Journey to 'Earthquake McGoon's' Crash Site

Рет қаралды 1,006

Ай бұрын

During the First Indochina War, American James B. McGovern - affectionately known as earthquake McGoon - was a pilot for the CIA’s Civil Air Transport (or CAT) and was shot down on May 6, 1954 with the last air cargo drops of supplies to the beleaguered French garrison at Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam, the day before Dien Bien Phu fell. McGovern and his co-pilot’s Wallace Buford’s crash site and initial burial site - located in Northern Laos near the Vietnam border - were a mystery until 2002 when the U.S. government found crew-related equipment, aircraft wreckage and positively identified McGovern’s remains (Buford’s remains were not recovered). Paul T. Carter, PhD, and Chris Corbett of Lao Adventure Tours (www.laoadvtours.com/ and thehochiminhtrail.com/ who owns a motorcycle and vehicle touring company in Luang Prabang Laos, are to our knowledge the first Westerners (with the exception of the American POW/MIA teams) to visit Earthquake McGoon’s crash site in Northern Laos, Houaphanh Province, near the Vietnamese border. We take you on the journey with us to Earthquake McGoon’s crash site and explain more about James B. McGovern’s life and times. Using Google Earth Studio, Carter reconstructs McGovern’s flight that day over the actual terrain and shows you the path McGovern took to the crash site.
Tony Atkinson’s KZbin video presentation of James B. McGovern is at • "Earthquake McGoon" - ...
The identity of the CAT pilots in Bangkok during the Li Mi operation are: left to right Norman A. Schwartz, unidentified, Robert E. Rousselot, James B. McGovern, and Robert C. Snoddy, February 1951 (pic E. C. Kirkpatrick)
Jean Arlaux, a Frenchman and one of the kickers, was the only survivor of the crash. He gave an interview on the occasion the French embassy in Washington giving awards to the Air America pilots for their assistance during the war.
As Retired USAF pilot Bill Tilton points out, there were some French defensive positions without female names, such as Castor, for example. So, not all were female names.
‪@CarterOnConflict‬

Пікірлер: 52

@timothyadams9282 Ай бұрын

Wow, Dr Carter you continue to amaze me. Take a bow sir, well done indeed!

@CarterOnConflict Ай бұрын

Captain, I am humbled and flattered that a man of your stature would enjoy my videos. Thank you sir.

@winaiwongsurawat7080 21 күн бұрын

The history of conflict in SEA has never been told in such an engaging style. The Google Earth graphics were awesome! Bravo, Dr. Paul Carter!

@CarterOnConflict 21 күн бұрын

Dr. Winai - you have high standards and I endeavor to meet them. Thank you for your channel support. I highly appreciate it.

@richardcoggins739 29 күн бұрын

Dr Carter, thank you for doing the documentaries that you do. As a 65 year old man and a army veteran in the late 70’s and early 80’s with several of my relatives having been in the Vietnamese war they are greatly appreciated. I look forward rd to seeing all of your new videos.

@CarterOnConflict 29 күн бұрын

Richard, I always enjoy seeing your comments, and I appreciate you supporting my channel. Also - please call me Paul - I would greatly appreciate you sending (sharing I guess it’s called) my videos with the widest audience as you can. That will help the channel and help me bring the best videos. We are the same age (I’ll be 64 this year) so we have a similar world view. Thank you again Richard.

@richardcoggins739 29 күн бұрын

@@CarterOnConflict thank you sir. I will do so.

@richardcoggins739 29 күн бұрын

Now, knowing your age, watching you do the dirtbike riding in the backcountry like that makes me even appreciate you even more. I used to do a lot of dirtbike riding when I was a youngster but at my age now I couldn’t even think of doing that. Thank you again so much for making this videos.

@donaldplagge9675 Ай бұрын

Thanks for the video, the CAT guys from those days were a different kind of heroes!!

@CarterOnConflict Ай бұрын

Donald, they were a special breed, eh? Thank you for watching and commenting - I appreciate your channel support.

@falcon5215 27 күн бұрын

Incredibly cool story...as always! Hauntingly beautiful landscape. Thank you, Andrew McMahon

@CarterOnConflict 27 күн бұрын

Good to hear from you Andrew, I appreciate your channel support and commenting.

@crispusattucks4007 16 күн бұрын

This documentary is a marvel of modern mapping! You must change your surname to Paul Cartographer

@CarterOnConflict 16 күн бұрын

Crispus, were it not for you, I would not have known of this feature!!! Thank you sir.

@RobertDawson100 28 күн бұрын

Another fascinating documentary about something I knew nothing about but was gripped from the beginning. Great pacing and explanations. Thank you!

@CarterOnConflict 28 күн бұрын

Mr. Dawson - I appreciate you watching and your family’s support. As always, good to hear from you. Thank you.

@leebagdon6922 Ай бұрын

Absolutely intriguing I would love to motorcycle or 4x4 into that area Thanks Paul for sharing

@CarterOnConflict Ай бұрын

Lee, I really appreciate you watching and commenting. Always so good to hear from you.

@stevehowell601 27 күн бұрын

outstanding work Dr. Carter. Look forward to much more in the future.

@CarterOnConflict 27 күн бұрын

I thank you for your message Steve, and of course for watching. Please stay tuned, (and please, call me Paul) as I have much more in the works. It’s messages like yours - sincerely - that keep me doing this.

@laoadvtours3479 Ай бұрын

Sabaidee Paul, it was a brilliant few days in northern Laos, I enjoyed it all. The 4.30 am starts,coffee on the back of the truck, and 1 meal day. What a trip of discovery it was for us, even on those nasty roads. Many thanks for the call way back, saying, "Let's go find earth quake McGoon"....🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

@CarterOnConflict Ай бұрын

I could not have done it without your help Chris. It was a grueling journey, long, long days but we did it and I enjoyed it as well. Here's to Ole Earthquake.

@leebagdon6922 Ай бұрын

Did you have a 4x4 support vehicle or just motorcycles?

@CarterOnConflict Ай бұрын

@@leebagdon6922 we just used the 4 x 4 Lee. We ditched the motorcycles because of rains and the roads were so poor. They really have deteriorated in northern Laos. Terrible conditions.

@leebagdon6922 Ай бұрын

Is there a particular reason you seemed to travel in the wet season? Would it be better, November thru February?

@CarterOnConflict Ай бұрын

@@leebagdon6922 ha - it does seem that most of my adventures Lee have been during the rainy season and it is not intentional. It’s just kind of fallen out that way due to my extended trips to the US. Dry season is better, you are right. In fact…my next video was filmed last dry season (Nov/Dec) so I did time that one right.

@GeneHamner 25 күн бұрын

Another excellent video, Dr. Carter.Your videos are well-researched and I enjoy hearing and seeing other peoples' first-hand accounts of the action. Keep 'em coming. Raven 12 & Nail 68 1970-72

@CarterOnConflict 25 күн бұрын

Thank you Gene for all your support. I really appreciate it.

@tommcclelland119 Ай бұрын

Another absolutely fantastic video Paul. As per our previous conversations, I believe we entered Vietnam’s neighboring Country. I was told to keep my mouth shut, and I’m seriously considering breaking my silence concerning this matter. My wife and I, back in April, went into the attic and got my plastic box full of memorabilia. I haven’t found the smoking gun, but I found pictures from my Polaroid camera that reminds me of the good times and bad times… Mostly bad times, that I spent on that damn gunboat.

@CarterOnConflict Ай бұрын

Tom, I’d love to hear more stories - we all would. You saw the world at its worst and its best. Glad you started the process, going through old memorabilia - I guess ultimately it’s the mental and emotional aspects to deal with. Anyway, I always enjoy hearing from you Tom. Thanks for watching and posting.

@tommcclelland119 Ай бұрын

@@CarterOnConflict it’s my pleasure my friend. Thanks for your efforts to capture the history of this intense conflict.

@Awubala 29 күн бұрын

What a great trip. I first went to Dien Bien Phi the autumn of 1993. Then in 1996 went by boat from Luang Prabang up the Mekong and then Nam Ou to Phongsali and areas near the China border. Along the way I stayed a couple of nights in Muong Khoua, which in a prelude to the disaster at Dien Bien Phu, had a French garrison that was wiped out on 17-18 May 1953. This is well detailed in Bernard Fall's fantastic book Street Without Joy. A side trip was taken up a small river to Sop Nao, through which the Viet Minh had come to attack the French garrison. From there my Lao guide and I headed by motorbike and then on foot up to the Vietnamese border where there was a crossing point about 16km SW of Dien Bien Phu. With a Lao border guard we walked through "no man's land" across to the Viet side and had tea with the Vietnamese border guards. I'm pretty sure I was the first European to go to that area for a very long time, perhaps ever. We certainly visited some villages along the Nam Ou where they said I was the first European (by which I mean white) person to go there. Nice to see the remoter parts of Lao haven't been spoiled by the flood of communist Chinese money and influence that I've heard about in recent years. I went to every province in Laos in the 1990s. My last trip was in 99 and went to some areas not far from where you went on this trip, including Sam Nua. Keep up the good, and interesting work!

@CarterOnConflict 29 күн бұрын

Wow, that is quite a story and one that every viewer should appreciate. I definitely am in awe of all the places you visited. Especially of course Dien Bien Phu and Moung Khoua, which I must have heard of from Street Without Joy. Based on your time period, you definitely were one of the first if not the first westerners there. One note to what you wrote ….the Chinese were everywhere along the route, and I thought of including pics I took of their trucks and company signs. Their over weight trucks have destroyed the roads, they are hauling all the mineral wealth from the country, it is bad. In any sense, I really appreciate your post. Thanks for watching and supporting the channel. I hope you find other of my videos you enjoy. Thank you for your detailed comment.

@joeylowry874 Ай бұрын

Awesome video, watching from Hazard, Ky.

@CarterOnConflict Ай бұрын

Joey, excellent! I’m from Monroe Co Kentucky originally, I know Hazard :-) I appreciate you watching and posting. I have a good moonshining video from my home county that I like to share with family, friends, and fellow Kentuckians Moonshining: Real Stories and Family History kzbin.info/www/bejne/rWiwkn2JZ72enas

@Rebel-Rouser 29 күн бұрын

Thanks for another great video

@CarterOnConflict 29 күн бұрын

Thank you for supporting my channel - good to hear from you. I appreciate you watching and commenting.

@andersfant4997 Ай бұрын

Good video. I have read many stories about him, quite a character.., his favourite footgear was a pair of moccasins, unlaced and slit accross the toes for added comfort, that why he didnt like to walk.. And he sure liked his peanuts, used to eat 500 on a mission🙂.

@CarterOnConflict Ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing these stories - and for watching!