Ghosts of Arlington Podcast

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here The crew of the SS  Mayaguez is released by the Khmer Rouge, but it was too late to stop the US rescue attempt. Now President Ford wants to full 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 disregar...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here Surgery on Christmas Eve is never fun - unexpected emergency surgery on Christmas Eve is even worse. Listen for more. Happy New Year, everyone! The introduction and transition music heard on the podcast is composed and recorded by the eldest Ghosts of Arlington, Jr. While the rest of his catalogue is quite different from what he's perfo...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here As things get worse on the beaches, we'll look at what was going on with the crew, the ship itself, and the folks back in Washington, DC trying to run the show from there. If you said Ford was probably trying to run the ordeal in the midst of a state dinner for the Dutch prime minister as a joke. Well, I've got some bad news for yo...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here 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...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here 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...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here 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. The Seventh Air Force commander, on the ground in Thailand, tried to include his airmen but that... well, that did not go well. As the second day of the incident dawned in South...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here 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 the city, signaling the defeat of South Vietnam and the reunification of the country by the Northern communists. But those considered the final...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here 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. This weeks Ghosts of Arlington are:  Army Private First Class Alfred Bordeau - Memorial Sect...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here Glenn Miller was only in charge of the Army Air Forces band for a little over a year and a half, but in that time he changed the way people thought about military bands, challenged the way traditional marches were performed, and above all else, went out of his way to bring a little bit of home to US military personnel that were so far away f...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here After several months talking about the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii, this week we return full time to Arlington. For the next two podcasts I will be talking about someone I have wanted to cover for some time. That desire was rekindled when I saw the exhibit on him at the National Museum of the United States Air Force t...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here After representing Hawaii as an officer in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Daniel Inouye went on to serve Hawaii in the US Senate for nearly 50 years, becoming the second-longest serving Senator in that chambers history. During that time, his Distinguished Service Cross from World War II was upgraded to the Medal of Honor. This week's...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here Danny Inouye wanted to be a doctor when he grew up - specifically, he wanted to be a surgeon. When he was a senior in high school he was a Red Cross volunteer. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor he saw the planes flying over Honolulu and rushed to an aid station where he treated civilians injured by falling anti-aircraft shells. As soon...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here A native of Kauai who put his live on the line to serve his country as a member of the 100th Infantry Battalion, and who then dedicated the remainder of his life serving Hawaii, first as a state legislator, then a US representative, and finally a US Senator, Spark Matsunaga earned his epitaph as a Son of Hawaii. Today's Ghosts of the Pa...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here This week we get the first Nisei General Officer in both the Army National Guard and the Army Reserves and a humble Medal of Honor recipient who didn't tell his family about the medal (or his battlefield promotion and two subsequent promotions). This week's Ghosts of Pacific are: 1. Army Brigadier General Francis Shigeo Takemoto -...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here Today's episode covers the lives of eight men named Nakada. The first seven were all brothers who served in the Army in World War II - the most of any family in the United States. The final Nakada, Captain Pershing Nakada, was the senior Nisei officer and only Nisei commander in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. He commanded and along w...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here After losing a leg, two fingers, and the site in one eye, Ken Otagaki tries to return to his life before the war, hopes that his girlfriend will still be there for him, and tries to figure out how to support himself despite his severe injuries. This week's Ghost of Pacific is Army Corporal Dr. Kenneth Kengo Otagaki, Columbarium Court 7,...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here Ken Otagaki grew up poor on a sugar cane plantation on Hawaii's Big Island, but after seeing how oppressed his father was by the overseers, he vowed that he would make his own way in the world and, despite cultural and familial expectations, he would not follow in his father's footsteps. In his early teens he moved by himself to Oa...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here We recently lost another pioneer of the space race so the episode begins with a eulogy for astronaut Bill Anders, who took one of the most famous photographs in history, and ends with the life of Isaac Akinawa, arguably the most respected medic in the 100th Infantry Battalion. This week's Ghosts of the Pacific are: Ambassador & Air...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here Young Oak Park was likely the first (maybe the second) Korean American officer in the US Army and was assigned to the 100th Infantry Battalion in World War II, mainly because the army didn't know where else to put a non-Japanese Asian officer. He distinguished himself with the 100th and when war broke out in Korea, he volunteered to ser...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here Much of what the Nisei linguists did during World War II remained classified for decades after the war. Eventually, their stories came out and as more people learned of their great efforts to defeat the Axis powers, monuments and memorials spring up honoring their service. The Ghosts of the Pacific Theme is Ukulele and Love Birds by emjaydab...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here Recognizing the importance of trained and competent linguists, during World War II, the US Army's Military Intelligence Service trained foreign language speakers to help with the war effort. Many were Japanese speakers and most of those were Nisei. These Nisei were the only Japanese Americans to fight in the Pacific, and according to Do...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here No one believed in them when the unit was first stood up, but after a short time in combat, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team proved their mettle and soon had commanders at the army and corps level negotiating for their service. Because of this, they left Italy for France, saved a cut off battalion, and then came back to Italy to spearhead th...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here Thanks in part to the 100th Infantry Battalion blowing all their doubters's expectations out of the water during their training, FDR and the War Department decided to stand up another segregated Nisei unit - the 442nd Regimental Combat Team - made up of Nisei volunteers from Hawaii and the mainland (most of the 1200 volunteers from the...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here After Pearl Harbor, many Nisei were kicked out of the military. All those that were retained were sent to Hawaii. A few new Japanese Americans were allowed to enlist, but most were deemed as "enemy aliens" by recruiting boards. By 1943, all new Nisei recruits were barred from entry. Those few that had already been stationed in Hawa...

I'd love to hear your thoughts - send me a text here After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, an irrational fear struck the United States that its relativly small population of Japanese immigrants and the native born US citizen children of those immigrants posed a threat to national security. They made up too much of the population on Hawaii to do anything about them but those living on the m...