The Final Flight of Captain Forrester

A woman’s search for her father—a pilot who disappeared during a mission in Vietnam—collides with the fight over what we owe those who never returned from war. From the producers of "America's Girls" and "Tom Brown's Body," and hosted by Texas Monthly writer Josh Alvarez, the show debuts April 2025.

Texas Monthly Audio subscribers get early access to the show, plus bonus episodes and more subscriber-only audio. Visit texasmonthly.com/audio to learn more.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
December twenty seventh, nineteen seventy two, Southeast Asia. The US
military is bombing North Vietnam, and Marine Captain Ron Forrester
is climbing into the navigator seat of his A six
combat jet call sign Tiny five.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Prospects for peace are pretty slim now, I shouldn't have
any trouble getting one hundred missions before this thing is over.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
When he could, he'd write to his family in West Texas,
his parents and brothers, and his two year old daughter, Kareny.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
I hope you all have a nice time today. Christmas
is going to be just another workday for me, but
I'll have one next year. Kive kareny A kiss for me, love.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Ron Captain Forrester and Pilot Jim Shipman's mission flying low
and slow over enemy territory at night to a target
where enemy fighters knew they were coming.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
They basically said, hey, go and see what you can find.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
Good luck, We're all counting on you.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
They flew through low clouds across the DMZ and into
North Vietnam.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
And we just stopped by my parents' home and when
I rang the doorbell, a close family friend opened the door,
and I could tell from the expression on her face,
that something horrible was wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Tiny of five had disappeared. Ron Forrester was missing in action.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
You wonder if he's alive.

Speaker 4 (01:28):
Is he in a cage?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Is he being tortured.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Ron's daughter, Karennie Forrester, grew up carrying the pain of
not knowing what happened to her father that night.

Speaker 5 (01:38):
And I was pissed. What do you mean, it's into
the Vietnam War.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Where's my dad?

Speaker 5 (01:43):
I knew that there was hell to be raised, and
I was ready to do it, and I wanted my
dad home.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Karenie has spent her life looking for the truth about
what happened to her father on his final mission in Vietnam.
Along the way, she would meet friends, scientists, historians, and
government investigators, but there were also mysteries, official secrets, conspiracy theories,
and shadowy geopolitics. It also led her to other families

(02:13):
just like hers. Together, they would push the most powerful
people in government to bring their loved ones home.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
We are going to get this job done, and we
are going to count for every single person who is missing,
and thank you very very much.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
They're now accusing the US government of deliberately hiding information
that these guys are alive.

Speaker 5 (02:34):
So we go meet him and he picks my dad's
picture out of a cruiz book, saying, yeah, that's him.
I was held in prison with hook.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Would you please be quiet and let me finish?

Speaker 2 (02:45):
We talk about that.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Would you play on the same All of us were
focused on one thing, which was to put an X
on the ground for Karny for them to go dig.

Speaker 4 (02:54):
We were convinced that the Vietnames knew more about it,
certainly about Ron Forrester.

Speaker 5 (02:58):
And I'm kind of looking at him like, yeah, yeah,
mister know it all. He said, no, something's not right.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
It is a gray and blush street day. It's amazing
to be standing here after working on this story. When
did he serve and what was his role?

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Even know?

Speaker 4 (03:15):
I love it.

Speaker 5 (03:16):
There was an entire industry in Vietnam to make fake
dog tags.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
And so we continued to dig and continue to dig.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
Why would I be spending more money on doing more
research or something I already know where it's at.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
I need to find information about a tire was made
for the USNAV in nineteen.

Speaker 5 (03:29):
Sixties, and then there's some stubborn people like myself that
say no, we think it.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
May have come from an aircraft in which two marines
went missing.

Speaker 5 (03:36):
An action, and I don't want to say that it
full blown conspiracy.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
The US government teams had shown an astonishing lack of
investigative interest.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
But you got a bigger problem.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Well, what's that That tire does not exist?

Speaker 4 (03:51):
It was in between four rice patties. You know, where's
the spot that says this is it hard unless you
find remains that families will ever, you know, be you
know in their heart that this is this is a
resting place.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Now I know what it feels like, and I want
them to.

Speaker 5 (04:10):
Get answers too, And I want everyone to be released
from the torment of not knowing.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
My name is josh Alvarez and this is the final
flight of Captain Forrester, the story of a daughter's tenacious
search for the truth, told in five episodes. A new
Texas monthly podcast coming April twenty ninth.