NO HOME FOR HEROES

CAN A SNIPPET FROM A 78 YEAR OLD NEWSPAPER ARTICLE HELP SOLVE THE CASE OF A MISSING MARINE THAT HAS BAFFLED INVESTIGATORS FOR DECADES? IS IT THE BREAK IN THE CASE THAT ALL INVESTIGATORS DREAM ABOUT?

Today’s case on No Home for Heroes is holds a clue that has baffled us for years. The clue should have been a great lead in a tough case but has turned out to be a big giant dead end for almost 80 years for every investigator who has ev...

Perhaps a case only Jack Webb from the old TV series "DRAGNET" could solve. An airplane designed to transport nuclear weapons crashes in Alaska in 1952 with 52 souls on board, according to the official flight manifest. The crash site is lost for 60 sixty years and when finally found, the airplane has moved 14 miles and an ID card is found for someone who is NOT supposed to be on the airplane! This is just one of several strange ...

TODAY’S EPISODE OF “NO HOME FOR HEROES” IS AN INCREDIBLE TALE OF PERSEVERANCE AND PERSISTENCE IN THE FACE OF A SEEMINGLY IMPOSSIBLE TASK.

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU THAT SOMETHING IS IMPOSSIBLE? THAT IT “CAN’T” BE DONE? OR BETTER YET, WHEN YOUR EMPLOYER INSISTS THAT YOU SHOULD NOT PUT MUCH EFFORT INTO YOUR JOB BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT LIKELY TO SUCCEED IN THE ASSIGNED TASK?

ULTIMATELY SEVERAL GROUPS OF PEOPLE WORKED TOGETHER TO...

IN TODAY'S EPISODE, WE WILL STUFF YOU INTO A TINY CRAMPED AND CLAUSTROPHOBIC COMPARTMENT ABOARD A NAVY TORPEDO BOMBER. YOU WILL BE ASSIGNED AS THE RADIO OPERATOR AND REAR GUNNER OF A TBM AVENGER IN THE SKIES ABOVE A HISTORIC WORLD WAR TWO BATTLE IN THE PACIFIC. THIS EPISODE WILL GIVE YOU SOME INSIGHT OVER WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO DEPEND ON TWO OTHER CREWMEN FOR YOUR VERY SURVIVAL IN THE MIDST OF FIRE AND CHAOS. 

HERE’S YOUR CHANCE TO REM...

We start today's episode with some questions for you to ponder...DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST LOVE? WERE YOU 14, OR 15, OR MAYBE A LITTLE OLDER? DESPITE WHAT HAPPENED LATER IN LIFE, WILL YOU ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR FIRST LOVE? 

TODAY’S EPISODE IS ABOUT ONE SUCH LOVE BY TWO TEEAGERS WHO GREW UP ON TWO DIFFERENT CONTINENTS, INTERRUPTED BY A WORLD WAR AND A LOVE NEVER TO BE FULFILLED. Today's episode details the case of 19 year old Private ...

TODAY’S EPISODE IS THE TRUE TALE OF A REAL PRIVATE RYAN, NOT A MOVIE ACTOR…PRIVATE KENNETH JOHN RYAN FROM ARIZONA WHO WAS A MEMBER OF M COMPANY, THIRD BATTALION, SECOND MARINES. SADLY, NOTHING WE CAN DO WILL “SAVE” THE REAL PRIVATE RYAN FROM HIS FATE ON A LONG FORGOTTEN PACIFIC BEACHHEAD, BUT OUR MISSION AT THE CHIEF RICK STONE AND FAMILY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION IS TO PROVIDE THE INFORMATION WE HAVE LEARNED TO PRIVATE RYA...

IN THE FINAL COUNT, THERE WOULD BE ONLY 316 SURVIVORS OF THE SINKING OF THE USS INDIANAPOLIS WHO ENDURED LONG HOURS IN THE CRUEL OCEAN WITHOUT FOOD OR WATER AND SWARMS OF HUNGRY SHARKS. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OTHER 879 LOST SAILORS AND HOW THEY DIED BECAME ONE OF HISTORY’S GREATEST SERIES OF MILITARY MYSTERIES.

TODAY’S EPISODE IS THE TALE OF JUST ONE OF THOSE MYSTERIES AND IT HAS MORE CLUES, FALSE LEADS, AND DEAD END ALLEYS...

THE DICTIONARY DEFINES A SNAFU AS “a situation marked by errors or confusion.”

SO WHAT HAPPENS WHEN NOT ONE, NOT TWO, NOT THREE, BUT MULTIPLE SNAFU’S CONSPIRE TOGETHER TO PREVENT A LOST MARINE FROM BEING IDENTIFIED FOR ALMOST 80 YEARS?

MANY OF YOU MAY NOT BE FAMILIAR WITH THE MILITARY ACRONYM “SNAFU”. SNAFU is an acronym that is widely used to stand for the sarcas...

TODAY WHEN WE SAY “FLIGHT 19” IN THE SAME SENTENCE WITH “THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE”, JUST ABOUT EVERYONE HAS SOME KNOWLEDGE OF THE STORY…IT USUALLY GOES LIKE THIS…”A BUNCH OF AIRPLANES VANISHED AFTER BEING ABDUCTED BY SPACE ALIENS…OR EATEN BY SEA MONSTERS…OR FLEW INTO A TIME WARP…OR, WELL, JUST RAN OUT OF GAS AND CRASHED INTO THE SEA.”

WHAT MOST SEEM TO OVERLOOK IS THAT THERE WERE 14 AMERICAN...

PFC RICHARD COURTLEIGH WAS THE HANDSOME SON OF A RENOWNED ACTOR AND A BEAUTIFUL ACTRESS WHO WAS DESTINED IN HIS OWN RIGHT FOR STARDOM IN HOLLYWOOD. WORLD WAR TWO INTERVENED AND PFC COURTLEIGH WAS LOST TO HISTORY ON AN OBSCURE SOUTH PACIFIC ISLAND IN 1943. HIS BODY HAS NEVER BEEN RECOVERED AND IDENTIFIED.

WILL AN ENORMOUS PAIR OF SHOES BE THE ONE CLUE THAT BRINGS PFC COURTLEIGH HOME AFTER...

SEAMAN 1ST CLASS GEORGE STANLEY ABBOTT WAS A CREW MEMBER OF THE ILL FATED NAVY CRUISER USS INDIANAPOLIS WHEN IT WAS SUNK BY A JAPANESE SUBMARINE IN THE PHILIPPINE SEA DURING THE CLOSING MONTHS OF WORLD WAR 2. HE WAS PRESUMED LOST AT SEA AND IS OFFICIALLY LISTED AS “UNACCOUNTED FOR” UNTIL THIS VERY DAY.

BUT HE WAS NOT LOST AT SEA…HE WAS FOUND…AND A QUEST FOR CLOSURE FOR HIS FAMILY HAS TUR...

MARINE CORPS PFC RAYMOND MILTON STEPHENS WAS KILLED IN ACTION DURING WORLD WAR 2. HIS BODY WAS RECOVERED, IDENTIFIED, AND BURIED AFTER THE WAR IN THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL CEMETERY OF THE PACIFIC IN HONOLULU, HAWAII.

BUT WHAT ONLY A VERY FEW PEOPLE KNOW UNTIL TODAY’S PODCAST IS THAT PFC STEPHENS WAS NOT ALONE IN HIS COFFIN. HE HAD ANOTHER MARINE BURIED WITH HIM WHOSE IDENTIFY REMAINS A “BAF...

ANYONE WHO KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT WORLD WAR 2 NAVAL HISTORY IN THE PACIFIC HAS HEARD OF THE USS INDIANAPOLIS.  SUNK IN THE CLOSING DAYS OF THE WAR AND SO FORGOTTEN BY THE NAVY’S COMMAND STRUCTURE THAT NO ONE NOTICED THE SHIP WAS MISSING WHILE OVER 900 OF ITS CREW FOUGHT A DEADLY BATTLE WITH SHARKS IN THE DEEP PACIFIC WHILE AWAITING A RESCUE THAT SEEMED TO NEVER COME.

EVEN IF YOU KNOW NOTHI...

IN 1992, AS THE POLICE CHIEF IN WICHITA, KANSAS, I SPENT A DAY WITH FORMER PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON AND HEARD THIS QUOTE “IF YOU CAN’T TRUST THE GOVERNMENT, WHO CAN YOU TRUST?” YES, THAT SAME RICHARD NIXON WHO HISTORY RECORDS AS THE ARCHITECT OF THE WATERGATE COVER-UP CONSPIRACY.

IN THE AFTERMATH OF WORLD WAR 2, AND LONG BEFORE WE CAME TO ROUTINELY QUESTION EVERYTHING THAT COMES OUT OF W...

IN JULY 1945, THE CRUISER USS INDIANAPOLIS DELIVERED THE ATOMIC BOMB COMPONENTS TO TINIAN ISLAND THAT WOULD SOON BE THE INSTRUMENT TO END WORLD WAR II.

WITH A JOB WELL DONE (OR A “BRAVO ZULU” IN NAVY SPEAK) THE INDY SPED TOWARD HER NEXT ASSIGNMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES BEFORE THE BOMBS WERE DROPPED ON HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI.

SHE NEVER MADE IT. TWO TORPEDOES FROM A JAPA...

WHEN TWO BROTHERS ENLISTED IN THE NAVY IN 1938, THEY WERE THE EPITOME OF THE CLOSE KNIT FAMILY. THEY WERE SO CLOSE, THAT THE NAVY GAVE THEM SEQUENTIAL SERVICE NUMBERS...QUITE A RARITY FOR THE TIMES. AND THEN THE NAVY WENT ONE STEP FARTHER WHEN IT ASSIGNED BOTH BROTHERS TO THE SAME SHIP…THE ILL FATED USS WEST VIRGINIA SOON TO BE HOMEPORTED IN PEARL HARBOR HAWAII.

ONE BROTHER WOULD SURVIV...