Episode 144: The Mayaguez Incident - The Last American Casualties of Vietnam

Bad intelligence plus bad timing equals a bad plan. Last week we saw the bad intelligence when no photos of the objective were available so the Marine making the plan flew over the site at 4500 feet with his personal 35mm camera. This week we see the bad timing I've been eluding to. The bad intelligence and bad timing come together for a disastrous first fifteen minutes of the battle for the Mayaguez and her crew.

Aside from losing three of the first four helicopters that tried to insert Marines onto the beaches of Koh Tang island (two of which can be seen in the first photo on east beach) the forth bird was so damaged that the pilot abandoned the mission, taking her 20 Marines back to Thailand. It was likely the right call as it didn't make it back to U-Tapao Royal Air Base in Thailand before it had to be abandoned.

Episode 143: The Mayaguez Incident - The Last American Casualties in Vietnam, Part III

US reconnaissance planes lost track of the Mayaguez crew when the trawler they were on arrived at the port of Kompong Som on mainland Cambodia. Because of that, US planners continued to plan for a rescue under the assumption that the crew was split between the Mayaguez itself and Koh Tang island and their estimate of how many Khmer soldier were on Koh Tang was off by 90%. Both of which led to a rescue plan that would not be well suited for the reality on the ground.

Oh, and the reconnaissance photos the Marines used to plan the operation was taken with one of their officer's personal 35-mm camera from 4500 feet above the island because apparently no other photos of Koh Tang existed in Thailand where the planning was taking place.  

Episode 142: The Mayaguez Incident - The Last American Casualties in Vietnam, Part II

The last image of the Knife 13 casualties just before they took off

As the first day of the Mayaguez Incident was coming to a close, US officials were gathering Marines from The Philippines and Okinawa for a potential rescue attempt. Seventh Air Force Commander, on the ground in Thailand, tried to include his airmen but that... well, that did not go well. One of the helicopters moving to the staging area crashed - call sign Knife 13 - killing all 23 people aboard, 5 crew and 18 passengers. Just last month a monument was dedicated to honor those killed at the Air Force Security Forces Museum at Joint Base San Antonio - Lackland in Texas

The Knife 13 Memorial dedicated October 10, 2024 at Joint Base San Antonio - Lackland, Texas

As the second day of the incident dawned in Southeast Asia, the air force did all in its power, the the use of fighters and attack aircraft, the prevent the Cambodians from transferring their prisoners to the mainland were President Ford felt it would be much more difficult to get them back unharmed. 

Episode 141: The Mayaguez Incident - The Last American Casualties in Vietnam, Part I

The last US combat units left South Vietnam on March 29, 1973. The last US embassy personnel were dramatically evacuated on April 30, 1975, the same day that the People's Army of Vietnam entered Saigon, signally the defeat of South Vietnam and the reunification of the country by the Northern communists.

But those considered the final American casualties of the Vietnam War died the following month in neighboring Cambodia fighting soldiers loyal to the Khmer Rouge, not the government in Hanoi. This final unlikely battle was fought over a commercial container ship during the early chaotic days of significant political change in Southeast Asia.

Episode 140: Honored Return

 

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is the federal agency responsible for recovering the remains of previously missing in action service members and identifying them, and each year, DPAA strikes hundreds of names from the rolls of the missing.

To emphasize the importance of what DPAA does, this episode highlights four families who have received closure regarding their formerly MIA loved ones, and one family who received help from DPAA to get a cenotaph at Arlington for their Korea War MIA.

Army Private First Class Alfred Bordeau was captured on his first day in combat in the Korea War and subjected to many physical and mental hardships, and ultimately death, at the hands of his North Korean captors. DPAA helped his family get in touch with a POW who was held with Bordeau who was able to tell them about the brave things their loved one did while a captive to help others around him.

Some 70 years after his death, Bordeau's family celebrated his life and placed a cenotaph in his honor at Arlington in Memorial Section L, Site 88.

Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel Addison Baker was the commander of a bombardment squadron when his bomber was hit over Poland. Instead of returning to safety, he continued to pilot his plane to the target, leading his squadron's planes in the process, and successfully dropped his payload.

On the return leg of the mission, he was forced to drop out of formation and made a gallant effort to give his crew a chance to bail out. His bomber finally lost all power and he crashed behind German lines. He was awarded the medal of honor but his remains could not be recovered so his final disposition was unknown so his named was added to a wall of the missing at the Florence American Cemetery in Italy.

Thanks to many efforts by DPAA personnel, LTC Baker's remains were located, positively identified, and at the behest of his surviving family - several of whom are Addison in their hero uncle's honor - reinterred at Arlington in Section 78, Grave 403.

Navy Seaman First Class James Richard Ward was on the battleship USS Oklahoma when it was hit by multiple torpedoes and began to sink during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Instead of rushing out of the gun turret he was manning to escape, he led the rest of the crew to safety. Every member of the crew made it out except for S1 Ward who was awarded the medal of honor for all of the lives he saved.

Ward remained interred in the Oklahoma until that ship was refloated. His were one of dozens upon dozens of comingled remains recovered from the ship and buried in mixed graves at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His status as a medal of honor recipient also earned him a cenotaph at Punchbowl.

In 2015, DPAA began a special mission to disinter the comingled Oklahoma remains and identify each crew member still considered missing. Through these efforts, Ward's remains were identified and buried at Arlington in Section 81, Grave 1560 with many of his family members and Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the Chief of Naval Operations, in attendance.

Marine Corps Captain Ronald Forrester was killed when the A6A Intruder he was piloting was shot down over Vietnam.

A cenotaph was placed at Arlington in his honor and stood in the cemetery for nearly sixty years. Just imagine how shocked and pleasantly surprised Forrester's daughter - who had only knew for father for a short time as a child - was when she got a phone call telling her that DPAA had recovered and identified Forrester's remains. His funeral service was two weeks ago so his headstone has not been placed yet, but when it is, it was rise over his remains in Section 47, Grave 29.

Navy Radioman Third Class Starring Winfield was also lost when the USS Oklahoma sank at Pearl Harbor.

Like S1 Ward, Winfield's remains were comingled, placed in a group burial at Punchbowl, and later disinterred and identified as part of the 2015 special Oklahoma project. His family chose to move his remains to Arlington and they now rest in Section 55, Grave 2085.

Episode 139: The King of Swing, Part II

 

Because of  his age (he was 38) and needing glasses, Glenn Miller was unlikely to be drafted for military service, but like so many Americans of his day, he wanted to find some way to serve. Eventually the Army accepted him, commissioned him a captain, and put him in charge of all Army Air Forces bands.

After being stuck stateside for several months, Miller's desire to deploy overseas and perform for US troops became a reality when General Dwight Eisenhower personally requested Miller and his band come to England before the D-Day invasion.

In late-1944, Miller was promoted to major and received approval to move his headquarters from London to Paris following the liberation of that city. He flew to France on December 15, 1944 but his plane disappeared and he, his pilot, and his traveling companion were never seen again. They were all declared dead one year and one day later on December 16, 1945.

In 1944, at his daughter's request, a cenotaph was installed for Major Alton Glenn Miller at Arlington National Cemetery, in Memorial Section H, Grave 464-A. As far as I can tell, the trombone on the backside of his marker is unique to his headstone.

Before that time, his official memorial was his name engraved on "The Tablets of the Missing" at the Cambridge American Cemetery in Cambridge, England.

In Section 13 at Arlington, beneath an American Holly tree, is the memorial marker dedicated to the memory of Miller's Army Air Forces Orchestra.

Miller has a second cenotaph, this one installed by a fan who has no relation to Miller or his family, at the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut. 

Episode 138: The King of Swing, Part I

 

Glenn Miller was born in a small town in Iowa and decided early on that he wanted to be a professional musician. It took time and a lot of frustration for him to make his dream a reality but by 1938, thousands of dancers and millions of radio listeners knew and loved Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. In four and a half years they would feature in two Hollywood films, produce 121 singles, 69 Billboard charters, and 13 #1 hits before their band leader left to join the US Army Air Corps in World War II.