"Looks like this is it, son”
By streiff Posted in Breaking News — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
There were giants in the earth in those days…
More than half a century after he died in the flaming crash of a CIA-owned cargo plane and became one of the first two Americans to die in combat in Vietnam, a legendary soldier of fortune known as “Earthquake McGoon” is finally coming home.
The skeletal remains of James B. McGovern Jr., discovered in an unmarked grave in remote northern Laos in 2002, were positively identified on Sept. 11 by laboratory experts at the U.S. military’s Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii.
Read on.
James B. “Earthquake McGoon” McGovern was a legend in an era of legends.
Over 6-feet tall and weighing in at over 260-lbs it must have been a laff riot watching him shoehorn himself into a P-40 cockpit. He scored 9 victories in the China-Burma-India Theater with Claire Lee Chennault’s 14th Air Force (scroll to the bottom of the link for a photo of 2LT McGovern).
He was a hard drinking, hard living man’s man who left an impression wherever he went. He probably wouldn’t have made it very far in a peacetime military but was bitten by the adventure bug. When Chennault started his “Civil Air Transport” airline to support Chiang Kai-shek in his battle with the communists and during his exile in Taiwan, McGovern was one of the first employees. During one foray he ran out of fuel behind communist lines and was captured. He returned to work six months later having talked his way out of captivity and probably leaving a trail of stories that still amuse Chinese peasants. His colleagues said they let him go because they couldn’t afford to keep feeding him.
Inevitably, McGovern gravitated to Indo-China where CAT was providing plausibly deniable aerial resupply operations on behalf of the US government to the French forces at Dien Bien Phu.
On May 4, 1954 Earthquake McGoon was at the controls of a Fairchild C-119 “Flying Boxcar” with co-pilot Wallace Buford when it was hit by groundfire. His last transmission was
"Looks like this is it, son”
The wreckage of his aircraft was discovered and excavated in 2002 and his remains have now been positively identified.
Earthquake McGoon has returned home to Basking Ridge, NJ. Aged 32.
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"Looks like this is it, son” 5 Comments (0 topical, 5 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
Proud to be: politically incorrect, straight, white, pro-life Christian, and of the opinion the spotted owl tastes just like chicken.
this I want my sons reading about in history.
"Peace had a chance"
In my home library about Patton, Ike, Lee, "Stonewall" Jackson, Alexander the Great and others like them. Though this does make me think that perhaps I have forgotten the "little" guys from whose ranks these greats rose.
"Always be honest with yourself even if you are honest with no one else...
...It helps you keep track of your lies..."
--Myself
There is a good article in the latest Smithsonian about the search for "Bat" Masterson's remains in Laos.
A giant among giants, in an age when men could still embrace what it was that made them who they were.
In an age of depressed masculinity, enforced conformity, and the feminization of society, a man like Earthquake Magoon just wouldn't be allowed any more; he'd likely be party to a parent-filed lawsuit against McDonalds for his size and on a bottle of Ritalin a day for his energy and wit before the age of ten.
Bemoan the loss of these heroes, and remember what it is that made them great -- and try to embrace that potential in others today, rather than stifling it in the name of conformity and political correctness.
RIP, Earthquake Magoon, and welcome home.