Hero Navy Chaplain Dies 54 Years Ago Today: September 4, 1967

File written by Adobe Photoshop? 4.0

By Guest Author, Tara Ross

On this day in 1967, a Navy chaplain makes the ultimate sacrifice as he ministers to his Marines during the Vietnam War. Father Vincent Capodanno would receive a Medal of Honor for his selfless actions on this day so long ago.

Father Capodanno has since been declared a “Servant of God” by the Catholic Church, and he is now being considered for sainthood.

Capodanno was no ordinary military chaplain! In fact, he was affectionately dubbed “The Grunt Padre” by his men because of his insistence upon sharing their burdens and duties—however dangerous they might be.

“He was not a religious leader who did his job and then returned to the comfort of his own circle,” Capodanno’s biographer writes. “He lived as a Grunt Marine. Wherever they went, he went. Whatever burdens they had to carry, he shared the load. No problem was too large or too small to take to Father Vincent—he was available to them day and night.”

That approach would cost Capodanno his life during Operation Swift, a Vietnam War operation during the fall of 1967. On September 4, a portion of Capodanno’s battalion was ambushed. The conflict turned into an all-out battle.

As a chaplain, Capodanno could easily have remained at the company command post. All things considered, it was a much safer place to be! But it also went against the grain for Capodanno to stay in a place of relative safety when his men were suffering. He wanted to be with them.

He “ran through an open area raked with gunfire, directly to the beleaguered platoon,”
MEDAL OF HONOR CITATION

He “ran through an open area raked with fire, directly to the beleaguered platoon,” his Medal citation reports. “Disregarding the intense enemy small-arms, automatic-weapons, and mortar fire, he moved about the battlefield administering last rites to the dying and giving medical aid to the wounded.”

During the course of his ministrations, Capodanno was seriously wounded in his arms and legs. His right hand was partially severed. And yet he continued on.

Capodanno was at the side of Sergeant Lawrence Peters when Peters passed away. The Sergeant had acted so heroically during the battle that he would receive his own Medal of Honor!

Peters did not have to die alone because of Capodanno.

Another Marine, Corporal Ray Harton, was wounded that day. Father Capodanno found him as he lay bleeding there on the battlefield. “As I closed my eyes, someone touched me,” Harton later reported. “When I opened my eyes, he looked directly at me. It was Father Capodanno. Everything got still: no noise, no firing, no screaming. A peace came over me that is unexplainable to this day. In a quiet, calm voice, he cupped the back of my head and said, ‘Stay quiet Marine. You will be okay. Someone will be here to help you soon. God is with us all this day.’”

The end came when Capodanno noticed a corpsman struggling with a wound to his leg. An enemy machine gun was still trained on the young man. “Fr. C. ran out to him and positioned himself between the injured boy and the automatic weapon,” Lieutenant Joseph E. Pilon later related. “Suddenly, the weapon opened up again and this time riddled Fr. C. from the back of his head to the base of his spine—and with his third Purple Heart of the day—Fr. C. went Home.”

When Father Capodanno’s body was recovered, it had 27 bullet wounds in it.

On this Labor Day weekend, perhaps it is appropriate to remember a man who labored so diligently for his God, his family of Marines, and his country.

RIP, Father Capodanno.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Guest author, Tara Ross, is a mother, wife, writer, and retired lawyer. She is the author of The Indispensable Electoral College: How the Founders’ Plan Saves Our Country from Mob Rule,Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College, co-author of Under God: George Washington and the Question of Church and State (with Joseph C. Smith, Jr.), & We Elect A President: The Story of our Electoral College. She is a constitutionalist, but with a definite libertarian streak! Stay tuned here for updates on pretty much anything to do with the Electoral College, George Washington, & our wonderfully rich American heritage.

#TDIH #OTD #AmericanHistory #USHistory #liberty #freedom #ShareTheHistory

War in the Pacific Ends 76 Years Ago Today: September 2, 1945

by HB Auld, Jr. and The History Channel

The War in the Pacific in World War II officially ended 76 years ago today on September 2, 1945. Fittingly, because this terrible War began on a Sunday on December 7, 1941, it also ended on a Sunday. The History Channel describes the end this way:

“Aboard the USS MISSOURI (BB 63) in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II.

“By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured Okinawa, a Japanese island from which the Allies could launch an invasion of the main Japanese home islands. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was put in charge of the invasion, which was code-named “Operation Olympic” and set for November 1945.

“The invasion of Japan promised to be the bloodiest seaborne attack of all time, conceivably 10 times as costly as the Normandy invasion in terms of Allied casualties. On July 16, a new option became available when the United States secretly detonated the world’s first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert. Ten days later, the Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration, demanding the “unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces.” Failure to comply would mean “the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitable the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland.” On July 28, Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki responded by telling the press that his government was “paying no attention” to the Allied ultimatum. U.S. President Harry S. Truman ordered the devastation to proceed, and on August 6, the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing an estimated 80,000 people and fatally wounding thousands more.

“After the Hiroshima attack, a faction of Japan’s supreme war council favored acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration….”
THE HISTORY CHANNEL

“After the Hiroshima attack, a faction of Japan’s supreme war council favored acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, but the majority resisted unconditional surrender. On August 8, Japan’s desperate situation took another turn for the worse when the USSR declared war against Japan. The next day, Soviet forces attacked in Manchuria, rapidly overwhelming Japanese positions there, and a second U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese coastal city of Nagasaki.

“Just before midnight on August 9, Japanese Emperor Hirohito convened the supreme war council. After a long, emotional debate, he backed a proposal by Prime Minister Suzuki in which Japan would accept the Potsdam Declaration “with the understanding that said Declaration does not compromise any demand that prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as the sovereign ruler.” The council obeyed Hirohito’s acceptance of peace, and on August 10 the message was relayed to the United States.

“On Sunday, September 2, more than 250 Allied warships lay at anchor in Tokyo Bay. The flags of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and China fluttered above the deck of the MISSOURI. Just after 9 a.m. Tokyo time, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed on behalf of the Japanese government. General Yoshijiro Umezu then signed for the Japanese armed forces, and his aides wept as he made his signature.

“Supreme Commander MacArthur next signed, declaring, “It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past.” Nine more signatures were made, by the United States, China, Britain, the USSR, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands and New Zealand, respectively. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz signed for the United States. As the 20-minute ceremony ended, the sun burst through low-hanging clouds. The most devastating war in human history was over.” — The History Channel

13 Military Members Killed in Kabul

by HB Auld, Jr.

Thirteen military service members were killed in a suicide bomb blast at the Abbey Gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday August 27, 2021. They were processing evacuees from the war-torn country to be airlifted out on US military aircraft when they were killed.

The 13 service members are:

US Navy Hospital Corpsman Maxton Soviak

US Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Knauss

US Marine Corps Corporal Daegan William-Tyeler Page

US Marine Corps Corporal Hunter Lopez

US Marine Corps Corporal Humberto Sanchez

US Marine Corps Lance Corporal David Lee Espinoza

US Marine Corps Lance Corporal Dylan Merola

US Marine Corps Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz

US Marine Corps Lance Corporal Kareem Mae’Lee Grant Nikoui

US Marine Corps Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum

US Marine Corps Sergeant Johanny Rosario Pichardo

US Marine Corps Sergeant Nicole Gee

US Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover, Jr.

The 13 killed ranged in age from 20 to 31. Five were only 20 years old. One of those, US Marine Corps Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum, was to become a father less than a month from now. The bodies of these American heroes were transferred to Dover Air Force Base on August 30, 2021.

During the past 20 years the US has fought in Afghanistan, 2,461 service members have died in the service of their country. These 13 were the last to die in this conflict.

The Kabul Airport and the nation of Afghanistan was completely evacuated of all US military warriors on Monday, August 30, 2021. Hundreds of American citizens and Afghan allies were left behind when the American forces withdrew from the country.

God bless these American military heroes.

God bless America.

Early Rock and Roller Paul Anka Turns 80 Years Old Today

Today is the 80th birthday of a rock and roll pioneer, singer, and composer: Paul Anka. In addition to his more well-known songs, he also composed the theme for Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” and Frank Sinatra (and many others) hit “My Way.”

Here is the information posted today on one of my rock music Groups on FaceBook, “Rock the Oldies with me Lisa Marie:”

One of the biggest classic pop performers, Canadian singer-songwriter Paul Anka moved from teen heartthrob to adult artist with a slew of hits.

Born in Canada in 1941, teen singer Paul Anka’s hit “Diana” sold millions of copies and set him up as a top teen idol with prolific songwriting abilities. He then appeared in several films, headlined a Vegas act, hosted TV variety shows and wrote hits for the likes of Frank Sinatra and Tom Jones. He rose to the top of the charts again with the 1974 duet “You’re Having My Baby.”

Early Life

Famed singer-songwriter Paul Anka was born on July 30, 1941, in Ottawa, Canada. Anka was the eldest of three children born to his Lebanese-Canadian parents, Andy and Camelia Anka. Anka spent his childhood helping out in the kitchen and schmoozing with patrons of his father’s restaurant, the Locanda, a popular hangout for Ottawa journalists, politicians and businessmen. From an early age, it was clear that Anka had an abundance of confidence and big dreams of life on stage. “I was pretty precocious, a pretty aggressive kid,” Anka said. “I think my parents knew they had an unusual child.

“Shortly after his 15th birthday, Anka bought himself a ticket to Los Angeles, staying with an uncle there while he tried to make his name as a singer. At the year’s end, he convinced his father to let him go to New York City in search of his big break. His father agreed, on one condition: If Paul couldn’t make it big in the Big Apple, he would have to come back home to Ottawa.

Anka hit the Manhattan pavement running. Soon after his arrival, he landed a meeting with Don Costa, an executive at ABC/Paramount Records, who agreed to listen to a few minutes of Anka’s music. After hearing the teenager play some of his songs on the piano, Costa called in his colleagues. Within days, Anka’s father was in New York signing a contract on behalf of his son, who was still a minor and thus couldn’t sign on his own.

A Second Navy Ship in Two Days: USS INDIANAPOLIS

Landscape
This undated image from a remotely operated underwater vehicle courtesy of Paul G. Allen, shows a spare parts box from the USS Indianapolis on the floor of the North Pacific Ocean.

by HB Auld, Jr. and Guest Author Tara Ross

Two Navy ship disasters in two days: Yesterday was the USS FORRESTAL and today is the USS INDIANAPOLIS. I knew this one was coming; it’s been on my calendar all year.

Several years ago, my landlord was an INDIANAPOLIS survivor. During World War II, Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Charles McKissick served in INDIANAPOLIS and survived the sinking. We used to sit and talk in McKinney, TX, about our times in the Navy and he would talk about the days and nights he spent in the water after the sinking before being rescued. Every year, Charles would travel to Indianapolis, IN, each July for the ship’s reunion. When he returned, he would tell me that many of his shipmates were missing that year. The numbers continued to dwindle down at each reunion. This was in the early 1990s. LTJG Charles McKissick is also gone now. Rest In Peace, Sir. You and your Shipmates earned your reward. “Rest your oars, Sir. We have the Watch, now.” God bless these brave men and God bless America.

Here is Guest Author and Historian Tara Ross’ essay today on the sinking of the USS INDIANAPOLIS (CA 35) on July 30, 1945:

On this day in 1945, USS Indianapolis is sunk by Japanese torpedoes. The survivors would float in the ocean for days before they were found.

There was just one silver lining to the tragedy. Indianapolis had already performed the most important part of its mission: It had successfully carried parts for the Little Boy atomic bomb across the Pacific. American bombers would soon carry Little Boy toward Hiroshima. In combination with the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Little Boy would ultimately force an end to World War II.

If only crew members had known what they were carrying! But they didn’t. Instead, Indianapolis completed its delivery of the bomb components on July 26. The ship’s captain, Captain Charles McVay, then continued on to Guam. He was ordered to continue on to the Leyte Gulf.

Unfortunately, the seeds for tragedy were already being sown.

A transmission containing Indianapolis’s expected route was sent ahead to the Leyte Gulf. Unfortunately, a radio staff member there decoded part of the message incorrectly. As a result, the senior officer to whom McVay was to report had no idea that Indianapolis was coming.

Thus, he would not miss her when she failed to arrive on time a few days later. But that wasn’t the only problem. McVay had requested an escort to the Philippines, but he would not get one. Indianapolis had no sonar capabilities, limiting McVay’s ability to detect Japanese submarines on its own. When McVay heard that he wouldn’t have an escort, he took the news calmly. He’d traveled alone before, and the intelligence report for his voyage indicated that the trip should be routine.

“…two critical pieces of information were missing from that intelligence report.”

It turns out that two critical pieces of information were missing from that intelligence report. Japanese submarines were known to be operating along his planned path.

Thus, no one was really worried—even if they should have been. It was assumed that Indianapolis could travel safely through these backwaters from Guam to the Leyte Gulf. The ship and its crew left Guam, alone, on July 28.

The voyage was uneventful at first, but the evening of July 29 brought difficulties. Visibility became limited. Indianapolis had been zigzagging through the water, theoretically making it more difficult for a submarine to attack her. But as visibility worsened, Captain McVay ordered a stop to the zigzagging. He had been given discretion to make such a decision, although he was later criticized for making that call.

A little before midnight, a Japanese submarine spotted Indianapolis. Six torpedoes were fired at her just after midnight. Two of these torpedoes found their mark and tore their way through the American ship.

One sailor later described the impact: “Whoom. Up in the air I went. There was water, debris, fire, everything just coming up and we were 81ft (25m) from the water line. It was a tremendous explosion. Then, about the time I got to my knees, another one hit. Whoom.”

One torpedo blew away the bow of the ship. A second torpedo hit near the fuel compartment. The ship exploded—it sank in only 12 minutes! At least one distress signal was sent as the ship went down, but the signal was ignored. Possibly Americans thought that the distress signal was a Japanese ruse to lure rescue ships out to sea.

Of the nearly 1,200 men on board, about 900 men survived the initial explosion and went overboard into the water. They would not be rescued for days.

The story continues early next week.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

#TDIH #OTD #AmericanHistory #USHistory #liberty #freedom #ShareTheHistory

A Sad Day in Navy History: Fire Aboard USS FORRESTAL

Navy crewmen try to put out a fire aboard the USS Forrestal in the Tonkin Gulf, off the coast of Vietnam, on July 29, 1967.

by HB Auld, Jr., and Guest Author Tara Ross

Today is a sad day in Navy history.

On this day in 1967, fire broke out aboard USS FORRESTAL (CV 59). My hometown lost one of its own that day. Seaman Ray Chatelaine was killed in that fire.

That is one of the epic disasters in Navy history. Because of that fire, however, training was increased for Sailors, ashore and afloat, that such a tragedy might never happen again. This fire prompted the Navy to revise its firefighting and weapons-handling procedures. There were many heroes that day, but one who stands out was Chief Gerald W. Farrier, the commander of Damage Control Team 8, who was among the first to die in the fire and explosions. The Farrier Fire Fighting School Learning Site in Norfolk, Virginia, was named after this hero.

There are those who will claim that one of the pilots was hot shotting around and accidentally set the fire with his antics and shenanigans. That was never proven and the main thing we must remember are these heroes. They are no less heroes than those who lost their lives in combat in any war. God bless the Sailors and Shipmates of USS FORRESTAL (CV 59) and God bless America.

Historian and author Tara Ross continues with the full story below:

On this day in 1967, a rocket accidentally discharges aboard the flight deck of USS Forrestal. It smashes into a fighter jet piloted by then-Lt. Commander John McCain. Within minutes, the aft end of the aircraft carrier is ablaze.

The incident would result in the worst loss of life aboard a U.S. Navy vessel since World War II.

Forrestal was then the premier ship of its kind. She’d been dispatched to Vietnam, arriving off its coast on July 25. Things went awry just a few days later when she received a problematic shipment of ammunition. It was old and had been poorly maintained, but the Navy was short on ordnance. Old, Korean War-era bombs were now back in circulation.

The ordnance crew was upset, but resigned. Attack waves were already planned. The ordnance would be gone soon.

Except then tragedy struck. At 10:51 on July 29, a pilot in an F-4 Phantom jet was preparing for that day’s second attack wave. As he switched from external power to internal power, he felt a jolt. An unexpected electrical surge had fired one of his Zuni rockets. It tore off the Phantom, zipping across the flight deck and tearing into an A-4 Skyhawk. The pilot of that plane was none other than future Senator (then-LCdr.) John McCain.

The rocket ripped open the Skyhawk’s fuel tank.

Spilled fuel, jet exhaust, and burning rocket propellant did their work: Fuel and planes were soon ablaze. Some pilots were trapped. Others were helped out by their crews. A few, including McCain, pushed their way out of cockpits and jumped. Fuel continued to pour out of planes, worsening an already bad situation.

Firefighting efforts began quickly, which turned out to be unfortunate. The old bombs couldn’t take the heat, as newer bombs can. A mere 1 minute, 34 seconds into the fire, one of them exploded. A fireball shot into the sky, rocking the entire carrier. Most of Forrestal’s specially trained flight-deck firefighters were killed instantly.

Fighting the fire was useless. Bomb after bomb kept exploding as the fuel and fire spread. There was nothing to do but to run for cover. Finally, after five minutes, there was a break. By then, the fire was raging out of control. Holes had been blasted into the flight deck. The scene was so bad and so bloody that some sailors thought Forrestal was under attack.

What else could wreak such havoc?

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz once noted that “uncommon valor was a common virtue” during a World War II battle. The same could be said of the sailors aboard Forrestal that day. Deprived of a firefighting team, they rose to the occasion. Their inexperience led to mistakes—and yet they were heroic!

Remember, the flight deck was full of planes, loaded with ammunition that could still blow. Sailors manually pushed aircraft away from the fire. Other planes, past saving, were pushed into the ocean. Ordnance, too, was pushed overboard. At one point, a sailor loaded a forklift with ammunition, rode it to the edge of the deck, then jumped out just as the forklift fell into the sea.

Some sailors learned to use an Oxygen Breathing Apparatus on the fly so they could fight fires. Throughout it all, of course, sailors were helping their comrades, some of whom were burned beyond recognition. They recognized friends by tattoos or by names stitched onto uniforms.

The main fire was extinguished within an hour, but small fires would continue below deck long afterwards. It had been a deadly sequence: 134 men were dead and hundreds more were wounded. Twenty-one planes were demolished. Forrestal itself had been all but destroyed.

And yet, in many ways, the most remarkable thing about the day was Forrestal’s exceptional crew.

If you enjoy these history posts, please see my note below. Gentle reminder: History posts are copyright © 2013-2021 by Tara Ross. I appreciate it when you use the shar e feature instead of cutting/pasting.#TDIH #OTD #AmericanHistory #USHistory #liberty #freedom #ShareTheHistory

Happy 78th Birthday Today to Rocker Mick Jagger

Mandatory Credit: Photo by PIERRE VILLARD/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock (9159615bc) Mick Jagger Rolling Stones in concert at U-Arena, Paris, France – 20 Oct 2017

by HB Auld, Jr.

Rolling Stone front man and rock and roll artist Mick Jagger is 78 years old today. Sir Michael Philip Jagger was born July 26, 1943, in Dartford, Kent, United Kingdom. He attended the London School of Economics, but dropped out to join The Rolling Stones rock group before graduating. He and The Rolling Stones have been performing publicly since 1962, almost sixty years.

Today is a Great Day to be an American!

by HB Auld, Jr.

Today is the 52nd anniversary of the first men landing on the moon, July 20, 1969. On this day, American Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon while Michael Collins orbited the moon above them in Apollo 11.

And today is also the inaugural flight of American billionaire Jeff Bezos’ launch of his space capsule, Blue Origin. While this is a sub-orbital flight that lasts only 11 minutes with four crew members aboard, this is a commercial flight that takes the next step into space.

On board the Blue Origin capsule are: Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world and owner of the Blue Origin capsule; his younger brother and firefighter, Mark Bezos; Wally Funk, the oldest woman at 82 and an original Mercury 13 astronaut; and 18-year old Oliver Daemen, a Dutch teenager and the youngest human to ever fly in space.

From humble beginnings, billionaire Jeff Bezos is a self-made man who today became one of the first Americans to fly into space aboard a commercial civilian space capsule.

Bezos is the son of a 16-year old mother whose father deserted his family. He gave up his job in New York and traveled to Seattle, WA, to found Amazon, a tiny online bookseller. He worked in the mailroom of his own company, packing books, and then drove the packages himself to the post office. Today, he owns an online empire that includes the largest retailer in the world, Amazon, as well as Whole Foods and media juggernaut, The Washington Post. He is the richest man in the world, worth more than 200 billion dollars. Now, he is also the owner of a commercial space-exploration company, Blue Origin, that is destined to be a leader in commercial civilian space travel for decades to come.

Today is a great day to be an American!

God bless America.

America’s Most Famous Outlaw Ambushed 140 Years Ago

Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid (circled, right) playing cards
Only known photograph of Billy the Kid (left) and Sheriff Pat Garrett together.
Sheriff Pat Garrett

by HB Auld, Jr.

On this date, the most famous outlaw in the old West allegedly meets his death at the end of a gun, wielded by one of the most famous sheriffs. Billy the Kid dies when he is shot in a darkened bedroom by Sheriff Pat Garrett on July 14, 1881, 140 years ago today.

On April 1, 1878, Billy the Kid ambushed Sheriff William Brady and a deputy in Lincoln, New Mexico, after ranch owner John Tunstall had been murdered. Sheriff Brady and his men were associated with the gang that allegedly killed Tunstall, Billy the Kid’s employer. Billy’s retaliation against the gang left Brady and Deputy George Hindman dead. At only 18 years old, Billy the Kid had now killed 17 men.

Now a fugitive from justice, Billy killed a few more men, including the gunslinger Joe Grant. It is claimed Billy got hold of Grant’s gun prior to the fight and made sure that an empty chamber was up first in Grant’s revolver. When they both fired, only Billy’s gun went off and Grant was left dead.

“And you can go to hell, hell, hell.”
BILLY THE KID

Sheriff Pat Garrett eventually arrested Billy. The judge sentenced Billy the Kid to hang until “you are dead, dead, dead.” Billy reportedly replied, “And you can go to hell, hell, hell.”

After Billy the Kid once again escaped custody, Garrett mounted another posse to bring him in. After tracing Billy to the Maxwell Ranch, Garrett ambushed Billy and shot him to death in a darkened bedroom, allegedly as Billy the Kid returned home that night.

Down through the ages, conspiracy theorists claimed it was not Billy who was killed that night by Sheriff Garrett, but a Mexican who also lived at the Maxwell Ranch. Legends lived on and claimed Billy escaped and lived out a full, rich, quiet life into the 1900s in Texas.

Amelia Earhart Disappeared 84 Years Ago Today

Guinea Airways employee Alan Board is credited with this photo of the Electra just before leaving the ground on its takeoff from Lae, New Guinea on the morning of July 2, 1937. This is the last known photo of the Earhart Electra.
Amelia Earhart in front of her Lockeed 10-E Electra (NR 16020).
Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan.
Amelia Earhart in a colorized photo as she is pictured on the cover of Mike Campbell’s book: “Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last.”

by HB Auld, Jr., and Mike Campbell

Today is the 84th anniversary of the disappearance of famed American aviatrix Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan. On July 2, 1937, Amelia and Fred took off from Lae, New Guinea, on one of the last legs on their around-the-world flight. Their destination was Howland Island, a tiny speck of land in the Pacific Ocean. From there, the final jump was to be to Hawaii and then on to the California mainland.

Mike Campbell, renown author of three books on the Earhart disappearance, takes up the narrative of the disappearance of Amelia and Fred and her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra (NR 16020):

“July is Amelia Earhart’s month, for those of us who still honor the memory of this great American, and we don’t forget Fred Noonan, Amelia’s intrepid navigator whose sad destiny was inextricably bound to her own.

“Today, July 2, is the 84th anniversary of Earhart and Noonan’s fateful takeoff from Lae, New Guinea in 1937, officially bound for Howland Island, 2,556 miles distant, a tiny speck in the Pacific, never flown before and the most difficult leg of their world-flight attempt. What happened that compelled the fliers to land their Electra 10E off Barre Island at Mili Atoll, about 850 miles to the north-northwest, twenty-some hours later, remains the true mystery in the Earhart disappearance. All else is smoke, mirrors and endless lies.

“No missing-persons case has ever been as misreported and misunderstood.”
— Mike campbell

“No missing-persons case has ever been as misreported and misunderstood. As I’ve said and written countless times, the widely accepted canard that the Earhart disappearance remains among the 20th century’s “greatest mysteries” is a vile, abject lie, the result of eight decades of government-media propaganda aimed at perpetuating public ignorance about the fliers’ wretched ends at the hands of the pre-war Japanese military on Saipan. Considering the lengths to which the U.S. government has gone to obscure, cover-up and deny the truth, it appears this state of affairs will persist until the Last Day. At that time, many will have much to answer for.

“To review some of the anniversary articles posted here in past Julys, please see my 77th anniversary post of June 24, 2014; “July 2, ’17: 80 years of lies in the Earhart ‘Mystery’ ”; or last year’s story, “July 2020: Earhart forgotten amid nation’s chaos.”

“As for any Earhart news, this year is among the quietest in memory — virtually nothing is happening, at least to my knowledge. A pair of pathetic cranks are claiming they’ve found the Earhart plane just off Nikumaroro and have even started a website with strange, inscrutable photos and nonsensical gibberish.

“No one in the mainstream media — or anywhere else — has paid a gnat’s worth of attention to the latest crap, and I won’t dignify this absurd, backhanded swipe at TIGHAR’s 30-plus years of propagandizing and fruitless searching off and on Nikumaroro by linking it here. You certainly don’t need to know about it, but if you insist, you can search under “Road to Amelia Earhart” and you’ll find it unless it’s already been circular filed under “lies no one will believe.” I only mention it because things are so currently comatose in Earhartland, and this latest is more proof that nature abhors a vacuum.

“The below cartoon from the Kansas City Star goes back to early 1994, but its misplaced humor perfectly captures the zeitgeist that’s always defined the Earhart matter. Far from being one of history’s “most perplexing questions,” as an angel explains to a newly arrived soul, the truth about the loss of Amelia Earhart is well-known and one of the most precious sacred cows in the corrupt archives of the U.S. national security apparatus.

“On a rare positive note, Polish author and publisher Sławomir M. Kozak recently informed me about his forthcoming book, Requiem for Amelia Earhart, which will introduce the Polish people to the truth about the Earhart disappearance. Requiem is scheduled for publication on Sept. 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of possibly America’s greatest betrayal, another sacred cow whose truth has eluded as many Americans as the Earhart cover-up, and another subject that the erudite Slawomir has studied closely. His website is www.oficyna-aurora.pl.

On July 24, Marie Castro and the Amelia Earhart Memorial Monument Inc. (AEMMI) will get together on Saipan to celebrate Amelia’s 124th Birthday, and I’ll have photos and comments when that time rolls around.“

To Mike’s post from today’s weblog above I can only add that Mike Campbell’s third book, a best-selling detailed, foot-noted thriller of more than 450 pages with photographs and direct quotes from more than 100 eye witnesses to Amelia and Fred’s final days on Saipan in 1937, is worth the money. Any serious follower of Amelia Earhart and the mystery of her end could do no better than to read: https://www.amazon.com/Amelia-Earhart-Truth-Last-Second/dp/1620066688/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=amelia+earhart+the+truth+at+last&qid=1625238256&sr=8-1

Editor’s Note: Mike Campbell is an award-winning former US Navy Journalist and author who has pursued the mystery of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan’s final flight for more than 30 years. His definitive three books contain the proof of what happened to these two American heroes: proof that has been covered up by the American government for 84 years. You can follow his daily weblog on Amelia Earhart at: https://earharttruth.wordpress.com/2021/07/02/84th-anniversary-of-amelia-earharts-last-flight/comment-page-1/?unapproved=15640&moderation-hash=496d8d2c083aa91573451b6cef1f1243#comment-15640