Category: You have to be kidding, right!?!
_in_Massacre_Bay,_Attu,_on_9_June_1944_(NH_97804).jpg)
USS William D. Porter (DD-579), in Massacre Bay, Attu, Aleutian Islands, with other destroyers, 9 June 1944.
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| History | |
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| Name | USS William D. Porter (DD-579) |
| Namesake | William D. Porter |
| Builder | Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Texas |
| Laid down | 7 May 1942 |
| Launched | 27 September 1942 |
| Commissioned | 6 July 1943 |
| Stricken | 11 July 1945 |
| Fate | Sunk by kamikazes,[1] 10 June 1945 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Fletcher class destroyer |
| Displacement | 2,050 tons |
| Length | 376 ft 6 in (114.7 m) |
| Beam | 39 ft 8 in (12.1 m) |
| Draft | 17 ft 9 in (5.4 m) |
| Propulsion | 60,000 shp (45 MW); 2 propellers |
| Speed | 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph) |
| Range | 6500 nmi. (12,000 km) at 15 kn |
| Complement | 273 |
| Armament |
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USS William D. Porter (DD-579), nicknamed the “Willie Dee”, was a ship of the United States Navy. It was a Fletcher-class destroyer named after Commodore William D. Porter (1808–1864).
William D. Porter was laid down on 7 May 1942 at Orange, Texas, United States, by the Consolidated Steel Corporation; launched on 27 September 1942, sponsored by Miss Mary Elizabeth Reeder; and commissioned on 6 July 1943.[2] The ship is predominantly remembered today for the string of extremely unfortunate events that plagued her short three-year career during World War II.
Atlantic service
William D. Porter departed Orange shortly after being commissioned. After stops at Galveston, TX, and Algiers, LA, the destroyer headed for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on 30 July 1943 for shakedown. She completed shakedown a month later and, following a brief stop at Bermuda, continued on to Charleston, SC, where she arrived on 7 September. Porter completed post-shakedown repairs at Charleston and got underway for Norfolk, Va., at the end of the month. For about five weeks, the warship operated from Norfolk conducting battle practice with USS Intrepid and other ships of the Atlantic Fleet.[2]
On 12 November 1943, the ship departed Norfolk to rendezvous with the USS Iowa. The brand new battleship was on her way to North Africa carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Cairo and Tehran Conferences.[2]
William D. Porter was reported to have been involved in a mishap while departing Norfolk when her anchor tore the railing and lifeboat mounts off a docked sister destroyer while maneuvering astern.[a]
The next day, a depth charge from the deck of William D. Porter fell into the rough sea and exploded, causing Iowa and the other escort ships to take evasive maneuvers under the assumption that the task force had come under torpedo attack by a German U-boat.[3]
Ships logs from William D. Porter and Iowa do not mention a lost depth charge nor a U-boat search on 13 November. Both logs do mention that William D. Porter experienced a boiler tube failure on #3 boiler causing the ship to fall out of position in the formation until number 4 boiler was brought online.[4][5]
On 14 November, at Roosevelt’s request, Iowa conducted an anti-aircraft drill to demonstrate her ability to defend herself. The drill began with the release of a number of balloons for use as targets. While most of these were shot by gunners aboard Iowa, a few of them drifted toward William D. Porter which shot down balloons as well. Porter, along with the other escort ships, also demonstrated a torpedo drill by simulating a launch at Iowa.
This drill suddenly went awry when a live torpedo discharged from mount #2[6] aboard William D. Porter and headed straight towards Iowa.[3]
William D. Porter attempted to signal Iowa about the incoming torpedo but, owing to orders to maintain radio silence, used a signal lamp instead. However, the destroyer first misidentified the direction of the torpedo and then relayed the wrong message, informing Iowa that Porter was backing up, rather than that a torpedo was in the water.[3] In desperation the destroyer finally broke radio silence, using codewords that relayed a warning message to Iowa regarding the incoming torpedo. After confirming the identity of the destroyer, Iowa turned hard to avoid being hit by the torpedo. Roosevelt, meanwhile, had learned of the incoming torpedo threat and asked his Secret Service attendee to move his wheelchair to the side of the battleship, so he could see.[3] Not long afterward, the torpedo detonated in the ship’s wake, some 3,000 yards (2,700 m) astern of the Iowa. Iowa was unhurt, but as a result of this friendly fire incident, ships would routinely greet the destroyer with the hail “Don’t shoot! We’re Republicans!” The entire incident lasted about 4 minutes from torpedo firing at 14:36 to detonation at 14:40.[6][7]
Following these events, the ship and her crew were ordered to Bermuda for an inquiry into the Iowa affair. Chief Torpedoman (CTM(AA)) Lawton Dawson,[8] whose failure to remove the torpedo’s primer had enabled it to fire at Iowa, was later sentenced to hard labor, though Roosevelt intervened in his case, as the incident had been an accident.[3]
Contrary to Internet legend, LCDR Walter was not relieved of command following the incident and remained in command until 30 May 1944.[9] He later commanded other ships and eventually became a rear admiral.[10][11] William D. Porter was in Bermuda from 16 to 23 November 1943; no mention was made of awaiting Marines or the entire crew being “arrested” in the ship’s logs.[12][13]
On 25 November, William D. Porter returned to Norfolk[14] and prepared for transfer to the Pacific. She got underway for that duty on 4 December, steamed via Trinidad, and reached the Panama Canal on the 12th. After transiting the canal, the destroyer set a course for San Diego, where she stopped between 19 and 21 December to take on cold weather clothing and other supplies necessary for duty in the Aleutian Islands.[2]
North Pacific campaign
On 29 December, William D. Porter arrived in Dutch Harbor, on the island of Unalaska, and joined Task Force 94 (TF 94). Between 2 and 4 January 1944, she voyaged from Dutch Harbor to Adak, whence she conducted training operations until her departure for Hawaii on the seventh. The warship entered Pearl Harbor on 22 January and remained there until 1 February at which time the destroyer put to sea again to escort USS Black Hawk to Adak. The two ships arrived at their destination nine days later, and Porter began four months of relatively uneventful duty with TF 94. She sailed between the various islands in the Aleutians chain, serving primarily as an antisubmarine escort.[2]
Commander Charles M. Keyes (USNA ’32) relieved Lieutenant Commander Walter as commanding officer on 30 May 1944.[9]
On 10 June, the destroyer stood out of Attu and headed for the Kuril Islands. She and the other ships of TF 94 reached their destination early on the morning of the 13th. They started to shell their target, the island of Matsuwa, at 05:13. After 20 minutes, William D. Porter’s radar picked up an unidentified surface vessel, closing her port quarter at a speed in excess of 55 knots (100 km/h). Her radar personnel tentatively identified the craft as an enemy PT-type boat, and the warship ceased fire on Matsuwa to take the new target under fire. Soon thereafter, the craft’s reflection disappeared from the radar screen, presumably the victim of TF 94’s gunfire. Not long afterward, the task force completed its mission and retired from the Kurils to refuel at Attu.[2]
On 24 June, the destroyer left Attu with TF 94 for her second mission in the Kurils. Following two days at sea in steadily increasing fog, she arrived off Paramushiro on the 26th. In a dense fog with visibility down to about 200 yards, she delivered her gunfire and then departed with TF 94 to return to the Aleutians. A month of training exercises intervened between her second and third voyages to the Kurils. On 1 August, she cleared Kuluk Bay for her final bombardment of the Kurils. On the second day out, an enemy twin-engine bomber snooped on the task force and received a hail of fire from some of the screening destroyers. That proved to be the only noteworthy event of the mission, because the following day the bombardment was canceled due to poor weather and the enemy reconnaissance plane. William D. Porter dropped anchor in Massacre Bay at Attu on 4 August.[2]
After a month of antisubmarine patrol, the warship departed the Aleutians for a brief yard period at San Francisco preparatory to reassignment to the western Pacific. She completed repairs and stood out of San Francisco on 27 September. She reached Oahu on 2 October and spent the ensuing fortnight in training operations out of Pearl Harbor. On the 18th, she resumed her voyage west; and, 12 days later, the warship pulled into Seeadler Harbor at Manus in the Admiralty Islands. She departed Manus early in November to escort USS Alshain via Hollandia to Leyte.[2]
Philippines campaign[edit]
Though William D. Porter arrived in the western Pacific too late to participate in the actual invasion at Leyte, combat conditions persisted there after her arrival in San Pedro Bay. Soon after she anchored there, Japanese planes swooped in to attack the ships in the anchorage. The first plane fell to the guns of a nearby destroyer before reaching Porter’s effective range. A second intruder appeared, however, and the destroyer’s 5 inch guns joined those of the assembled transports in bringing him to a fiery end in mid-air.[2]
For the remainder of the year, William D. Porter escorted ships between Leyte, Hollandia, Manus, Bougainville, and Mindoro. On 21 December, while steaming from Leyte to Mindoro, she encountered enemy air power once again. Two planes made steep glides and dropped several bombs near the convoy. The destroyer opened up with her main battery almost as soon as the enemies appeared but to no avail. Their bombs missed their targets by a wide margin, but the two Japanese aircraft apparently suffered no damage and made good their escape. Not long thereafter, four more airborne intruders attacked. Porter concentrated her fire on the two nearest her, one of which fell to her antiaircraft fire. The second succumbed to the combined efforts of other nearby destroyers, and the remaining two presumably retired to safety. From then until midnight, enemy aircraft shadowed the convoy, but none displayed temerity enough to attack.
Before dawn the following morning, she encountered and destroyed a heavily laden, but abandoned, enemy landing barge. After completing her screening mission to Mindoro, Porter returned to San Pedro Bay on 26 December to begin preparations for the invasion of Luzon.[2]
For the Lingayen operation, William D. Porter was assigned to the Lingayen Fire Support Group of Vice Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf‘s Bombardment and Fire Support Group (TG 77.2). The destroyer departed San Pedro Bay on 2 January 1945 and joined her unit in Leyte Gulf the following day. The entire group then passed south through the Surigao Strait, thence crossed the Mindanao Sea, rounded the southern tip of Negros, and then proceeded generally north along the western coasts of Negros, Panay, Mindoro, and finally, Luzon.[2]
By the time the unit reached the southwestern coast of Luzon, it came within the effective range of Luzon-based aircraft. Beginning on the morning of 5 January, enemy planes—including kamikazes—brought the force under attack. William D. Porter saw no action during the first stage of those attacks, because the group’s combat air patrol (CAP) provided an effective protective blanket. However, the last raid broke through the CAP umbrella at 16:50 and charged to the attack. Porter took three of those planes under fire at about 17:13, but growing darkness precluded evaluation of the results of that engagement. During that raid, cruiser USS Louisville and escort carrier USS Manila Bay suffered extensive damage from kamikaze crashes.[2]
Before dawn on the sixth, the destroyer moved into Lingayen Gulf with her unit to begin pre-invasion bombardment. Throughout the day, enemy planes made sporadic attacks upon the bombarding ships. That evening, William D. Porter began firing on shore batteries guarding the approaches to the landing beaches. At 17:38, her attention was diverted to a lone plane; and her antiaircraft battery brought it down handily. Twenty minutes later, a twin-engine Mitsubishi G4M “Betty” ran afoul of the destroyer’s gunners who splashed this one neatly as well. Porter then returned to her primary mission, shore bombardment.[2]
After the landings on 9 January, the destroyer’s mission changed to call fire and night harassing fire in support of the troops. Then, from 11 to 18 January, she stood off Lingayen Gulf with TG 77.2 to protect the approaches from incursion by enemy surface forces. On the 18th, she reentered the gulf to resume support duty for forces ashore and to contribute to the anchorage’s air and antisubmarine defenses. On 3 February, the warship bombarded abandoned enemy barges to assure that they would not be used against the invasion force or as evacuation vehicles. She then resumed her antisubmarine and air defense role until 15 February, when she departed Lingayen Gulf to escort USS Lindenwald and USS Epping Forest to Guam.[2]
Battle of Okinawa
_sinking_after_a_Kamikaze_attack_off_Okinawa,_10_June_1945_(80-G-490024).jpg)
Damaged William D. Porter listing heavily. Landing Craft Support ships LCS(L)(3)-86 and LCS(L)(3)-122 (behind) are assisting.
After returning briefly to Lingayen Gulf, William D. Porter moved on to Leyte to prepare for the assault on Okinawa. She remained at Leyte during the first half of March; then joined the gunfire support unit attached to the Western Islands Attack Group for a week of gunnery practice at Cabugan Island. She departed the Philippines on 21 March, reached the Ryukyu Islands on the morning of the 25th, and began supporting the virtually unopposed occupation of Kerama Retto. Between 25 March and 1 April, she provided antiaircraft and antisubmarine protection for the ships in the Kerama roadstead, while performing some fire-support duties in response to what little resistance the troops met ashore on the islets of Kerama Retto.[2]
However, by the time the main assault on Okinawa began on the morning of 1 April, she had been reassigned to TF 54, Rear Admiral Morton L. Deyo‘s Gunfire and Covering Force. During her association with that task organization, William D. Porter rendered fire support for the troops conquering Okinawa, provided antisubmarine and antiaircraft defenses for the larger warships of TF 54, and protected minesweepers during their operations. Between 1 April and 5 May, she expended in excess of 8,500 rounds of 5 inch shells—both at shore targets and at enemy aircraft during the almost incessant aerial attacks on the invasion force. During that period, she added five additional plane kills to her tally.[2]
The constant air raids—launched from Kyūshū and Formosa—prompted the Americans to establish a cordon of radar picket ships around Okinawa, and it was to this duty that William D. Porter switched in early May. Between 5 May and 9 June, she stood picket duty, warned the fleet of the approach of enemy air raids, and vectored interceptors out to meet the attackers. She brought down another enemy plane with her own guns; and fighters under her direction accounted for seven more.[2] At some point during the early part of the Battle of Okinawa, William D. Porter accidentally damaged USS Luce,[3] however, no incident is mentioned in either logbooks.
On 10 June 1945, William D. Porter fell victim to a unique—though fatal—kamikaze attack. At 08:15 that morning, an obsolete Aichi D3A “Val” dive bomber dropped unheralded out of the clouds and made straight for the warship. The destroyer managed to evade the suicide plane, and it splashed down nearby her. Somehow, the explosive-laden plane ended up directly beneath Porter before it exploded. Suddenly, the warship was lifted out of the water and then dropped back again, due to the force of the underwater blast. She lost power and suffered broken steam lines. A number of fires also broke out. For three hours, her crew struggled to put out the fires, repair the damage, and keep the ship afloat.
The crew’s efforts were in vain; and, 12 minutes after the order to abandon ship went out, William D. Porter heeled over to starboard and sank by the stern. Miraculously, her crew suffered no fatal injuries. The warship’s name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 11 July 1945.[2]
William D. Porter received four battle stars for her service in World War II.[2]
Not to mention also wearig your low quarteers too!
Looks like Big Brother is doing his usual stupid thing again. According to Public Intelligence:
A joint bulletin issued in early August by the Department of Homeland Security and FBI warns state and local law enforcement agencies to look out for people in possession of “large amounts” of weapons and ammunition, describing the discovery of “unusual amounts” of weapons as a potential indicator of criminal or terrorist activity.
Citing the example of Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who reportedly “stockpiled approximately 12,000 pounds of precursors, weapons, and armor and hid them underground in remote, wooded locations,” the bulletin instructs law enforcement to look for “large amounts of weapons, ammunition, explosives, accelerants, or explosive precursor chemicals” that “could indicate pre-operational terrorist attack planning or criminal activity.” Weapons do not have to be “cached” in remote locations to meet the standard for suspicious activity. According to the bulletin, weapons could be stored in an “individual’s home, storage facility, or vehicle” and may include common firearms such as “rifles, shotguns, pistols” as well as “military grade weapons.” The illegal possession of large amounts of ammunition is also listed as a potential indicator of “criminal weapons possession related to terrorism.” While the bulletin never clarifies what constitutes a “large” or “unusual” quantity of weapons or ammunition, it does say that such a quantity would “arouse suspicion in a reasonable person.”
There’s more at the link.
The photograph of a ‘weapons cache’ accompanying the article shows a mere five long guns (rifles and shotguns) and seven handguns, for a total of twelve firearms. I could multiply that total a couple of times before running out of the contents of my gun safe, and I don’t have a particularly large collection. Some of my friends could out-do me by an order of magnitude! Consider, for example, these photographs of private – yes, private – gun collections borrowed from this thread on AR15.com (click over there to see many pages of similar pictures – it’s a feast for the eyes of any firearm hobbyist!).
So tell me – are those collections “potential indicator[s] of criminal or terrorist activity”? If not, then my much smaller and lower-quality collection can hardly be considered to be so . . . unless you’re an unthinking, knee-jerk-reacting bureaucrat, I suppose!
As for ammunition – what precisely do they mean by “the illegal possession of large amounts of ammunition”? It’s not illegal to possess ammunition unless you’re a convicted felon – and there are no federal restrictions whatsoever on the quantity of ammunition one may have in one’s possession. (There may be local restrictions such as fire regulations, etc., but these will be area-specific.) To merely say that the quantity would “arouse suspicion in a reasonable person” is ridiculous. For a start, define ‘reasonable’. What does it mean? What’s a reasonable quantity of ammunition to me, as a rifle shooter, might seem alarmingly large to someone who doesn’t shoot at all, or appear ridiculously inadequate to someone who owns one or more machine-guns in the same caliber as my rifle. He might consume a one-year supply of ammunition for me in only a few minutes of firing! Witness last April’s Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot:
I know a few private individuals who each currently have more than a million rounds of ammunition in their storerooms. (Two of them are friends of mine.) They happen to shoot several hundred thousand rounds per year, so they don’t consider such stocks unreasonable – but the average suburban soccer mom who doesn’t shoot at all would probably have hysterics if she knew they were stored in her neighborhood. (I don’t know why, because it’s no threat to her; but logic usually doesn’t enter into the calculation for such people.)
I try to buy ammunition in case lots – 500 or 1,000 rounds at a time. That quantity will last me for anything from a few months to a few years in the calibers I shoot. I buy it in bulk because it’s cheaper that way. I’m a retired pastor and retired law enforcement officer. Does my buying ammunition in bulk, and possessing a few thousand rounds of it, suddenly render me suspicious to the authorities? If so, I have a few words for them . . . none of them polite!
This is yet another bureaucratic overreach. Perfectly normal activities are now classified as potentially suspicious – and don’t let that word ‘potentially’ fool you. In practice, it means that some law enforcement officers and/or agencies will claim that your possession of large quantities of firearms and/or ammunition is automatically grounds for suspicion, and that you’re therefore automatically to be regarded as a potential terrorist, or criminal, or whatever. Don’t tell me that doesn’t happen. It does. I’ve seen it far too many times before – and the more bureaucratic and unthinking the officer or agency, the more likely it is to happen. Constitutional safeguards are all too often ignored in the process.
It’s long gone time we tossed out of office the politicians who approved the ‘security state’, and dismantled the ‘security bureaucracies’ that do nothing whatsoever to keep us safe – except consume our tax dollars in ever-increasing amounts, and put out such inane ‘alerts’.
It was 0500 on a Monday. The young man who clerked the local minimart was in the back corner of the store straightening up the milk jugs. His partner, a local teenaged girl, was in the restroom. The man walked into the store quietly wearing a long black raincoat. It was both too warm and too dry out for a raincoat.
The minimart was located within spitting distance of the front gate of the local Army base. However, this early the PT (Physical Training) crowd was not yet cranked up. The minimart, its associated parking lot, and the surrounding neighborhood had not yet awakened for the day.
There wasn’t a bell on the door, so the clerk arranging the dairy products did not hear the man come in. According to the surveillance video reviewed later the man feigned interest in a magazine long enough to get a feel for the store. He then quietly made his way to the distracted clerk.
Once within a few feet of his target, the man swept his long black Army-issue raincoat aside to expose a wicked-looking cut-down 12-gauge shotgun. The young clerk still had no idea there was anyone else in the retail portion of the store. The man then calmly rotated the gun up, oriented it on the back of the unsuspecting clerk’s head, and squeezed the trigger.
The clerk was dead before his body hit the ground. The noise of the heavy short-barreled shotgun discharged within such a confined space must have been deafening. Regardless, the man regained his wits in short order and made his way to the cash register.
The teenaged girl heard the gunshot, locked the door to the restroom, and stood atop the toilet. She remained in this position throughout the whole sordid episode. The newly-minted murderer not twenty meters away never knew she was there.
The man, his ears undoubtedly still ringing mightily from the shotgun blast, replaced his shotgun underneath his raincoat and addressed the electronic cash register. He studied the device for a few moments before timidly trying a button or three. Alas, this machine demanded some kind of code to operate.
He had just precipitously retired said code along with the unfortunate young clerk vicinity the refrigerated beer cooler. Just as the man was becoming frustrated the door opened and a local businessman walked in unawares.
The business guy was obviously an early riser, and he had a habit of picking up a local newspaper at the minimart as he made his lonely way to work. This morning he did not recognize the face of the skinny guy behind the counter, but these teenagers came and went.
He grabbed his paper, smiled, and dropped a quarter on the counter before turning to leave. He never noticed the cooling corpse in the back of the store.
Stunned, the armed robber-turned-murderer dropped the quarter into his pocket before returning his attention back to the register. Once the business guy was clear of the parking lot he retrieved his shotgun, reversed it, and bashed the keypad with its butt. By now he was getting worried. He was running out of time.
In desperation the man hefted his shotgun, jacked the slide, and pointed it at the register. He stroked the trigger and unleashed a charge of birdshot into the machine at near contact range. Shredded keys blew across the store, and the LED display disintegrated. The cash drawer, however, remained closed. In fact, the shotgun blast had effectively peened the thing shut for the rest of time.
Realizing that this operation was now doomed to failure, the dangerously inept murderer replaced his shotgun underneath his coat and fled the scene. Once a decent period of time passed the young woman carefully peeked out of the restroom. These were the days before cell phones, so she grabbed the store phone and called the cops.
The Gun
David Fenimore Cooper was purportedly the first person to use the term “shotgun” in print. British Redcoats were known to charge their Brown Bess muskets with a combination of shot and a standard musket ball to form a “buck and ball” load. With a barrel diameter of three quarters of an inch, this smoothbore flintlock musket packed an impressive payload. This puts the Brown Bess close to a modern 10-gauge from the perspective of pure geometry.
The shotgun as we know it really came into its own in the middle of the 19th century. Scatterguns were fairly widely used during the American Civil War.
Doc Holliday purportedly wielded a short-barreled 10-gauge side-by-side coach gun during the famed gunfight at the OK Corral. Holliday was an Old West legend who was likely responsible for shedding a great deal of blood. However, Tom McLaury that fateful day in Tombstone was supposedly his only historically verified kill.
Modern shotguns number in the tens of millions and are found around the globe. The fact that shotguns are commonly used hunting arms typically makes them the last to fall victim to gun bans. However, the determined miscreant can still conjure a superb concealable close-quarters weapon out of your typical sporting scattergun.
The peculiar gauge system used to identify a shotgun bore is an English contrivance. The number reflects the number of pure lead balls of a certain diameter that make up a pound. Therefore a lead ball that perfectly describes a 12-gauge bore weighs one-twelfth of a pound. That’s the reason smaller numbers mean larger bores.
A theoretical one gauge shotgun would fire a one-pound projectile. This is, incidentally, the same diameter as a golf ball. For whatever reason, a .410 bore is an exception to this rule and is actually 0.410 inches across.
A typical slide action shotgun sporting a pistol grip and a shortened barrel is a devastating close-quarters tool. Longer barrels will always produce superior performance, but the gaping maw of a cut-down 12-bore is invariably attention-getting.
Transforming a typical Remington 870 sporting gun into such a tool requires a hacksaw, a rasp, about 20 minutes, and a total disregard for federal gun control law.
A side-by-side shotgun also makes an effective and concealable close-quarters gun once properly pruned. I have legally shortened three shotguns by means of a BATF Form 1. Each iteration requires its own $200 transfer tax, fingerprints, and interminable wait, but the transformations can be undertaken easily with simple tools.
The pistol grip on my side-by-side took a little trial and error, but remounting the front sight beads required nothing more than a drill press, a hand tap, and a little patience.
The Rest of the Story
The shooter was a young enlisted soldier posted to the nearby Army base. Nobody really knows where he went after the shooting but it wasn’t to PT. Once he missed the Monday morning formation he was reported absent, and the military admin wheels began turning.
This sordid episode took place in the early nineties, before 911, and airport security was unrecognizable from what it is today. The modest local airport offered regional service to the larger hubs, but you didn’t have to pass through a metal detector to board the plane. That’s hard to imagine today, but it was not unusual back then.
The soldier boarded the airplane with his shotgun tucked inside his carry-on. He changed planes in Dallas and made it aboard the second plane still with his shotgun in tow. By the time the sun set on the day, he had killed his first man, and then he was back home with his mom.
He didn’t bother telling his mother he had blown an innocent man’s head off in a botched robbery that morning. She was just pleased with an unexpected visit. Moms the world over are generally excited to see their kids and might not be inclined to ask too many questions.
There was still no connection to the shooting, but federal authorities nonetheless made a phone call to the young soldier’s home of record looking for the guy. Once they found out he was there somebody someplace put two and two together. The feds took the idiot kid into custody without a fuss. They seized his illegal shotgun as well.
The motive was simply money. As near as anyone could tell the shooter and the victim had never before met. Army Privates don’t get paid much, and this one had undoubtedly overextended himself. In my experience of supervising such knuckleheads, it likely involved an exorbitant car payment, a cheap girlfriend with expensive tastes, or some overpriced stereo equipment. For such as this an innocent man died.
I lost track of what happened to the murderous idiot soldier. He’s likely still locked up someplace. If rank stupidity was a capital offense he would be at the front of the line to the gallows. Throughout it all his take was a whopping twenty-five cents, and that for a newspaper he nominally sold.
