486 - Take These From Me

On today’s episode, Karen covers United Airlines Flight 232 and Georgia tells the story of World War II hero dog Smoky.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hellllo, Hello, welcome to my favorite murder. That's Georgia Hardstark,
that's Karen Kilgara.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
We're going to do this thing.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
We're going to do this thing despite all the things.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Despite it, all the reasons not to, and there are
now hundreds.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hundreds and hundreds. I mean, it just keeps getting hundred er.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
We're doing it anyway. Yes, keep thinking about a video
I saw on TikTok. A woman was pulled over by
four ice agents, and we can go ahead and put
that in quotes because now they've realized that a lot
of them are not real ice agents. There's four men
standing around in a woman and it's like in the
parking lot of a car wash looking thing, and this

(00:57):
person in a white car just pulls in real quick.
The woman runs over, she jumps in the backseat, and
they drive away and they basically save this woman from
being kidnapped. And it is the kind of shit that
these smaller communities and neighborhoods all around Los Angeles are
starting to do. They're organized, they're communicating, they're getting out

(01:18):
to their people. It's really incredible and it's so on
my mind all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
I know, I'm so fucking proud of our city and
like everyone showing up and giving, and it's just it's
just like all you can do because you feel powerless.
It's impossible not to feel powerless.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
I think the thing they underestimated is that basically everyone
has a family member in some way, shape or form,
however you want to define that that could be affected
by random kidnappings of we decided you don't belong here
because of how you look or what your last name
might be. So you're going to go, and the rest
of Los Angeles is like, no, you're fucking not. Yeah,

(01:57):
you're not. What a time to live in?

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Truly.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
On our social media, you can go and look and
see we posted nonprofits to donate to, ways you can act,
tips on if you see things happening, if you're living
in this area, or if it's happening in your area,
because now it's happening in lots of places.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
It definitely is.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
So Yeah, I know that's the vibe. But also, how
do you not talk about it?

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah? For sure, we've.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Gone past the pail once again.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
How were we just living this? Didn't we do this
in twenty sixteen when we started this podcast. Yes, I
can't believe when what we would have said, if it's
like someone had told us, like it's going to be
the same and worse.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
You know, it's going to be the worst in the
way that like the quote unquote overreacting people said it
was going to and everyone else's like, down, you don't
And that's a lot of that, you know, you get
a lot of that internet troll bought bullshit where it's
like that's not even hope, and it's like, that's not
how it was happening to you.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
And I don't want to be a martyr. You and
I are two white ladies with means and opportunity, so
it's not affecting us the way it is other people.
So I don't want to act like that.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
But talking about it is not acting like that. We're
not saying it's happening.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
We're just us pointing it out and we're aware.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Of it, and fucking let's all do something. Let's all
do individual galvanized community shit so that we all stand
up and say, which is what everyone did at the
No King's protests totally.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
I have a true crime related suggestion or what's it
called when you suggest something recommendation? Thank you.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
You're welcome.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
So it's a book, it's a memoir that I love.
It's so murdery. Now it's so good. However, halfway through
over the weekend, I had to hand it to Vince
and say, take this away from me, like my anxiety
is so it's like, oh, so, I like, I feel
I want to recommend it because it's great with that caveat.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yes that that Please remember the part of the quote
unquote enjoyment when you are a consumer of true crime
is that you're spiking your cortisol, get your getting your
nervous system worked up for your own reasons. You get
to do that if you want to totally, and you
also get to dip out of it when you want.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
To dip out when you need to have a hot
dog and watch Detroit's.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Like, oh my, just there's a clip that's going around
from Detroitter's one of my favorites where Tim Robertson is
yelling at the lady who she goes, hey, don't use
that language. She says something because there's a little kid
next door, and he goes, tell your husband to back off,
and then he leans down and she's like, oh, dude,

(04:35):
that's my son and don't whatever, and he leans down
starts yelling at him, and the kid just slaps him
across the face. It's like one of the funniest It's
so obseries things. It's so great.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
It's like it takes place in reality, except everything is absurd,
which is just amazing, delightful, delightful. Okay, So the book
is called Working Stiff and it's a memoir of a
medical examiner. Yeah, did you see it.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
I've heard of this book, but I've never had the
guts to read it.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah. So it's literally the guts you need guts because
they talk about guts. And it's by this amazing doctor,
Judy Melanick, MD, who worked as a medical examiner doing
autopsies in NYC in Manhattan, and she started in like
the year two thousand and So the first half of
the book is just like the experience of autopsies and

(05:24):
unexplained deaths and how it's just like really fascinating stuff
that I think people like me are interested in, Like
if you read Mary Roach's Stiff, this is like that.
But then the second half it's the year two thousand
or so in Manhattan. Yeah, guess what happens and guess
what she has to be the medical examiner for for
Just Night at nine to eleven. So the tagline is

(05:48):
two years, two hundred and sixty two Bodies and the
Making of a Medical Examiner. And you know, it's this
awesome woman, Judy Melanich. So I highly recommend it, but
I highly recommend a beta blocker.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
I mean, you truly have to just know what you're
going into. And it's like the story around nine to eleven,
people's individual stories, I mean, what's more fascinating but also
the most stressful. And then at a time like this
where everybody feels very vulnerable, worried, constantly exposed, it's like, yeah,
watch the content choices.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, between the news and reading that, I was like,
put it down for a minute, spend some time with Vince,
Like you gotta be in the world. Yeah, be in
the world. So I handed it to him and I'm like,
I don't want you to never give this back to me,
but please take it right now. It's like the same
thing when you're eating like box of oreos. Take these
from me, yes, because I can't control myself.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
And when I attack you like a rabbit raccoon to
get them back, fight me. I'm just asking you to
be in its relationship.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, like fight me to a point, you know, and.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
Then take me out to dinner. Right. I did that.
I went into the real world and I went up
for Nora's graduation party.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, and it was lovely and it was like I
got to see a bunch of my cousins and my
family and it was just a hang at my aunt
Jean's house and it was really lovely and it was
real fast. I just had to go and come back kind.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Of in your Hyundai on five.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
In my that's how deep the advertising is going is.
I just was not just seating it. No, that was
a freebie.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Okay, I need to turn my air conditioning on. I'm
having a hot flash.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
I was on my drive back positive that the seat
heater was on in my car, checked it literally six
times and there was like no holyous middle aged.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
I mean, someday I'll talk about my lose weight quick
scam that I did last week. I lost three pounds
overnight by getting a simple hysterectomy.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Oh, oh my god.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
It's flat.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
You are true fits inspiration art. What are they called
finn spokespah.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, follow me for more advice.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
Georgia, how was it not bad?

Speaker 1 (08:08):
So I want to talk about it because it wasn't
bad and I don't know. I know one person who's.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Had it and I couple.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, So I mean it's interesting. It's really interesting.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Get finn quick, lose three pounds in two days overnight, man,
major surgery, get some great drugs, eat a lot of
uncrustables like boom. Were you scared? Yes?

Speaker 1 (08:29):
I was terrified.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah. Was it your first surgery?

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah? And it's also weird to be like I turned
forty five and then the same week, so it just
like felt like an old lady thing. Yeah. And it's
also weird to put a period at the end of
are you ever going to have a baby one day
and it's like, yeah, it's not your cute decision anymore,
and you take a stance it's no.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
So or biologically at least, you know.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yes completely, that's an adjustment.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, So it's interesting.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
It's a big adjustment.

Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
What if this whole time it was just your you know,
uterus that was or whatever the actual part is that's
causing all the problems, and now you're just like mean,
I mean, yeah, you can sleep.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Well, we're gonna talk about it in our next memoir.
So okay, called Don't Get Murdered and Stay Sexy.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
It's called hysterect me time with Karen and.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
George Hys direct to me, Hys direct to you.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
Right, we'll pitch it out. We'll figure it out before
the book comes out, guys, we promise. Yeah. Oh wait,
can I read you a fun email? The subject line
is my grandma drove an ambulance in World War Two,
which is connected to the Rochamp Belle story that I did,
which was the Bonuses Again, sorry, but Hyundai sponsored.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
We get really excited when people like us.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
We like it when people believe in us. Who doesn't?
So this email goes hi. Friends. Let me preface this
by saying that what my grandmother did is very different
and far less dangerous than the Rochamp Belle's So I'm
not trying to say it's the same thing, just trying
to highlight the ways in which women's support is frequently unspoken.
My grandmother was a teenager on Long Island, New York
during World War Two, but wanted to do her part

(10:05):
when planes carrying wounded soldiers from Europe arrived at the
airfield on Long Island. My grandmother drove ambulances to take
the soldiers from the airfield to the hospital.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
Wow as a teenager.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
As a teenager. And then they say not dangerous, but
still an essential service. My grandmother, Barbara, called Bobby by
her friends, just turned ninety eight this month, and her
memory's pretty bad, so's mine. Let's not be judgmental. So
this is my reminder to ask your grandparents for their stories.
Totally stay sexy and do what you can.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Abby, Abby, what a perfect letter for this tough opening.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
I mean right to get us back up on the
on level ground. Bobby, Well, we're not friends with her, Barbara,
Happy birthday. Thank you for your service. Thank you for
your bravery. It is brave to give service in any way,
shape or form, So thank you for that.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Do what you can. I love it, and.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Sorry for all the swearing. I'm sure Bobby's pissed about it.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
I like those girls, but the square word girls.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
And then she just pulls a Kleenex out of her sweater.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Staff. All right, so shl we do some exactly right
corner stuff.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
We have a podcast network called exactly right if you
can believe it. Here's some highlights this week.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Go over on Buried Bones Kate and Paul head to
nineteen thirty one, England, where a hayfield fire leads to
this discovery of a young college student's body and a
legendary investigator steps in. Is it? Sherlock calms no, he's
not real, stop it.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
And over on Bananas Fucking Kristin Shall love her. I mean,
she joins Kurt and Scottie to talk about how scientists
taught monkeys to use money and the monkeys immediately turn
two lives of crime.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
So legendary. You can now watch this episode on our
YouTube page at YouTube dot com slash exactly right Media.
It's the first Bananas podcast video that they're doing. Will
there be more? Be nice to them and maybe they
will make more.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
I'm so glad. All of those faces are beautiful faces
that you're gonna want to see.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Kristin Schall is on every single TV show I watch.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
I know, it's incredible.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
I just think about it all the time where I'm
just like, she's just nailing it to left, right and
center totally.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
And on Dear Movies, I Love You, Millie and Casey
dive into the nineties camp movies and the nineteen ninety
five classic heavyweights.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
Of Classic Truly. Also, we recently announced our new podcast,
trust Me, which is about cults, extreme belief and the
abuse of power, has officially joined us here at the
Exactly Right Network. So to celebrate, we are going to
re release some fan favorite episodes of THEIRS every Wednesday
leading up to their network premiere on July thirtieth.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
This is huge for us. We're so excited about this.
This week's favorite episode of trust Me features Hoyt Richards,
who's a former supermodel who was recruited into the Eternal
Values cult and how Fabio was involved in his recovery.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yes, that Fabio. That's trust in the face on a broller, Fabio.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
That's trust Me. Please follow wherever you listen to podcasts.
It's like really helpful to them and to us, and
we appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, support that new show. Also, speaking of Colts, hey,
you can join our fan cults. We now offer ad
free episodes of this show, My Favorite Murder and weekly
bonus audio and video. Plus you can get access to
our discord, which is what all the kids love to
hang out on.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
And talk it on. Check it out at fancult dot
supercast dot com.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
All right, okay, I go first this week or you
it's you, it's me.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
I can tell now who goes first, just based on
what kind of story I have, you know.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks Molly, our producer, Molly Smith.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
I'm gonna get comfy.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Okay. Please. Do you have heard me talk about this
story before? It was just long ago. The reason I
know about it is from the television show I Survived. Yeah,
but a listener named Alana this story into us because
it's her hometown, and so Maren did all her research
and wrote this up for us, so I get to

(14:09):
retell it to you now. It begins on July nineteenth,
nineteen eighty nine, and United flight two thirty two out
of Denver, Colorado is headed for Chicago. No, yeah, oh
you know what good point? If you are about.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
To fly, Are you on a plane? Do you listen
to this on plane?

Speaker 2 (14:26):
If you're on the plane, please press stop. If you
are in the security line, go ahead and take those
airbuds go home. Well, you're fine because I talk about it.
Maren does some nice research in the end about how
rare anything like this is totally but this is one
of those stories that will bum you out eternally if
you don't shepherd it into your brain correctly.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
It's like that book, Take a bita blocker.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
That's right. Careful, careful, careful. So there are two hundred
and ninety six people on board this plane, including passengers
and crew. One of them is a twenty a nine
year old man named Jerry Shemmel. Jerry is a deputy
commissioner of the now defunct Continental Basketball Association, or the CBA,
and he set it to Chicago for the league's draft.

(15:12):
Marion notes the CBA was essentially the minor leagues for
men's professional basketball in the US. Good to know, so
you can put that into your basketball scrap book. Jerry
was originally booked on an earlier flight. He got bumped
off that flight, and he was rebooked on flight two
thirty two, which takes off around one o'clock local time.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Do you do the thing where when you get bumped
it's like, either the one I didn't take or the
one I'm gonna take is the one that's gonna crash.
I hope it's I don't hope it's the one I
didn't take. I mean, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
I think our brains are wired to do like sliding doors. Okay,
what does this mean for my future?

Speaker 1 (15:47):
Blankly? It makes sense to thinks. Okay. Yes.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
I also had a procedure done recently, and right before
I went under, I was kind of waiting out outstay,
you know, I was just sitting there waiting for them
to take me in, and someone opened a door and
there was just this waft of like kind of summertime
hey smell, and I was like, oh, I'm definitely gonna die.
I'm gonna die.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
On the table. Why because there's Hay in the surgery room.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
Just because it felt like very Oh, this is what
my childhood is felt like out in the country and pedaluma,
which is like, why am I smelling this right now?

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Memories are popping up and this neuron's cause they're dying.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
Well because I'm being so vain by getting plastic surgery essentially,
where I'm like, I'm dying on this table today.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
I know what you mean. It's like if I get
because I've had stuff done, I've never put under, but like, yeah,
You're like, no one's going to feel bad for me, there's.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
No empathy for the lady was like, can you tighten
my neck place? It's like, yeah, it's okay, sorry everybody.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Let's you're gonna get the real you get the real
info here on my favorite murder.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
Look, we got to say it. There's only one chance
to say it, and it's right now. That's how we've
lived our lives. Okay, So Jerry Shummel take his seat
and he begins to unwind on this what's supposed to
be a very easy two hour flight to Chicago. This
is a DC ten aircraft, which is sometimes called a
trijet because it has three engines, two on either side

(17:12):
of the plane under the wings, and then one in
the back on the tail. DC tens are no longer
used in commercial flying f Y, so this particular DC
ten has made nearly seventeen thousand successful flights over its
eighteen year lifetime, and the pilot that's flying it today
is just as experienced. Fifty seven year old Captain Al

(17:34):
Haines has more than thirty years of flying under his belt.
So this is very just workaday, very normal. Here we go.
It's a commute, two hour commute flight. About an hour
into this flight, the plane's cruising along at thirty seven
thousand feet in the air over northwest Iowa. Jerry's just
been served lunch, which is a basket of chicken fingers, coleslaw,

(17:56):
and as you mentioned earlier, Oreo cookies. Oh my god,
how closey coming in right the snack of the late eighties.
But then Jerry and everyone else in the cabin, here's
a sudden, deafening boom ripped through the DC ten. The
plane and everyone on it starts violently shaking. This probably

(18:20):
lasts around five to six seconds, but of course to
everyone on the plane, it feels like an eternity, and
like everyone else on board, Jerry is immediately gripped by
pure terror. He assumes it's a terrace bomb that was
hidden in the cargo hold, and he will later describe
the chaotic scene around him, saying, quote, I heard a
lot of screaming. There were plates and dishes and silverware

(18:42):
being tossed around because of the drop, and people on
their feet, including fight attendants, lost their balance, so it's
not just shaking. But then the plane itself drops. Then
Jerry realizes he might be about to die. Yeah again,
stop this podcast now if you're just chilling on a plane,
thinking that you're you're going to do it all. So

(19:05):
these are the very first moments in what will soon
be considered one of the worst air disasters in US
history and one of commercial aviation's most extraordinary stories of skill, teamwork,
and heroism. This is the story of United Airlines Flight
two thirty two.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
I don't know this one, and I'm assuming they survived
in Hazah. That's really great.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
So there was a special episode of I Survive that
aired in two thousand and nine, which I was talking
about earlier, and that's one of the sources. Mare in US.
She also used a twenty twenty one Medium article by
Kira Dempsey entitled Fields of Fortune the Crash of United
Airlines Flight two thirty two, And there was a twenty
seventeen Popular Mechanics article written by Lawrence Gonzalez entitled the

(19:49):
Crash of United Airlines Flight two thirty two. The rest
of the sources are in our show notes and that
episode of I Survived. Normally they do three different people,
three different crimes. This is like a actual episode where
all the people on it are people who survive this crash.
So we're mid flight, we just heard this explosion, and
after five seconds, the plane finally stops shaking. So there's

(20:11):
eight flight attendants on this flight, and the lead flight
attendant is a woman named Jan Brown. And here's something
Jan will later say about this moment of the explosion. Quote,
all eyes are on flight attendants when something happens, to
see how we're reacting, so the passengers know how to
react themselves.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
Yes, I'm always doing that. She seems cool. She cool,
she's cool. Oh.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
They deal with this all the time. And that is
kind of like. There are people in life like that too,
where it's just like the kind of people are just
like it's fine, that's completely My sister friend Adrian, it's
just like, yeah, this is they did. This happens sometimes
when the blah blah blah, and it's like, just give
me anything, and I will be on that level totally.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
But if someone says freaking out, then there's a problem.
If Dad's freaking out, then.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Oh then it's impossible not to right. Okay. So here's
Jan's quote. All on flight attendants when something happens, to
see how we are reacting, so the passengers know how
to react themselves. I always had a poker face like
there's absolutely nothing wrong, because priority is to maintain calm
of the passengers. I just went back to picking up

(21:15):
trays as if nothing happened. Jan Brown, Okay. So meanwhile
in the cockpit, Captain Al Haynes, his forty eight year
old co pilot Bill Records, and fifty one year old
flight engineer Dudley Dvorak are still trying to process what
just happened when they feel the DC ten start to
tip toward the right like it's about to roll over.

(21:36):
If that happens, the plane will almost certainly spiral down
to the Earth and crash. You can't let a plane
go any one direction too far right, and I say
that as an aeronautical engineer. So co pilot Bill Records
instinctively grabs the yoke, which is the plane steering wheel.

(21:57):
So yoke is steering wheel and throttle is gas pedal.
Bill Records grabs the yoke and he pulls hard to
the left to basically balance out that right tilt. At
the same time, Captain Hayes is realizing what's going on.
It has nothing to do with the bomb. This is
not an act of terrorism. Basically, there's been a major
equipment malfunction, and he can only guess what it could be.

(22:20):
Much later, they'll learn that something called the fan blade,
which does not seem like it should be on a plane.
It seems like it should be on like the fan
over your stove when things are smoky, But they're on planes,
and this one broke off at the back of the plane.
So what Captain Hayes does know now is that the
engine in the tail of the plane has failed, so

(22:41):
they're down one engine. Of course that's not ideal, but
the DC tends two remaining engines are fully capable of
picking up the slack. It's the issue with the yoke
that is a real problem, obviously. So flight Engineer Dudley
radios to the nearest air traffic controller to let them
know what's happening, while Captain Haynes goes down his emergency

(23:03):
checklist of what to do following sudden engine failure. And
this is where a bad but manageable situation turns catastrophic.
Because the DC ten is uncontrollably banking to the right
and threatening to roll over. Suddenly, the yoke stops working,
so copilot records can't level out the plane. This is

(23:23):
not something anyone's trained for, but instinctively records abandons the
yoke and pushes the throttle for the left side engine,
and this sudden boost of power on the left side
counteracts the tilt to the right, so he can't steer
it back, so he basically gases it up.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Over here double time on this side.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
Yeah, right, which is he just did it, like, okay,
maybe this will work. So nothing is responding on the
plane on any of the inputs or commands on Captain
Haynes's emergency checklist. Not good. Then, as Dudley watches the
planes gauges, he sees the ones that monitor the hydraulic
system drop to zero, just all of a sudden, all

(24:06):
those needles go down. So, as you can guess, the
hydraulic system on a plane is extremely important. It powers
a bunch of the controls that allow the pilot to
adjust the plane's direction and altitude, that lower the landing gear,
operate the brakes, like all the vital things. So it
turns out that that explosion that happened sent hot metal shards,

(24:27):
so it's like the fan blade breaks, hot metal shards
from the broken fan blade like are shot through the
back of the plane. And they rip through the aircraft's
hydraulic lines. So it takes about a minute or two
for those the fluid to leak out of those hydraulic lines,
and once that happens, the whole system goes down. Got it,

(24:47):
So the yoke doesn't work and all the gauges drop
to zero and basically losing a plane's hydraulic system is
beyond a worst case scenario. The cockpit crew, who are
very very experienced pilots and remembers, have never trained for it.
Because no one has ever trained for it, flying a
DC ten with no hydraulic system is not thought to

(25:08):
be survivable.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Holy shit.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
Captain Haynes will later say, quote, if you do not
have hydraulics, you absolutely have no control. You might as
well just take the control column and throw it out
the window. A billion to one worthy odds that this
would happen. Wuck okay. So here's what's weird or faithful.
An off duty United pilot named Captain Denny Fitch happens

(25:32):
to also be a passenger on this flight. Like everyone
else on board, he knows something's up, so he basically
goes up and asks if he can go into the
cockpit because it turns out Captain Fitch is an expert
on flying DC tens. He actually is a pilot who
trains other pilots on how to fly a DC ten.

(25:53):
So he goes up, he offers his help, and normally
rank and title dominate the very regimented, hierarchical field of aviation.
Obviously cockpits. They don't just take people who come up
and are like, hey, how would I get in here
and give you my two cents? But in this moment,
Captain Haynes and his crew welcome the stranger's help without hesitation.

(26:14):
They put their egos aside, and they focus on the
emergency at hand because, and they describe it in the
I Survived episode, essentially, they I think they wrapped a
belt around the broken yoke so that they keep that
tipping wing up and they're just doing it fully by
physical force. And they're however, probably thirty thousand feet in

(26:35):
the air. So now with the controls no longer an
option to use, this crew decides their best chance of
survival is the one thing they do still have, which
is the plane's remaining engine power. So the throttles are
being used to keep the plane level and they're going
to be used to maneuver the DC ten as best
they can. So this is the most simplistic explainer that

(26:58):
Maren wrote for me, which is when the crew fires
the throttles, the two engines that are left get a
power boost, causing the front of the plane to lift
slightly right, so like you're taking off. When they let
off the throttles, the plane's nose dips downward and then
begins in a descent. When they fire the throttle on

(27:19):
one side engine, then it turns the plane in the
opposite direction and vice versa. So basically, because the plane
is still tilting to the right, if they want to
go right, they just stop pulling it as much to
the left. So they basically are using the gas pedal
as a big steering wheel because there's no steering wheel,

(27:40):
so they just improvise this new way of steering. It's
never been done before as far as anyone knows. It's
extremely risky because not gassing the engines enough could result
in a nose dive, and once they start to go down,
the plane could flip over itself. So they're basically just
doing everything they can to keep the nose level. Captain

(28:03):
Fitch and co pilot records are focusing on the throttles,
while Captain Haynes and Engineer Dudley are frantically making calls
to get guidance from someone on the ground. But no one,
not United's maintenance team, their emergency Response center, or the
plane's manufacturers know what to do or what to tell
these men cool. The harsh reality is that this uncontrollable

(28:26):
DC ten is going to end up on the ground
one way or the other. So Captain Haynes and his
crew are fighting like hell to control that landing so
that the hundreds of people on board have a chance
of getting out alive. It's now four minutes after the blast,
and the captain calls head flight Attendant Jan Brown into
the cockpit and he tells her to prepare the passengers

(28:49):
for a crash landing. Jan will later say quote, it
was just hanging in the air that this was the
worst possible crisis. I could feel it. It just hit
me full force when I open the door. I remember
distinctly thinking we're at thirty seven thousand feet and the
possibility is we could go straight down. It was pure terror.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yeah, like that's it.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
Yeah, But Jan maintains her composure and her poker face
as she exits the cockpit and she walks down the
aisle to go inform her team that that's the situation
they're in. And as she does this, Captain Haynes comes
over the PA system and he tells all the passengers quote,
I'm not going to kid anybody. This is going to
be bad. We need to prepare for crash landing. No,

(29:32):
the fucking pilot says those words. They don't even say
that shit, we'll do that.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
This is not a like an April fool's jokes that
they pull every year.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
This is that's not their style. They're very serious about
this shit. I'm not going to kid anybody.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
Actually, can you kid me? Please?

Speaker 2 (29:49):
Could you? I'm fine with delusion, fine with it. With that,
Jan and the other flight attendants kick into gear. They
go around and they urge every passenger to remain calm,
and they teach them all how to get into what
they call a bracing position, to get ready to do
that when the pilot instructs them to do so. And so,
a bracing position is you folding your upper body as

(30:11):
far forward as you can, like you're going to put
your head between your knees essentially, and you grab your
ankles and that's like your best survival position in this situation.
So this is about as bad as it can be.
But it does get worse because United has been running
a promotion where kids plane tickets cost a penny. No,

(30:31):
so there's lots of children on the side, fuck, including
four infants what they call lap infants, which means they
don't have assigned seats because their parents are holding them
because they're so small.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
So, as the safety protocol of that time dictates, Jan
Brown must now instruct those parents to put their babies
on the floor during this emergency landing.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
Holy shit.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
She later says, quote I thought to myself, Jan, I
can't believe you're telling parents to put their.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
Most prized possession on the floor. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
When Jan talks about this moment in their episode of
I Survived, it is the most heartbreaking thing. It is
so scary, and it is what protocol dictated at the time.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Just her job to tell them this is your best
chance of having your baby surviced.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
It's impossible sounding.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
Yeah. So meanwhile, up in the cockpit with all the
DC tens down, controls and busted tail engine. I love
when Maren uses a word like busted. It's just fucking busted.
Everything's still being controlled by the throttles. Captain Haynes, Captain Fitch,
and the two other crew members are constantly communicating with
each other and working together to keep the plane level

(31:43):
and basically moving forward. At this point, Flight two thirty
two is now somewhere in the sky over Sioux City, Iowa,
and Captain Haynes is starting to feel hopeful that his
crew can use the throttles to descend enough and make
a landing. He knows it will be a herculean task,
but the Sioux City airport is not that far off

(32:03):
of the plane's current flight path. Captain Haynes will later say, quote,
we went to Sioux City because that's where the airplane went.
We didn't have enough control to put it down in
any place in particular. We just had to keep going
until we got to the ground. The idea was to
keep it in the air, hoping we could make it
to the airport because there are facilities there, There are
emergency vehicles there, and there's a hospital there. So now

(32:27):
Captain Fitch takes over the throttles, while the other three
men try to prepare as best they can. They're coordinating
with Sioux City controllers and emergency services. They start dumping
fuel to lighten the aircraft, and they manually open the
landing gear's door, which you can do from the cockpit,
so that gravity basically pulls down the landing gear because

(32:48):
hydraulics won't do it. God Captain Haynes later says, quote,
they say your life flashes before your eyes. But we
never thought we were going to die. We didn't think
we were going to crash. We thought, if we can
just get this to the ground, keep it flying, will
be okay. We were so busy, you don't have time
to think about anything else.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yeah, it's like what else. You're not going to panic
and give up. You just do whatever you can problem.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
Yeah, you keep on working toward a solution, and you
just keep fighting in especially in that situation. So in
the main cabin, of course, there's this eerie feeling, which
passenger Jerry Shemmel later speaks about. He's the guy that
got rebooked onto this play, and he describes it as
quote a controlled panic. You could hear people crying, you

(33:35):
could hear some people crying out loudly, but for the
most part people kept calm. I think we were all
just trying to figure out how we were going to
survive this thing. And then he adds we were probably
as ready as we could be for a crash landing,
and we knew it was going to be that. Captain
Haynes told us over and over, we're in trouble or
we don't have any control of this plane. You've got

(33:57):
to be ready. You've got to listen flight attendants, you've
got to know what you're doing. Shit. I mean, that's
so offscript from anything you've ever heard a pilot say
over the loudspeaker. It's just must have been so horrifying. Sorry,
we're still in the quote. We knew we were going
to crash. I think by the end it was like,

(34:17):
let's get this thing over with, let's go because just attention. Yeah. So,
now the runway at the Sioux City Airport comes into view.
Captain Fitch, on the throttles, easily sends the plane into
a wide right word turn, and then as it circles
back around, Captain Haynes is hoping he can get the
plane lined up as closely as possible to a runway.

(34:40):
This is an extremely difficult task. They make several attempts.
They do three huge loops. It takes about forty five
minutes of trying and looping back around and trying to
get closer and closer. The captain finally feels ready to
make an attempt to land on the tarmac. And this
is when Captain Fitch tells Captain Haynes, quote, I'll tell

(35:01):
you what. We'll have a beer when all this is done.
And Captain Haynes responds, quote, well I don't drink, bill,
Sure as hell have one. So they begin their descent.
When the DC ten is about one hundred feet off
the ground, Captain Fitch is thinking this quote, your attitude
is I will do this. I will do it. I
will not accept failure. I will not accept anything less

(35:23):
than the best, even if I die. That's the way
I'm going to die.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Right, That makes sense.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
So as hard as they try, the crew simply cannot
slow this plane down enough. Because they can be lined up,
they can, you know, all those things can be come together.
But they are going two hundred and seventy miles an hour,
and that's twice as fast as any plane normally landing
would be going. So they're not slowed down right, They

(35:50):
have no controls, so they overshoot the airport, and then
as they're coming down they're so close to the ground,
out of nowhere, the right wing drops out and the
DC ten nose dives and the plane smashes into They're
now over a cornfield. They've overshot the airport. They're over
a cornfield, and they just smashed straight into the cornfield.

(36:13):
Passenger Jerry Shemmel, who is in the bracing position, will
later say quote, it wasn't a crash landing. It was
us dropping out of the sky and slamming into the earth. Dude,
for all the thoughts I had about what it was
going to be like, I wasn't ready for that. I thought,
all right, a crash landing is a crash, but it's
a landing. Ours felt like we just dropped out of

(36:34):
the sky.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
Jesus.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
So immediately after initial impact, Jerry feels the DC ten
bounce a few times. It almost seems like the plane
is about to take back off again, but instead the
nose turns downward, the tail comes up, and the plane
begins flipping forward over and over so it basically is
in this like these forward cartwheel kind of moves.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
Holy shit, can't you imagine seeing that, just standing there
saying a fucking jet plane cartwheeling.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
You know who did was the local news who had
heard that it was this emergency landing was happening, and
they were posted up that you can watch it yourself.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
I don't want there's footage, Yeah I wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
I wouldn't at all, but if that's something that is
what you need, you can watch it. And it's very
very upsetting. So this airplane smashes into five pieces, and
the pieces scatter and they are buried into the ground
among seven foot tall stalks of corn, which is very surreal.

(37:36):
Some of the pieces skid for nearly a mile before
they erupt into flames. Air traffic controllers who had just
been speaking with the cockpit crew turn away from the
site because they believe they've just witnessed the deaths of
everyone on board, and as I say, local news crews
capture the disaster on film in real time. Jerry Shemmel

(37:57):
and the head flight attendant Jan Brown are in the
middle set of the plane, which when it flips over,
drills down so deeply into the cornfield that no daylight
is visible outside of the windows, so it kind of
goes down into the ground, almost like a pencil.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Yeah, and that's the front in the middle.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
They believe her. In the middle, they're basically in the
first half of the main cabin, and in front of
them was first class. And then the cockpit passed that.

Speaker 1 (38:27):
Okay, got it.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
So now everyone in this part of the plane is
hanging upside down in their seats. The only thing providing
any light is fire. Jesus Jerry describes this hellish scene, saying, quote,
people were thrown all about the cabin, some still strapped
in their chairs, some thrown from their chairs. They were
out of their seats, whether their seatbelts had given out

(38:49):
or the rivets in the chairs had given Then the
debris and the smoke and the fire at the same time,
jan Brown blacks out, and when she comes to, she
doesn't know she's alive or dead, but she will later
say quote, I realized, oh my god, I'm still thinking.
And then I thought, if I'm thinking, I'm still alive,
the job just kicked in. Right after that, I heard

(39:10):
someone behind me say there's an opening. Sure enough, there's
a big open hole where the first class galley had been.
So Jan and her colleagues immediately start getting passengers to safety,
and she says, quote, I was focused on getting these
people out. I was holding this debris back and they
were walking by me, and it felt like I could
have been saying thank you for flying with us today.

(39:33):
It was so calm, I guess because we were all
in shock.

Speaker 1 (39:37):
I mean, what an incredible thing. She did what she
was trained to do. She didn't freak out, which is
just so incredible. You know, It's like flight attendants are people.
They're just people, but they're bad us. They're like nurses
where it's like I have a job to do now.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Yes, when this situation, it is like their first responders there.
They have to have nurves of steel like that. They
have to be the leaders. She definitely was a leader,
but that idea of like they're getting people out of
the hole basically in the front of a broken piece
of plane.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
And that means there's people walking by you that just
survived a plane crash, like what the.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
Fuck right, and then there's people who haven't. So despite
being in the same section of the plane, Jerry and
Jan are actually separated by a thick wall of smoke,
but Jerry's found an exit point on his side of
that smoke wall that leads out to the cornfield. So
now he starts helping people get out, but pretty soon
he realizes it's becoming too dangerous to stay inside the wreckage.

(40:40):
Jan Brown says, quote, the smoke was coming toward my position.
I've never seen anything so dark and so lethal, this
dark gray like you would see in a tornado, except
it was coming from what was now the ceiling it
had been the floor, just reeling toward my position. In
the back of my mind, I thought this could blow
up any minute. Where Trey that when fire is too hot,

(41:01):
the water is too deep, and the smoke is too thick,
that's when you leave. So I left.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (41:08):
So basically almost everyone gets out before her, But then
she just has to get out because also it's that
thing of like staying inside to help people while your
overcombe was smoke, you'll just end up dying inside.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
You're not helping at that point, you're rendering.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
So while she is navigating tall stalks of corn, Jan
bumps into the passenger that had been holding her twenty
two month old baby boy his name was Evan, on
her lap during the flight, and she's now trying to
get back inside the wreckage to go look for her baby,
who was thrown from her during the crash. No, now,

(41:41):
Jan blocks her way, trying to tell her, you need
to wait for the rescue workers. It's not safe, you know,
like trying to protect this woman. And Jan remembers the
woman looking her in the eye and saying, quote, you
told me to put my baby on the floor, and
I did, and he's gone.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
This is what makes that fucking show survived so and
just incredible. It's because, like these stories of survival, the
reason it's so compelling is because people die, and so
it's like the people who don't die get to tell
the story. But that in and of itself is this burden.
It is simultaneously Oh my God, thank God, and what

(42:18):
a miracle, and also this burden and this you know,
it isn't like especially in her situation where she was
representing the known policy of the time, and this woman's like,
now I don't have my baby and it's because of you. Horrible,
So she adds after she says that part, she says,
I will live with that for the rest of my life.

(42:40):
Baby Evan does not survive this plane crash.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
Man, I was hoping you were gonna I know, but I.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
Will a little bit right now because Jerry Shemmel, who
is the passenger who was helping people off the plane,
is now also realizing he needs to get to safety.
Everybody has the same thing. It's just like it's time
to run, he says.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
I thought the record which might explode, it always does
on TV. I thought about sprinting away, and at about
that time I thought I heard crying back inside. I
didn't think about it. I didn't weigh the risks. I
didn't think if I go back into the plane, I
might not get back out. I just heard it, reacted,
and the next thing I knew, I'm back in the plane.
So through this smoke, Jerry follows the sound of crying

(43:24):
to a closed overhead bin, which is now on the
ground because the plane is upside down. Right, the cabin
is upside down, and when he unlatches it and reaches inside,
he pulls out a baby girl.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
What the fuck?

Speaker 2 (43:38):
He says, quote. I scooped her out with one arm,
and as soon as I touched her and put her
in my arm. She stopped crying. I held her out
in front of me. She had a little scrape on
her face, a cut below her left eye. I wiped
the blood away with my sleeve and that was it.
That was the extent of her injuries. We were later
told she'd been thrown twenty rows through the plane into

(43:59):
that overhead been and came out with just a scrape
on our face.

Speaker 1 (44:04):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (44:06):
That baby's name is Sabrina Michaelson and she is just
about a week shy of her first birthday. She then
is reunited with her family, also all miraculously.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
So, oh can you man?

Speaker 2 (44:22):
Okay? So it takes the first responders about half an
hour to find the cockpit, which has been flung far
away from the rest of the wreckage and is buried
in the cornstalks. Cranes have to be brought in to
save the four crew members inside, who all have life
threatening injuries, but they all serve up, all four of
those men, including the guy that did not have to

(44:42):
go up there and just was like, hey, let me
help out, damn. So of the two hundred and ninety
seven people who walked on to flight two thirty two
that day, one hundred and twelve of them died in
this crash, making it one of the worst air disasters
in US history.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
Holy shit.

Speaker 2 (45:02):
But at the same time, against all odds, one hundred
and eighty four people survived this unsurvivable event, including three
of the four infants that jan Brunt had to tell
the parents to put on the ground.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
I mean, what a miracle that anyone survived at littlone,
that many people completely It's almost like it had been
anyone else in the cockpit. They weren't supposed to anyone
was supposed to be to survive.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
That right, right, And just the idea of like a
plane cart wheeling and breaking into five people, like the
idea that anyone could What.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
Was the area that had the most survivors? And yes,
I always want to know that it's not first class.
I think it's mid.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
I don't think it's ever first la first class. I
think it's the back of the plane.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
I think it's mid or back.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yeah, but I do think it's probably I mean, we
should have a name for this, like as opposed to
corrections corner. It's like hypotheses that's definitely wrong corner. But
this is my thing is if the explosion was in
the back of the plane. It might change, right, odd
spirit right, because it's not like a normal playing craft.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
You guys know what to do.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Tell us statistics, tell us stuff that you also don't
know about, but look up for a one second on
Google and act like an expert anyway and an emailers Okay.
The survival of these people is a testament to the
quick thinking and the team work demonstrated by Captain Al Haynes,
Captain Denny Fitch, Bill Records, Dudley Dvorak, and the calm

(46:29):
leadership of Lead Flight Attendant Jan Brown and her crew,
and the courage of the regular people on board who
became incredible heroes like Jerry Shemmel. The crew of Flight
two thirty two become national heroes overnight. They are recognized
by the US government with Polaris Awards, which honors exceptional

(46:50):
and courageous airmanship. They're celebrated in a ceremony at the
White House, and to this day they're remembered for pulling
off what many call an impossible life dam In the
months after the crash, I actually that reminds me. I
just remember that one and it was at the Burbank airport,
and it was a Jet Blue flight and they had
their front landing gear was turned to the side, so

(47:14):
he had to come down and land on the back
landing gear and then as slowly as possible, slow the
plane down without putting the front landing gear down. And
then once he started to it, it started sparking, catching fire,
but then it just that went out. I watched it
live on the noon.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
And you're like lived by there at the time. Yeah,
it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yes, sorry, I interrupted this plane crash story to tell
you another plane crash story. In the months after the crash,
UPI reports that United's best pilots attempt to replicate Captain
haynes landing and the survival rate in flight simulators. No
one could do.

Speaker 1 (47:52):
Yeah, it's almost like when they did land on accident.
It wasn't supposed to happen, but maybe they wouldn't have survived.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
They did the best they could have. They literally figured
out the best survival rate in a situation where it
was hopeless. Still, Captain Haynes, like his colleagues struggle with
PTSD and survivor's guilt for years, and Captain Haynes humbly says, quote,
we were just doing our job. But we did it
together and we gave those people a chance.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
Incredibly, most of this cockpit crew returns to flying within
a year of this crowd.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
No, I mean you imagine.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
Yes, Yeah, they're like, we're really good at this.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
Yeah. But oh my god, yes and no, oh my god.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Captain Denny Fitch, who nearly dies from his injuries, is
the one exception. He's told he'll never fly again. He's
back in the cockpit within two years. So he just
takes an extra.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
Year career to beat the odds.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
DMN to take some deep breaths and be like, it's fine,
I'm fine. A few years later, in nineteen ninety one,
in tribute to the skill and leadership demonstrated on that
tragic July afternoon, United arranges a ceremonial flight from Denver
to Chicago, the same route flight two thirty two was
meant to complete, and they invite the surviving crew members

(49:11):
on board. This will be Captain Haynes's last flight as
a United pilot before he retires.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
Captain Haynes passes away several years later, in August of
twenty nineteen, just shy of his eighty eighth birthday, Captain
Denny Fitch becomes a motivational speaker, and sadly, he dies
of brain cancer in twenty twelve when he is sixty
nine years old. Jerry Shummel meanwhile struggles emotionally following this disaster,

(49:39):
and he credits his faith and his passion for bicycling
with uplifting him from his trauma and listen to this
so good. Every year for the last decade, Jerry Shummel
makes a one hundred and twelve mile cycling trip to
honor the one hundred and twelve victims of Flight two
thirty two, and in twenty nineteen, he tells The New

(50:01):
York Times quote, I just want to make sure their
families know they're not forgotten.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
And then there's lead flight attendant Jan Brown, who becomes
a fearce lobbyist for increased child safety on airplanes. For
more than two decades, she's devoted her life to banning
the practice of babies sitting on their parents' laps during flights.
This move is widely supported by pediatricians as well as
the largest union of flight attendants in the United States,

(50:31):
who consider car seats to be the safest option. For
a small child. While flying, jan Brown dreams of getting
a law passed in baby Evan's name, and she has said, quote,
that's what I can do for Evan to make sure
he's not forgotten. I'll be doing this for the rest
of my life.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Oh damn. That hits you.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
Also, it's like the burden she is taking when it's like,
this was your job. I told you, this was the
way you had to.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Do your job.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Anyone who did everything right, there's matter. Yeah, yeah, it's incredible.
Since this disaster, improvements have been made to airplane design
and infrastructure that aim to prevent anything like this from
happening again. And even though it's too late, just to
reassure you if you have a flight coming up in
three months, flying today is very, very safe. The most

(51:18):
recent safety report from the trade group International Air Transport
Association found a very low accident rate of one point
one three per million flights, which means that there's roughly
one safety incident for every eight hundred and eighty thousand flights,
making them extremely rare per the association's standards. And that

(51:43):
is the story of the impossible landing of United Flight
two thirty two.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
Holy shit, I've never heard that. Incredible.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
I could have sworn. I told the whole thing. I
could have sworn. I was like, I think I did
this already, and it's like, no, you just watch that
TV show.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
Incredible, especially on the heels of that tragic crash in India.
I mean, yo, oops, I watched the video. Don't do that.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
No, don't do that. It's horrible. Great job, Oh, thank you.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
What a story. Yeah, my story is lighter, perfect.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
But if you're like, I also have a plane crash story.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
It's not a plane crash story, but it does kind
of go with the letter that you read about World
War two because it's a World War two story.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
Yeah, but it's a heroic story that you're gonna love.
It's a story of courage and heart and a very
unlikely World War two hero. She wasn't a soldier, of course,
she didn't carry a weapon, but she did help safe lives.
She even went on to have a post war television
Career's just she's admirable. I mean, the chaos of the

(52:56):
Pacific Theater, this tiny figure, no bigger than a loaf
of bread, proved that bravery comes in all sizes. Today,
I'm going to tell you of the story of a
fearless heroine named Smoky, a teacup Yorkshire terrier who not
only helped construct vital communication lines under enemy fire, but
it's also widely celebrated as the world's first therapy dog.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
What I love this.

Speaker 1 (53:24):
This has been on my future story list for so long.
I've been waiting for the day to tell it.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
You're telling it to the right person too. I don't
know why. I think it's that thing where like why
people like the pets they like, or the animals they like. Whatever.
I have a real terrier thing I love. You know.
That's a kind of dog blossoms that kind of like
a little ratter, a little kind of like ratter, Yeah,
a little wire hair, kind of like they're up for it.
They're barky and yeppy, but they also are smart and

(53:52):
they pick up one paw when they're like listening, they
pick a pop Yeah, cookie does that my favorite? I
know they're the isa.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
So the main sources I use for the story are
an article in the Mansfield News Journal by Tim Clark
and a book called Yorky Doodle Dandy, which is a
memoir by Bill Wynn. The veteran who raised her, and
the rest of the sources can be found in the
show notes. So it's February of nineteen forty four and
we're on the island of New Guinea. It's an island

(54:22):
just north of Australia, and in nineteen forty two, Japan
invades the island and New Guinea becomes one of the
most miserable battlegrounds in the Pacific. There's dense jungle and
intense heat and several infectious diseases, making this place an
incredibly dangerous and grueling place to be for everyone. That said,

(54:43):
it's worth mentioning that the people who probably suffer the most,
I will say, of course, is the island's indigenous population
who are caught in the middle, and they do suffer
horrific abuses, So you've got to say that too. So
in nineteen forty three, an American soldier is in New
Guinea and he's fixing a broken down jeep when he
hears a whimpering noise coming from the tall grass. When

(55:04):
he goes to investigate, he finds an abandoned fox hole
and in it, inexplicably is a tiny, four pound adult Yorki.
And this is so weird because it's not like a mix.
It's not like a super mutt.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
Some stray dog from of local village or something.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Right, It's like a Yorki, which is actually like kind
of a beautiful dog, right, And I actually don't sure.
I don't know. Yeah, it's a beautiful dog. I don't
know any personally, So I went online to make sure
that anyone who wants to look them up. Can you
want to make sure those were available on well, my
favorite online Yeah, totally. And I didn't really know anything
about Yorki, so I looked it up. It's a British

(55:43):
breed of toy dog terrier type. It's among the smallest
of the terriers and all breeds really. It weighs no
more than seven pounds and it originated in the nineteenth
century in English county of Yorkshire, of course, and they're
introduced in North America in eighteen seventy two. And they're

(56:04):
described as having the confidence of a lion in a
tea cut body, just like you like, and petmd dot
com says they are affectionate, playful, and sometimes bossy little
dogs that have a lot of energy and need to
be mentally stimulated.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
Yes, very true.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
And so do you want to go on Instagram and
look up a couple Instagram famous Yorkis so you can
picture one. There's Ducky the Yorky, Peanut the Yorky, and
my absolute favorite, Eddie on wheels, this senior citizen Yorkie
who's such a grump. The videos are just his owner

(56:43):
trying to get him out of bed in the morning.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Oh oh, I've seen that oney grunt. Yes, I just
watched that on TikTok the other day. It's hilarious.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
It's just such a yeah, so great. So that's what
we're dealing with here. Love it. So the soldier who
finds this dog sells it to a friend. It's like,
I don't want a dog, but this dude named Bill
Wynn is really excited. He's about nineteen or twenty years old.
He's in the Air Force, and you know, he's pretty
miserable at the moment on New Guinea and having this

(57:12):
dog just immediately lifts his spirits. Yeah, because Bill has
always loved dogs. As a kid in Ohio, he would
form deep relationships with the neighborhood strays and on several
occasions adopted and train them. He writes, quote. I know
what kind of family lives in a house by observing
its dog, and this is really offensive. If the dog

(57:32):
is calm, slow paced, its people are quiet and serene.
A charging, excitable dog probably lives with children, Yeah, them fighting.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
Words or people would childlike spirits exactly.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
Bill had wanted to join the military after high school,
but his fiance, a woman named Margaret, had convinced him
not to. But it doesn't matter because about a year
later he gets drafted and winds up in the Air
Force in New Guinea. Bill pays two Australian pounds for
the little Yorky, which do you even want to try.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
Two Australian pounds in.

Speaker 1 (58:06):
So the Australian pounds are worth at the time like
six dollars and forty four cents.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
Oh so if you can do that, So it's the forties. Yeah,
but it's a it's an Australian pound, but American dollar
in the forties. I'm just gonna go ahead and throw
it out. There's like around forty bucks.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
So it should be it's not. It seems like the
soldier who was selling it knew he had a mark
on his hand. This guy really wanted this dog yeah,
so ends up paying in today's money, one hundred and
nineteen dollars for the sock.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
There. It's like kind of expensive, expensive, especially when you're
a gi over in like fighting World War two.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Yeah, I don't think Bill played it cool. And he
was like, do you want the dog? I guess I'll
take the dog. Yeah, and he like kisses me.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
He was like crying and like please, it means the
world to me.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
I'll pay anything. Yeah, you guys, you gotta play it cool.
Come on, so he says, quote I could hardly wait
until quitting time to claim the weird little creature and
give some serious attention to her physical condition. End quote.
The soldier who found the dog uses that money to
buy his way back into a poker game. So everyone's happy.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
We all have our vices. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
Bill names the dog Smokey, so Bill and Smokey instantly
have a special bond. Bill is an aerial photographer, which
is so cool. So his main responsibility is to take
reconnaissance photos, and he takes Smokey along with him on
his flights over the Pacific on many missions, in the
cockpit with him a tiny Yorky.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
In his little front pocket.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
Yeah, you could tuck him in your shirt. There were
about five hundred thousand other war dogs that did bravely
serve in World War Two. Just so interesting. But these
were official service animals that had been trained by the military.
They're not four pound Yorkies.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Found in a hole, right.

Speaker 1 (59:52):
Yeah. They had their own rations and dedicated medical care.
But Smokey has access to none of these things. So
Bill shares his rations with her. She's particularly fond of
scrambled eggs.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Are those powdered scrambled eggs, and you know they are God.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
Whenever he can find one, Bill gives Smoky an extra
can of spam, which is like bigger than she is.
Smoky sleeps, and Bill's caught in a little blanket made
from the felt from a pool table. I know. To
give Smokey a bath, Bilfer's dunks her in a helmet
full of soapy water and then a helmet full of
clean water. Like I'm just picturing war. It's so awful,

(01:00:36):
like service animal. You need an animal, like like you
see the cats standing on the shoulders of servicemen and
women and you're like, yeah, I would freak out. I'd
be so happy.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
It would make you so happy. And also there is
all that science about, like there's that kind of animal pheromone,
animal human pheromone that when it's shared, it's like mutually
beneficial to both. That's totally why we all like each other.

Speaker 1 (01:00:59):
Yeah. Despite the limited resources and complete lack of formal
military training, Smokey is whip smart and learns commands from
Bill very quickly. She turns out to be tough as
nails as well. While many of the other war dogs
in the Pacific Theater develop paw injuries from running on
coal strewn beaches, Smokey has no issues, perhaps because she's

(01:01:19):
so little and light on her feet. Bill teaches Smoky
to sing along while he plays the harmonica, and she
spends her evenings entertaining the troops. Can you imagine on
the little stage.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
Can you imagine that is they were hurting for entertainment,
They're just like Bill's dog is going to howl along
as he plays the harmonica.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Great show I've ever seen in my little.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
Be Quiet, Be Quiet, Smoky singing.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Phil says quote, guys were arguing over who would get
Smoky if I got knocked off, which is why he
said he started taking her own flights too, He's like,
I don't want anyone else to get her. Yes, right.
Bill winds up coming down with dengey fever, which is
an tropical mosquito born illness, and he winds up in
the hospital for five days, and Smokey goes along with him,

(01:02:08):
and while she's there she makes the rounds visiting all
the other sick and wounded soldiers and cheering them up.
Bill credits her demonstrating the helpfulness of dogs in hospital
settings as painting the way for the common use of
therapy dogs because it wasn't a thing yet. And like
our friend Jocelyn Hughes, her beautiful sweet dog, Nugget is

(01:02:30):
one of those hospital visit dogs. And I'm so impressed
because Cookie could never she's scared of child.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
It's a very specific personality. Yeah, yeah, Frank would just
walk in and pee on the hospital bed leg or
something like. He just can't be trusted. No, it's like,
you can pet me if you want to, but I'm
also going to eat the crackers out of your purse
or whatever is happening.

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
I'm gonna chew on a wire that is essential to
your being alive.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
It's like an airplane.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
Phil says quote. She was the first therapy dog. All
the lines of therapy go back to Smokey. She was
a real spirit lifter end quote.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
I mean, you would think if you were laying in
bed injured from a war, a battle injury, and a
teacup Yorky walked by, you'd be like, Oh, I'm hallucinating.
This is crazy, and it's like, yeah, oh, she's real petter.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
And you can patter and she'll sing for you. So
Smokey's best remembered for one particular important act of heroism
that I'm going to tell you about. So it's nineteen
forty five, it's towards the end of the war, and
Bill becomes involved in what's to be known as the
Lose Zone Campaign, which is a battle on the island
of Low Zone in the Philippines. At the beginning of

(01:03:41):
this campaign, the army needed to construct an airfield and
to do this they needed to create some communication infrastructure,
and this would mean about three days of digging to
lay a telephone line and doing that digging, those three
days of digging would expose those soldiers who are digging
to enemy fire because they're just right there open. And
then also it would endanger at least forty pilots who

(01:04:03):
would have to try to protect them from above. So
just a really dangerous mission. But the US has one
crucial weapon, Smoky, the four pound Yorky. So right near
the area where the Army had intended to dig a
ditch for the communications cable is a pre existing culvert
with a small pipe in it about eight inches wide.
We're running about seventy feet the length of what will

(01:04:24):
be the army's new runway. So it's far too small
for a person to go through, or one of the
trained military dogs because their dog they're big. But it's
plenty big for Smoky. So Bill ties a piece of
kite string to her collar, and that kite string is
then tied to the communications cable. Bill goes to one
under the pipe, puts Smoky at the other, and then
calls her over. Bill says, quote, she made a few

(01:04:46):
steps in and then ran back. Comes Smoky, I said, sharply,
and she started through again, and with some coaxing, she
actually makes it through. So after her successful mission, the
soldiers want to reward Smoky with a big steak, and
Bill writes, quote a big stack for a four pound
dog is about the size of a mini burger, but
she earned her reward. When the more ends, Bill has
to smuggle Smokey back to the US in a flight

(01:05:08):
oxygen mask case back home, which is so like. Cookie
wouldn't go in first class. She'd be like, go fuck yourself,
and this sweet dog is.

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
Like, it's not for everybody. Smokey was perfectly designed for
this job.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
Cookie has her own dog seat belt and dog carbed
I mean back home. Bill and Margaret get married, and
Smokey begins appearing with Bill on television shows telling her
story because everyone hears about it and they're like so excited.
She does tricks and sings along with the harmonica on
these shows. In fact, during this period, Bill and his

(01:05:45):
wife actually live in la and Bill starts working as
a dog trainer for Movies Nice, which is so rad.
Bill then works as a photographer for NASA for seven years,
and then they move back to Cleveland, Ohio, where they're
both originally a Bill becomes a photojournalist for the Cleveland
Plaine Dealer and has a decade long career there. So

(01:06:06):
Smokey dies in nineteen fifty seven at the age of
about fourteen, which is really old. For a dog. Right.
She's buried in Cleveland in an ammunition box. After Smokey dies,
Bill publishes an obituary about her, and this actually leads
him to her original owner, which is Bananas. A veteran
who had also been stationed in New Guinea gets in

(01:06:27):
touch with Bill and says that he had found a
Yorkshire terrier while he was stationed there, but she had
gotten lost. We don't really know her actual origins, but
someone else had found her and she'd gotten lost. And
what's really weird is that Bill had always noticed that
when anyone said the word Christmas, Smokey would freak out
and get all excited. Turns out the guy's like, I

(01:06:48):
had named her Christmas. Oh I know.

Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
Wait a second though, So was that dog native to
the island and the original guy found her? Or was like,
was there a third person who's smuggled in?

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
I feel like there's got to be a smuggled in
that story somewhere, I mean, you know?

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
Or is this where we find out Yorkis are actually
native to be Guinea?

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
No, who knows. So now there's a memorial to Smokey
where she's buried in Cleveland. It's a statue of a
little Yorky happily smiling from inside a military helmet, and
there are ten other monuments to her around the world. God,
I know. Famous. Before the post war era, Yorkys were
obscure and kind of not in favor, and their registration

(01:07:33):
fell to an all time low of eighteen percent, so
they were on the way out. They weren't fashionable anymore.
But Smokey. When Smokey comes out bounds blazing, she's actually
credited with a renewed interest in the breed. And in
twenty twelve and twenty thirteen, the American Kennel Club ranked
the Yorkshire Terrier as the sixth most popular purebread in

(01:07:54):
the United States. Wow, and you can definitely trace that
back to Smokey.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
It's all Smoky totally.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
Bill passes away in twenty twenty one at the age
of ninety nine.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
He spent his final years with his beloved dog, another Yorki,
whom he named Smoky too. And that's the story of Smoky,
the World War Two hero dog. We love a hero dog.

Speaker 2 (01:08:21):
Here on my favorite line, I love a hero dog.
We love a dog owner that's also a hero. Bye
adopting a dog mid goddamn war totally. Oh that was
a good one. That's nice.

Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
Just that idea of Smokey, it's like having that piece
of rope in her mouth trying to run through that pipe.
Like how scary that would be for her?

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
Yeah, she'd run, run, run, And like.

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
If Smoky can do it, you can do it. Put
a piece of string or rope in your mouth and
get going.

Speaker 1 (01:08:51):
If a four pound Yorky can thrive, not survive, thrive
during wartime on an island.

Speaker 2 (01:08:58):
You've got this going to be okay. You're going to
be okay.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
You're basically like twenty four pound Yorkies and one person what.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
As yours many four pound Yorkies as your generational as
you want inherit it right, It's up to you. The more,
the better be the four pound Yorky you want to
see in your life.

Speaker 1 (01:09:22):
And adopts. Make sure you go adopt.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
Don't shop, God damn don't shop.

Speaker 1 (01:09:27):
Go to your local shelter and find the love of
your life that changes the trajectory of your life completely.

Speaker 2 (01:09:33):
At Nora's graduation party of Frank and Blossom were there
the whole time, and everybody's like they're such good dogs
where I'm like, what what.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
Do you mean?

Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
They're just they're standing around to try to get cheese.
She's Salammy. That falls as a shark toy board.

Speaker 1 (01:09:45):
But okay, I mean I just love this story because
it changed Bill's life in a incredible way. And I
feel like if I hadn't had Elvis, I wouldn't be
here right now. He like inspired me to try harder
and to get people to pay attention to him because
I wanted to. I wanted everyone to see how incredible
he was.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
Yeah, I mean, like, I think this is what everyone's
This is what the Internet has really given us, is
truly understanding that the way we value our animals is
the way how everybody feels about their animals, your dog
and your cat, Like it means the world's people and
they are like their own little people. Yeah, it's just lovely.

(01:10:26):
I love that story.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
Thank you? Yeah, I do too, nice one. Well, thanks
you guys. Are we ending it?

Speaker 2 (01:10:32):
I think we should end this? Yeah, if they should
be the last episode. Bye with that, guys, Bye nice
thank you for everything, Bye bye bye. It's summertime. I
think we all got the summer wrap it ups all
the time, so Let's just say we love doing this
episode for you, as we always do.

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
Thank you so much for listening.

Speaker 2 (01:10:53):
Yes, thank you for everything you've given us. You are
our four pound Yorky, Stay sexy.

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
Don't get murdered. Goodbye, Elvis. Do you want a cookie?

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
This has been an Exactly Right production.

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
Our senior producers are Alejandra Keck and Molly Smith.

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
Our editor is Aristotle osce Vedo.

Speaker 1 (01:11:20):
This episode was mixed by Leona Scuolacci.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
Our researchers are Maaron McGlashan and Ali Elkin.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
Email your homecounts to My Favorite Murder at gmail dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
Follow the show on Instagram at my Favorite Murder.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple
Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
And now you can watch us on Exactly Right's YouTube page.
While you're there, please like and subscribe.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
Goodbyeye