Episode 149: A Tale of Two Soldiers, Part I

 

There is only one person buried at Arlington that I believe should be disinterred and moved elsewhere, an Army Brigadier General named Jacob Hurd Smith who should have been drummed out of the military decades before he became a general, but since he wasn't, he was allowed an opportunity to commit genocide in The Philippines. Only one of his subordinates, a Marine named Littleton "Tony" Waller actively tried to stop him.

Episode 148: The Life and Times of Astronaut Jim Lovell

After more months that I thought it would take, I am back! While I was away, we lost another Space Race pioneer: Navy Captain James Lovell, best know as the commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. Many credited his coolness under pressure as the one of the main reasons he and his shipmates survived that ordeal. He was laid to rest next to his wife Marilyn, who preceded him in death, at the Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, Maryland.

There were also come cool updates about the Harlem Hellfighters and seven Nisei members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team so 

Episode 147: The Mayaguez Incident - The Last American Casualties in Vietnam, Part VII

In the years following the Mayaguez Incident, several memorials have popped up. As is was considered the final combat action of the Vietnam War (despite taking place after the officially recognized end of the war and in Cambodia, not Vietnam) those killed in action were engraved in the final panel of the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.

In 1996, Arizona Senator and former Vietnam POW John McCain helped dedicate a memorial to those killed on Koh Tang on the grounds of the US embassy in Phenom Penh, Cambodia.

In 2013, a memorial marker for those killed in the Knife-31 crash off Koh Tang's east beach. It is in Section 60, Site 10360.

Two Marines killed in action during the Mayaguez Incident, who were originally listed as missing in action and whose statues was officially changed in 1976 to killed in action (body not recovered) were eventually located, recovered, repatriated, and ultimately interred at Arlington National Cemetery. Second Lieutenant Richard Van de Geer is interred in Section 66, Grave 6027 - he was 27 years old.

Private First Class Walter Boyd, Jr. is buried in Section 66, Grave 5686 - he was 19 years old.

 

Episode 146: The Mayaguez Incident - The Last American Casualties of Vietnam, Part VI

 

The crew of the SS Mayaguez is released by the Khmer Rouge, but it is too late to stop the US rescue attempt. Now President Ford wants to pull out the troops, but since information flowed a lot slower in 1975 than it does in 2025, the second wave of US Marines was already on site. Will they follow presidential orders or will they disregard their commander-in-chief and extricate their comrades under siege in enemy territory?

While those decisions were being made, the destroyer USS Henry B. Wilson came across the survivors of the Knife-31 crash that happened in the opening minutes of the attempted invasion of Koh Tang and was able to rescue them after they had survived more than two hours treading water in the ocean 

Yet Another Podcast Announcement

I am having no luck with these end of the year holidays. I was back in the ER on New Year's Day thanks to a complication from my appendectomy. This is why there was no new episode this week. Sheesh, after these last two weeks, my New Year's resolution is to stay out the hospital in 2025!

 

Podcast Announcement

 

I had my appendix removed unexpectedly on Christmas Eve, and while I was released from the hospital in time to enjoy most of Christmas Day with my family, this why there is no new episode this week. I hope everyone else's Christmas was better than mine!

Episode 145: The Mayaguez Incident - The Last American Casualties in Vietnam, Part V

     

As things were falling apart on nearby Koh Tang, 1/4 Marines from the frigate USS Harold E. Holt brings 1/4 Marines from the Philippines along side the stricken SS Mayaguez.

Believing the commercial ship to be held by an unknown number of armed Khmer hijackers, US aircraft engulfed the Mayaguez in tear gas before the Marines boarded.

By the time the Marines returned to the Holt, it was clear that only a few Khmer Rouge fighters had stayed on the ship and they abandoned the vessel when the tear gas was dropped.

The SS Mayaguez, retaken without a shot fired, was hooked up to the Holt and towed away from Koh Tang.