honor their memory, a semi-circular wall with their names carved into it.

Every year, the 35 senior who receive the Remembrance scholarship plan a week of on-campus memorial activities that that begins with a candlelight vigil on Sunday and culminates with a rose laying ceremony on Saturday. This year's remembrance week will run from October 17-23, 2021.

Episode 15: September 11, 2001

The first funeral of the day on September 11, 2001, started after the planes struck the twin towers in New York City. About half an hour later, the mourners, who were transitioning between the chapel and graveside portions of the funeral, recoiled as a tremendous blast shook the windows and walls of the cemetery's reception center. As they left to head towards the Columbarium (where the deceased's cremated remains were to be placed), they were stopped by military police officers who informed them that the Pentagon had just been hit - they were still allowed to proceed (the Columbarium is only a few hundred yards from the Pentagon) but many of the military personnel, including those who would have folded the flag, would no longer be accompanying them and the rest of the service would be abbreviated. In an era before everyone carried a camera in their pocket, one member of the funeral party had a camera in her car and after the service, took this photo of the Pentagon billowing smoke over Arlington's white headstones. Thank you for this unique perspective, Ms. Ruth Anne Rosati.

A year after the attack, the Pentagon memorial - officially called the Pentagon Group Burial Marker - was unveiled in Section 64. The memorial, pentagonal in shape, has the names of the 184 victims of the terrorist attack on the Pentagon, either in the building itself or on Flight 77.

Because of extensive damage to the remains, five sets of remains were buried together in a single casket, covered with a special vault cover. The memorial sits directly above the vault cover.

One of those killed in the Pentagon was Army Lieutenant Colonel Kip Taylor

Kip and his wife, Nancy, had struggled with infertility for years but had eventually conceived and had a son, Dean. A month after his death, Nancy gave birth to their second son, Luke. While in the hospital for the birth, Nancy was diagnosed with breast cancer and died two years later. The boys were adopted and raised by Kip's brother and his wife. They are both currently attending college, courtesy of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.

Both Kip and Nancy Ann Melvin Taylor are buried in Section 64, Grave 4877

The first American killed in Afghanistan post-9/11 had been a captain in the Marine Corps but was a CIA officer at the time of his death. Johnny "Mike" Spann didn't qualify for burial at Arlington but was granted an exemption from President George W. Bush. He was killed in a prison riot when Taliban detainees got into an Afghan Northern Alliance arms room. One participant in the riot was the so-called American Taliban member John Walker Lindh. 

His family, particularly his children, have been vocal about their displeasure with Lindh's release from prison, three years before the end of his 20-year sentence and his father had harsh criticism for the way the Biden administration withdrew US troops from Afghanistan. Spann is buried in Section 34, Grave 2359.

The first Iraq War Soldier buried at Arlington was Army Captain Russell Rippetoe who was killed by an IED while rushing to help a pregnant Iraqi woman.

This member of the 75th Ranger Regiment is buried in Section 60, Grave 7860

Because Army Sergeant First Class Jerald Whisenhunt, a 22-year veteran at the time of his death, was not a Sergeant Major or commissioned officer, so he was only authorized a standard honors funeral. Sergeant First Class was livid with the distinction and in time, his campaign led to a policy change authorizing anyone killed in combat to receive a full honors funeral regardless of rank.

Whisenhunt is buried in Section 60, Grave 8563 

Episode 14: "We Write No Last Chapters, We Close No Books"

President Reagan was very anxious to inter an Unknown Soldier from Vietnam, partly because he hoped it would help veterans of that war find closer and allow them, and the United States put the divisive conflict behind them. This was part of the reason so much pressure was put on the Central Identification Laboratory - Hawaii was pressured to find one.

Despite the insistence from CIL-HI scientists that with a little more research the one Unknown remaining from Vietnam would be able to be identified, the Department of Defense went ahead and buried the remains known as X-26 on Memorial Day 1984.

MAJ Johnie Webb, CIL-HI commander, was ordered to destroy the forensic evidence that could potentially identify X-26. Believing the remains would eventually be identified, he could not, in good conscience, destroy the evidence. Instead, he placed the dog tag chain fragment, signal marker pouch, match holder, survival guide, and ammunition pouch into the casket with X-26's 6 bones.

In 1998, there was strong evidence that X-26 was Air Force First Lieutenant Michael Blassie. While there were organizations that argued against opening the Tomb of the Unknowns, his sister, Air Force Captain Pat Blassie, argued that while the Tomb of the Unknown is an honorable place, it is not honorable for a known service member. X-26 was eventually exhumed, DNA tested, and positively identified to be Michael Blassie. 

Michel's mother, Jean led the charge to have her son removed from Arlington and was able to bring him home to St. Louis to be buried at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. She passed away in 2013.

Michael Blassie now has a headstone with his name on it. The backside of the headstone lists several of his military achievements on it and recognizes his time as the Vietnam War Unknown.

Since Blassie was removed from the Unknown crypt, it has remained empty as scientific advancements make it much more likely that in time, all remaining unknowns from Vietnam will be identified. Today, the slab that covered Blassie's remains is inscribed with the words: Honoring and Keeping Faith with American Missing Servicemen 1958-1975.