Ghosts of Arlington Podcast

04/07/2025

Oh beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife
Who more than self, their country loved
And mercy more than life

Washington, DC fireworks over Section 68, July 4, 2006 (photo credit: Dave Black Photography)

20/01/2025

This week we finally see the end of the Mayaguez Incident play out but not before a chaotic evacuation casuses Marines to be abandoned and left behind on the battlefield. An incidnet that still causes embarrassment today.

https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com/2025/01/episode-147-mayaguez-incident-last.html

In the years following the Mayaguez Incident, several memorials have popped up. As is was considered the final combat action of the Vietnam ...

13/01/2025

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 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?

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...

02/01/2025

Today's return trip to the ER almost certainly means no new episode next Monday either. Happy New Year all the same!

25/12/2024

Well, next week's episode will probably be delayed. An emergency appendectomy will do that. Not how I envisioned my Christmas eve but at least they're saying I should go home today. Merry Christmas!

16/12/2024

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 and her crew. https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com/2024/12/episode-144-mayaguez-incident-last.html

09/12/2024

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. https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com/2024/12/episode-143-mayaguez-incident-last.html

07/12/2024

Remember Pearl Harbor

Sunken USS Arizona (BB-39) at Pearl Harbor

02/12/2024

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; a helicopter crashed and resulted in the first 23 casualties of the incident. https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com/2024/12/episode-142-mayaguez-incident-last.html

25/11/2024

Sorry for the delay - today's episode is back up. Hopefully its the correct file this time. Full disclosure, I won't have a chance to listen to it utill tomorrow morning to verify so if not, I guess enjoy the behind-the-scenes look at how often I can mess up the same word over and over during a single recording session! 😄

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25/11/2024

Ugh... apologies, but today's podcast has been delayed. Somehow the raw audio file was posted rather than the edited one so I will fix that when I get off work. If you're someone who has the podcast set to auto-download, you'll want to erase the copy you have and download the file that will be posted this evening.

25/11/2024

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 died the following month in neighboring Cambodia fighting soldiers loyal to the , 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.

https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com/2024/11/episode-141-mayaguez-incident-last.html