210: The Pacific War 1944: From the Cairo Conference to the Marianas Turkey Shoot

“If we ever lose Saipan, repeated air attacks on Tokyo will follow. No matter what it takes, we have to hold there.” As Operation Cartwheel neutralizes Japanese forces on Rabaul, American and British leaders meet with “Forgotten Allies” in Cairo—namely China’s nationalist leader Chiang Kai Shek and his diplomat wife Soong Mei-ling. The relentless pressure on Japan continues as heroes like “Merrill’s Marauders" hack through Burma’s jungles, securing vital supply lines and isolating the Japanese. Desperation leads to more bonsai attacks and even civilian suicides. More islands fall. The conflict reaches a boiling point at the "Marianas Turkey Shoot," and the brutal battle for Saipan, both of which aim to place Tokyo within bombing range and clear the path for Doug to return to the Philippines. ____ Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com http://HTDSpodcast.com and go deep into episode bibliographies https://www.htdspodcast.com/bibliography and book recommendations https://www.htdspodcast.com/book-recommendationsjoin discussions in our Facebook community https://www.facebook.com/groups/257926761619618/get news and discounts from The HTDS Gazette https://www.htdspodcast.com/newsletters-1 come see a live show https://www.htdspodcast.com/live-showsget HTDS merch https://htds-team-shop.fourthwall.com/or become an HTDS premium https://htds.supercast.com/ member for episodes and other perks. HTDS is part ofAudacy media network. https://www.audacy.com/Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Contacthttps://audacyinc.com/contactAudacyinc.com. http://Audacyinc.com

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• 2:30Speaker 00

  It's December 20th, 1941. We're in southwestern China, in the Yunnan Province's capital city of Kunming, and Claire Li Shenalt is at his newly-established headquarters, likely poring over maps and charts, doing all he can to make sure his volunteer pilots are ready to strike the Japanese Air Force the moment they get the chance. See Claire, or Old Leatherface, as the nearly 50-year-old, hard-of-hearing World War I vet and feisty Louisianan is known. May have been pressed to retire from the US Army Air Corps a few years back, but he was quick to accept an offer abroad. Now, he holds the rank of Colonel in the Chinese Air Force. Nor is he the only American here.

• 3:12Speaker 00

  Back in April, President Franklin Roosevelt quietly authorized reserve officers and enlisted men in the US military to resign if they wanted to join the ranks of Old Leatherface's Flyboys in China, the American Volunteer Group, or the AVG. With Japan having laid waste to China for years at this point, as we learned back in episode 193, it was a slick way to get American flyers into Chinese skies without the US declaring war on Japan. That loophole doesn't feel so important a little less than two weeks out from the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, but no matter. What's important in the moment is this: The AVG is in China, and now, with Kunming still reeling from a deadly bombing just two days ago, Old Leatherface has brought his boys

• 3:57Speaker 00

  to town, ready to give Japan a fight if they again dare to strike this vital city through which American lend lease and other foreign supplies supporting the embattled Republic of China flow. At 9:45 a.m., Claire's phone rings. It's commander of the Chinese Fifth Air Force and Chief of Staff for the AVG, Colonel Wang Xiuming.

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  Ten Japanese bombers cross the Yunnan border at Lao Kai, heading northwest.

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  Claire snaps to it as his pilot scrambles. This is it. This is the American Volunteer Group's moment. It's time to inspire the beleaguered Chinese people with a forceful show of American might, or to confirm that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was but the beginning of the end for all who oppose the empire of the Rising Sun. No pressure. Old Leatherface has a red flare fired, a signal for takeoff. And with that, 8 to 10 Curtis P-40s from the Panda Bear, aka Second Squadron, each one likely wearing the AVG's fierce, shark-toothed paint job under its roaring single engine, tear down the runway.

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  Taken to the sky, they form two formations, one of which ascends to provide top cover patrolling over the city, the other off to hunt. Both groups soon disappear into the clouds. On the ground, Claire listens as one of his squad leaders, Jack Newkirk, radios back.

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  Shark fin blue calling base. Bandit sighted 60 miles east. Attacking.

• 5:28Speaker 00

  Then, silence. Minutes pass. Still silence. Oh, God. With a heavy heart, Claire calls up the Atom and Eves First Squadron. 14 shark-toothed P-40s tear into the sky. Charlie Bond is thrilled, as the well-trained but fresh-to-the-fight pilot will lay to right: This time, it was the real thing. Numbering among the First Squadron reinforcements, he's soaring at roughly 20,000 feet, somewhere to the southeast of Kunming, peering through the clouds looking for the enemy, when, yes, that's them: 10 Mitsubishi Type 97 bombers. In turn, the Japanese bombers spot the Americans.

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  Immediately, they cut from their flight path and turn back toward their base at Hanoi, but Charlie and the rest of the Atom and Eves are in hot pursuit. Pushing to full throttle or close to it, indicating a speed of 225 miles per hour, the P-40's grinning shark teeth grow closer and closer to the fleeing Japanese tails. Caught somewhere between the nerves and excitement of his first taste of battle, Charlie double-checks his oxygen mask and gun switch. He homes in, feels his heart pounding, and... What? Nothing? Oh, shoot. The nervous pilot checked his gun so many times he locked it. Too close to the Japanese to do anything but break off, he circles back around.

• 6:57Speaker 00

  This time, he's got it. Charlie lets it rip. His 50-cal machine gun tears at the Japanese bombers, right as other Americans do the same. They're on top of each other. It's nothing short of a miracle that the Americans don't kill one another with friendly fire. Meanwhile, the Japanese fire back in kind, but as they do, two are smoking. The Americans continue to hit the lot of them from every direction. With fuel getting low, Atom and Eve leader Robert Sandy Sandel calls his boys off. They fly back to Kunming, and oh, are these young Flyboys ecstatic. While the full outcome of this engagement is yet to be known, they clearly got the better

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  of the Japanese, which feels so good right after Pearl Harbor. And they've sent a clear message to friend and foe alike: Japan's open-seas and bombings on China are over.

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  Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story.

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  Of the 10 Mitsubishi bombers that set out to strike Kunming that morning, only one makes it back unscathed. Claire Li Shenalt is rightly proud of his American Volunteer Group, or the Flying Tigers, as the press soon nicknames them. Altogether, the Flying Tigers down upwards of 300 enemy aircraft and fight more than 50 air battles on behalf of China. According to the National Museum of the United States Air Force, they win every single one. The unit expands on July 4th, 1942, shortly after the long-shot Doolittle Raid we heard about in episode 193, and not for any failure, but because, well, Uncle Sam wants his Flyboys

• 9:09Speaker 00

  back, and most return to their respective branches. China, or the forgotten ally, as historian Ron A. Minter so aptly describes it, is all too often forgotten in our account of World War II. Today, it enters our American story as President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet the nation's leader in Cairo, Egypt. And since we want to be well-prepared for that sit-down, we'll start with some recent Chinese history that will help us better understand its leader, the Generalissimo Zheng Kai Shek, a man just as if not more afraid of internal challenges from Mao Zedong as he is of any challenge from Japan. And with that understanding, we'll then join the Generalissimo in Cairo and meet his American

• 9:52Speaker 00

  advisor, Vinegar Joe Stillwell, as well as one of his generals, Frank Merrill, who takes command of an elite force sent to carve a supply path from Burma, or Myanmar, into China. But with much to do, we won't stay in Burma. Rather, we'll head back to the Pacific Ocean, where General Douglas MacArthur and his Navy buddy Admiral William Bull Halsey are hopping toward the end of Operation Cartwheel, which is to say they're choking off Japan's stronghold on Rabaul. We'll do plenty of hopping ourselves as we wrap up this campaign, but we'll join Doug as he braves the dangers of Los Negros Island. Finally, as Operation Cartwheel finishes its last turn, we'll turn to the Central Pacific,

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  where the Japanese are looking to fulfill their dream of a gigantic, decisive sea battle, one that will take place amid the American invasion of the Mariana Islands. We'll soar through the skies with ace pilot Alex Verashu, then witness the brutal fight for Saipan, an island that will put the Americans within bombing range of the Emperor in Tokyo himself. So much to do, so little time, so let's not waste a minute, and we begin by backing things up to get acquainted with our forgotten ally. Rewind.

• 11:11Speaker 00

  The Qing Dynasty’s collapse takes generations, but here it is in just a few beats. Between opium wars, foreign powers carving out spheres of influence, an emptying treasury, and a Han majority tired of a ruling Manchu minority, the sick man of Asia, as turn-of-the-century China is known, is already on the brink. A brink that doesn’t hold, as the regent-run court of the young Emperor Pu Yi tries to shore up its financial woes by nationalizing the railroads in 1911. It’s a play that pushes local leaders over the edge, leading one province after another to declare independence, and the boy emperor to abdicate. This ends nearly three centuries of Qing rule, and more than 2,000 years of a Chinese empire.

• 11:55Speaker 00

  Back from exile, revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen has three principles that he believes can rebuild China. One: anti-imperialist nationalism. Two: democracy. And three: a form of socialism, called “the people’s livelihood.” Sun is liked and embraced as the “Father of the Nation,” but that’s no match for an army, specifically General Yuan Shikai’s army. Sun soon finds himself bowing out to this general with imperial ambitions. But the power vacuum proves too much for Yuan as well, who, after gutting Sun’s infant republic, overreaches for a crown, fails, and dies in 1916. Thus it is that, as World War I rages and Japan happily gobbles up territory, China

• 12:40Speaker 00

  is thrown into a warlord era. And it’s in this warlord chaos that two heirs of Sun’s three principles, nationalist Jiang Kai-shek and communist Mao Zedong, learn the same lesson: get power, hold power. We now enter the 1920s. A young library assistant at Peking University, Mao Zedong becomes a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party, or the CCP. Now, I covered Marxism in episode 151, and its Leninist and Stalinist subsets in 186, but let’s recall that Karl Marx was about the city-dwelling working class rising against

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  the bourgeoisie, not an agricultural peasantry uprising, which is why it matters that this peasant-born library assistant is increasingly looking to the peasants for his revolution. Heresy to an old-school Marxist, but log this idea away. Mao’s peasantry thinking is a key part of his own developing take on communism, yet another subset that we’ll come to call Maoism.

• 13:49Speaker 00

  In the same decade, Jiang Kai-shek is running hard and fast with the Kuomintang Party, that is, the nationalists. More than that, he’s a military man, one trained in China and Japan, and as the commandant of the Huangpoa Military Academy as of 1924, he’s got youthful leaders looking to him. These two separate children of Sun Yat-sen’s principles, the nationalists and the communists, manage to play together in the sandbox for the next few years. Mao even runs propaganda for the nationalists, while Jiang launches his northern expedition against the warlord threat in 1926. Through their alliance, the united front, the communists and nationalists are bringing

• 14:33Speaker 00

  the warlord era to an end. But as the external threats recede, a question arises among these Sun Yat-sen-descending siblings: who will receive the full inheritance? Jiang gets the better of the communists in 1927, slaughtering thousands in the Shanghai massacre and leaving the communists all but broken. This student of the 1910’s brutal lessons on power appears to have done his homework, and by 1928, Jiang is the effective leader of a mostly unified China. He is, as the West calls him, “the Generalissimo.” But “all but broken” isn’t broken, and the Generalissimo knows it. This is a civil war.

• 15:16Speaker 00

  Years pass. As they do, Jiang Kai-shek’s drive, his obsession with stomping out this lingering threat, grows just as Mao’s peasant-powered influence does. Jiang pushes for a full-on communist hunt, which Mao answers by carrying out an incredible retreat, generally thought to be 6,000 miles, known as the Long March. By its end in 1935, Mao emerges as the paramount leader of China’s communists. Nationalist leaders are frustrated with Jiang Kai-shek. Imperial Japan has been carving off parts of northern China since 1931, yet here he is, still more focused on fighting communists than the external threat.

• 15:59Speaker 00

  In short, they feel the Generalissimo’s eye is on the wrong ball, and in December 1936, his own generals effectively kidnap him, a moment known as the Xi'an Incident, and force Jiang to give up his civil war and take on divided China’s shared enemy of Japan. Indeed, with the rising Sun’s aggression leading to the Marco Polo Bridge and rape of Nanjing the next year, 1937, which I’ll leave there since we detailed these stories in episode 193, it’s time to let the feud sit for now. A second united front now arises as World War II begins in the Pacific. A tenuously unified China, under Jiang’s leadership, holds against Japan.

• 16:41Speaker 00

  Nonetheless, China’s resources are dwindling. It needs help, help that starts coming from America indirectly, and even individually. Recently-retired US Army Air Corps Major Claire Lyschenault becomes an advisor in 1937. Yes, the eventual leader of the Flying Tigers, we met in this episode’s opening. Meanwhile, the US becomes involved in 1940, when President Franklin Roosevelt’s land lease begins supporting nationalists to China. And of course, in December 1941, the United States gets far more direct in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, by declaring war on Japan. Ah, but America’s entry raises a question: why send so many supplies to China when American

• 17:26Speaker 00

  boys need them as well? General Joseph Stillwell, or “Vinegar Joe,” as the generals known for his perpetually sour disposition, thinks the US should slow its supply-giving role, especially since the now-obsessed Generalissimo still isn’t fully focused on Japan. Misalignments of priorities continue as the war wears on, but perhaps the Generalissimo and his fellow allied leaders can come together in spirit with an in-person meeting. That’s the hope at any rate, as he heads to a conference in Cairo, Egypt. It’s a little past 10:30 in the morning, Tuesday, November 23rd, 1943.

• 18:09Speaker 00

  We’re with a group of Americans at US Ambassador Alexander Kirk’s beautiful Cairo villa, relaxing for a brief moment before making their way to the nearby historic Mina House Hotel. And the beauty isn’t just the villa and the three-story hotel, but the surroundings. Only miles away, the great Pyramids of Giza loom large in the background. Well, time to get going. The meeting starts at 11:00. Allied leaders are now walking into the hotel. They include the United States President Franklin Roosevelt and his entourage, as well as the UK’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his. Between them are nearly all the combined chiefs of staff.

• 18:51Speaker 00

  The Soviet Union’s premier, Joseph Stalin, is not here. He’s looking forward to hosting Franklin and Winston in a matter of days at his embassy in Iran. Yet, there is nonetheless one other major ally here, or rather, one whom FDR has positioned to be treated like a major ally: Generalissimo Jiang Kai-shek. And let’s note, he’s accompanied by his wife, Soong Mei-Ling, better known as “Madam Jiang.” That’s important, and no, not because British Field Marshal Lord Allenbrook finds her looks distracting enough to think he hears young officers letting out a “suppressed neigh” when she shifts in her slit skirt, but because she speaks impeccable English.

• 19:36Speaker 00

  It’ll be every bit a part of these conversations as her non-English-speaking husband. With everyone situated, Franklin starts this plenary meeting of the Cairo Conference, codenamed “the Sexton Conference” by welcoming China’s leaders. Soong Mei-Ling translates for her husband as Franklin announces: “The effects of this meeting will, I hope, not only bear fruit today and in the immediate future, but for decades to come.” From here, the handsome, square-jawed British Navy Admiral and supreme Allied commander in Southeast Asia, Lord Louis Mountbatten, outlines a proposed plan to attack the Japanese in his sphere. This includes increasing supplies flown into China over the Himalayas, the ever-difficult

• 20:19Speaker 00

  air supply path known as the Hump, perhaps upwards of 10,000 tons per month, and, early next year, a land campaign in Burma to reopen supply routes on the ground. Winston Churchill sees promise. He speaks to the value of this maneuver, of 320,000 men to support the Allies in Asia and the eventual rise of a serious naval force in the Indian Ocean, declaring:

• 20:45Speaker 02

  “These are important military operations of a much greater magnitude than ever previously contemplated for this theater. I have high hopes of these operations, and owing to the surrender of the Italian fleet, a formidable British fleet will be established in due course in the Indian Ocean.”

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  Oh, in due course? No, no. Jiang Kai-shek believes that isn’t fast enough for naval power. Through his wife, he answers that: “The success of the operations in Burma depends on the simultaneous coordination of naval action with the land operations.” Ah, but Winston disagrees:

• 21:27Speaker 02

  “Naval operations in the Bay of Bengal will not necessarily be coordinated with and linked to the land campaign. Our naval superiority in this area should ensure the security of our communications and a threat to those of the enemy.”

• 21:44Speaker 00

  The Generalissimo pushes harder now, laying out his view that Burma is the linchpin to China’s success or failure. Burma is the key to the whole campaign in Asia. After I am cleared out of Burma, the enemy’s next stand would be in North China and finally in Manchuria. With the tension mounting, Franklin intercedes: “The matter cannot be carried any further this morning. I hope that the Generalissimo will take this opportunity of meeting the chiefs of the American and British staffs and to discuss these important problems frankly with them.”

• 22:19Speaker 00

  Jung Kai-shek takes Franklin's advice, meeting with the American president again that night for dinner. We know more about Madame Jung's black silk qipao dress than the exact words she translated between the two male leaders. No joke, historical sources mention her dress while offering no account of their dialogue. But between this dinner and the days following, the Generalissimo comes away convinced that Franklin will assure more financial aid, China's role as one of the four great powers of the post-war world, a distancing, if not complete, freedom from colonial powers, and, most immediately, that naval support he wants in the Bay of Bengal, an idea codenamed Operation Buccaneer.

• 23:04Speaker 00

  Big alleged promises tied up with a bow of photos, handshakes, a Thanksgiving dinner, and the Cairo Declaration, essentially an elaboration of FDR and Winston's liberal democratic goals for the post-war world as first laid out in their 1941 Atlantic Charter. And notably, this Cairo Declaration expressly states Japan will be expelled from the territories it's taken, including those "stolen from the Chinese." But whatever the Generalissimo thought Franklin promised beyond the Cairo Declaration isn't happening, at least not as the Chinese nationalist understands it. Winston and Franklin's meeting with Joseph Stalin the following week in Tehran, Iran,

• 23:49Speaker 00

  is a story for another day, but the Big Three's focus on Europe kills Operation Buccaneer. Nor does FDR seem as sold on Jung. Only days after Cairo, he tells Vinegar Joe, "If Jung goes completely bankrupt, support somebody else." It seems the American president has come to see the Generalissimo as Lord Allenbrook does, as a cross between a pine marten and a ferret. But waning Allied confidence in the Generalissimo and the cancellation of Operation Buccaneer doesn't mean Chinese interests on the Burma Road are of no concern. The Americans will hold this line, they'll just do it their way.

• 24:34Speaker 00

  Not long before the Cairo Conference in September of this same year, 1943, Charlton Ogburn found himself at San Francisco's Camp Stoneman, preparatory to shipping out to the Pacific Theater to engage in jungle combat. Never mind that the call specified this was for "a dangerous and hazardous mission." Charlton hates the cold so much that the promise of a jungle was all he needed. You can threaten his life, just don't threaten him with snow. And just what type of men voluntarily answer a call like this? Well, nearly 3,000 answer. Jungle-trained men out of the Caribbean and the Army Ground Forces, a few hundred fresh recruits, and more than 600 hardened veterans of the Pacific.

• 25:19Speaker 00

  But I can't describe them better than Charlton does on seeing his battalion for the first time. Quote him, "I remember the word 'pirates' crossed my mind." Here's the deal. Just last August, this same year, 1943, FDR and Winston Churchill sat down with the Canadian Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, at the Quebec Conference. A decision made there was to create a US unit modeled on British General Ord Wingate's 77th Brigade, better known as the Chindits, in a nod to the Chinte, the mythical line that guards Burmese temples. In fact, this American unit was intended to fight under Ord Wingate himself. But General Vinegar Joe Stillwell wouldn't have it.

• 26:02Speaker 00

  He insists that Uncle Sam's boys fight under Uncle Sam's command. Like many American commanders going back to World War I's blackjack Pershing, he understands that his own power is undermined if British commanders call the shots for his men. He pushed the issue until Allied Supreme Commander Lord Mountbatten gave in. Ord Wingate was none too happy about it. According to Charlton Ogburn's memoir, the British general answered, "You can tell General Stillwell that he can take his Americans and..." Well, that's where Charlton trails off, but I think we all get the gist. Thus, September saw the creation of a nearly 3,000-strong volunteer and American long-range

• 26:42Speaker 00

  penetration group, the 5307th, codenamed Galahad, and commanded by American Brigadier General Frank Merrill. But you know, that name won't do. Just as their British inspiration is known as Wingate's Chindits, the newsmen following this new and daring unit want something snappier and sexier, a name that conveys "this is a motley crew of land pirates." And one day, while riding in a Jeep with General Frank Merrill and other reporters, James Shepley of Time & Life comes up with just such a name: Merrill's Marauders. James asks the general, "What do you think of it?" Frank answers in one word, or rather, one grunt. "Ugh."

• 27:26Speaker 00

  Okay, so Frank Merrill isn't enthused. Nonetheless, the name will stick. Merrill's Marauders. And what will stick even more is their well-earned reputation for bravery and duty. They'll fight in the jungles, they'll fight behind enemy lines, they'll take Miat Chinya Airfield, and they'll do it all at great sacrifice. Of the 2,750 who report to Burma, only 130 marauders will walk out on their own two feet. We'll hear more tales of the marauders' descendants, the Army Rangers, in future episodes. But for now, we leave them in Burma to follow the main American advance as 1943 gives way to 1944.

• 28:08Speaker 00

  Back to the Pacific's hopped-over islands with America's stubborn, corn-cob-pipe-chomping general Douglas MacArthur and his equally pugnacious friend Admiral William Bull Halsey. That's right, it's time to return to Operation Cartman. History That Doesn't Suck is supported by Indeed. I'm not afraid to say this, as HTDS has grown, the business requires skills I know I don't naturally possess. If I need to hire, I think this is a job for sponsored jobs. When you sponsor your job on Indeed, you'll find the candidates with the skills you're looking for. Indeed is genuinely all you need to find quality talent. Instead of putting a post out there and praying the right people see it, Indeed Sponsored

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• 32:21Speaker 00

  Ah, yes. Supreme Allied Commander of the Southwest Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur, and Commander of the South Pacific Area, or COMSPAC, Admiral William Bull Halsey. What a pair. When we left them at the end of 1943 in the last episode, they were running a two-pronged amphibious campaign. Bull working up the Solomon Islands, Doug tackling New Guinea to the west. Their target sits smack dab in the middle, New Britain’s port city of Rabal. This is Operation Cartwheel, and I trust to recall the approach. Rather than taking Rabal, they’re jumping from one weaker island to the next, surrounding their target and cutting it off.

• 33:06Speaker 00

  As Doug puts it, “This approach will make the Japanese base ‘wither on the vine’.” And finally, let’s recall as well that Doug initially opposed this idea. Moreover, never mind that it’s Rear Admiral Theodore Wilkinson who’s most responsible for putting it into practice, Doug’s taking the credit. He’s even drawing a distinction. Hitting weaker islands is leapfrogging, while charging guns ablazing onto fortified islands in sequence is the lesser path of island hopping. I again leave it to you to put whatever stock you want into his definitions.

• 33:45Speaker 00

  Either way, Operation Cartwheel continues. Leading the more eastern of the two prongs, COMSPAC William Bull Halsey is progressing up the Solomon Islands. At no small cost, he takes Mundah, then hops to Villa La Vela. By late October, Bull’s poised to strike at Boganville. Now, Boganville is the largest of the Solomon Islands, and crucially, it’s also the closest of this island chain’s larger islands to the final target of Rabal itself. A toehold the Americans need, even with 40,000 Japanese holding the southern end. But that’s the point of hopping.

• 34:27Speaker 00

  Bull skirts them entirely, striking the western shore at Empress Augusta Bay, defended by a mere 270 men. Bull’s boys take them out, build an airfield, and Rabal is now in range. Brilliant. But as these intrepid Marines land on Empress Augusta Bay’s shores to exploit this weakness on November 1st, Japan’s replacement for Yamamoto Isoroku as commander of the combined fleet, Admiral Koga Mineichi, answers. He sends Vice Admiral Omori Sentaro with a force of two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and six destroyers to fend the Americans off. A former torpedo school instructor, Omori is more of a textbook admiral than a practiced one.

• 35:10Speaker 00

  In fact, this is his first actual battle. Nonetheless, he’s confident. At a pre-battle briefing, he tells his gathered commanders, “I believe we shall win.” They aren’t so sure. One skipper whispers to another, “Let’s be prepared for a swim and take along plenty of shark repellent.” His colleague doesn’t share this dark sense of humor and answers with grave seriousness, “Japan will topple if Boganville falls.” Trusting his sailors’ training in night tactics to offset the fact that Bull Halsey’s forces know they’re coming, Omori strikes at 2:30 in the morning, November 2nd, 1943. Between rain and fog, no one can see anything beyond three miles. Omori loves it.

• 35:55Speaker 00

  His sailors have trained hard for such conditions. He thinks he has the advantage, but it’s only a matter of minutes before he’s disabused of this notion. At 2:45 a.m., an American salvo crashes into the light cruiser Sendai. It seems the advantages the Japanese once had at night have been lost over the past year to American technological advancements. To quote Captain Hara Tamayichi, “Enemy radar had rested from the Japanese Navy’s former supremacy in night action.” Within an hour, it becomes clear that dark humor and shark repellent were the right approach. Omori has lost the dark-morning battle of Empress Augusta Bay so thoroughly, he’ll

• 36:36Speaker 00

  never command again. Understanding the devastating threat this American toehold on Boganville poses, Japan’s commander of the combined fleet, Admiral Koga Mineichi, isn’t about to accept this defeat. And he won’t trust a bookworm this time. Rather, the Japanese commander sends the opposite. A man who sunk an American heavy cruiser, felt the pain of defeat at midway, and temporarily silenced Waddle Canal’s Henderson Airfield. In short, an officer who’s seen almost every noteworthy battle of this war, Vice Admiral Kurita Takeo. You’ll want to remember that name. With a force of eight cruisers, seven heavy, and one light, Admiral Kurita sails off to

• 37:20Speaker 00

  reinforce Rabal. A patrolling B-24 notices Kurita’s fleet. Word comes back to Bull, and he has a choice: sit on Boganville and wait for his likely demise, or preemptively hit the Japanese fleet at Rabal, where they’ll have shore batteries backing them. Damned either way, no wonder Bull will later call this “the most desperate emergency that confronted me in my entire term as COMSPAC.” Bull decides to act. On November 5th, he entrusts Rear Admiral Frederick Sherman to take two carriers, USS Saratoga and USS Princeton, and 97 aircraft—basically, every bird Bull’s got—to do

• 38:03Speaker 00

  as much damage as possible to Admiral Kurita’s newly-arrived warships. Frederick’s two carriers don’t sink a single Japanese ship, but they do significant damage to four heavy cruisers and two light cruisers while only losing 10 aircraft in the process. It’s enough to keep the Japanese fleet from coming at them. Bull’s gambled big, and he beat the house. His position on Boganville is secure, even as the Japanese hold most of the island. But again, the Rising Sun Empire can have the rest of the isle. All Bull needs is this toehold on its western coast, and as 1943 gives way to 1944, the

• 38:43Speaker 00

  Japanese base at Rabal is already starting, to use Doug’s phrase, “to wither.” And speaking of Doug, he’s ready to make a gamble of his own. On February 24th, he receives intel that the Las Negros Island is sparsely defended. General Ennis Whitehead believes it has about 300 men and is “ripe for the plucking.” Fantastic if true. Las Negros might be little more than an islet, but holding and building an airfield on this little speck among the Admiralty Islands about 350 miles northwest of Rabal could really wither up the Japanese forces all the more. Doug thinks the number is too low.

• 39:25Speaker 00

  He agrees with General Charles Willoughby’s estimate of some 4,000 or so Japanese across the Admiralty Islands. Moving without building up is truly risky, but he won’t wait and risk missing this possible lull in Japanese defenses. No, Doug prefers to hop—sorry, leap—at the opportunity, moving in quickly with a mere thousand men from the First Cavalry. Nor is he gambling with others’ lives alone. Doug’s going in himself. It’s about 4:00 in the afternoon, leap day, February 29th, 1944. Dressed in a tan trench coat and his officer’s cap protect against the downpour just starting

• 40:08Speaker 00

  to let up, General Douglas MacArthur strides through the surf and onto the southern shores of Las Negros Island’s Momote Beach. As he walks, his accompanying aides keep a nervous and watchful eye. While this morning’s brewery task force braved Japanese machine guns and took control of much of this island, including Momote Airfield, occasional gunfire still rings out in the distance. Doug’s first order of business is ceremonial. He pins a distinguished service cross on the chest of Lieutenant Marvin Hinshaw for leading the first wave of Americans ashore. Marvin also took out one of the five Japanese killed in this morning’s fight, a fight that also caused 10 American casualties—four dead and six wounded. Phew.

• 40:53Speaker 00

  So far, these numbers are incredibly low, and Doug is thrilled. But the continuous crack of gunfire in the jungle can’t be ignored. He turns to Marvin’s commanding officer, Brigadier General William Chase, and urges him, “You have all performed marvelously. Hold what you have taken, no matter against what odds. You have your teeth in him now. Don’t let go.” Doug continues to tour the beach, and with every soggy step in the sandy mud, his officers grow progressively more nervous. But the corn-cob-hype-loving general pays no heed to the danger. He just wants more details. One cavalry officer touches Doug’s sleeve, then points to the nearby jungle as he interjects,

• 41:36Speaker 00

  “Excuse me, sir, but we killed a Jap sniper in there just a few minutes ago.” Doug responds, “Fine. That’s the best thing to do with him.” A little farther on, the group comes across the bodies of two Japanese soldiers—young, dark-haired and shirtless, leading lifelessly across the sand. They stop. Someone claims that one was killed just 20 minutes ago. Doug stares for a long moment. Finally, he mutters, “That’s the way I like to see them.”

• 42:11Speaker 00

  Doug tours for two hours. In the process, he raises everyone's blood pressure by examining the seized but hardly secure airfield. He insists that everyone else wear a helmet, but not him. And this is both noble and self-serving at once. He'll risk his life to meet his responsibilities, and he's taking a little more risk than needed to shed a nickname he's long hated: dugout Doug. He's not one for the dugout. He's one for the field. And this field is well in hand, especially as more troops land that same day. Doug and his entourage return to their light cruiser, USS Phoenix, knowing the gamble has paid off. Los Negros is theirs.

• 42:54Speaker 00

  Not that the island's remaining Japanese forces will accept that without a fight. A week later, on March 4th, the Japanese charge out in a bonsai attack. But the Americans hold, even at great sacrifice. As Tennessee native Sergeant Troy McGill's squad is cut down by 200 charging soldiers, he orders his last man still standing to fall back. Troy then stands his ground alone, firing until his gun fails him before charging out of his foxhole to fight on with the butt of his rifle. More than 100 Japanese dead are later found around his corpse, and he's posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. On April 6th, the lieutenant whom Doug honored with the Distinguished Service Cross, Marvin Henshaw, is killed in mop-up actions. Or so we assume.

• 43:38Speaker 00

  He's never found. But it's not in vain, as Troy, Marvin, and thousands of other young Americans make the ultimate sacrifice. Rabal is surrounded. Its 100,000 Japanese troops go from fighting shape to starving, tunneling into the ground to hide from the bombs. They'll survive the war, but they'll do so as, to quote one witness, "living corpses." Wither on the vine indeed. And so, the hopping and leaping have done it. Rabal is neutralized. By the end of April, Operation Cartwheel is a success. And with that success, Doug's gaze is fixed on the land and the men he was forced to

• 44:19Speaker 00

  abandon two years ago, and a promise he means to fulfill. But the fulfillment of that promise is a story for another time. Right now, our gaze must turn away from Doug's southwest Pacific and back to Chester Nimitz's central Pacific. It's time to prepare for Operation Forager, or D-Day in the Pacific. The Invasion of Saipan and the Mariana's. History that Doesn't Suck is supported by Vistaprint. This podcast is a small business passion project, and seeing our vision come to life offline is cool too, thanks to our expert partner, Vistaprint. On my recent book tour, we were able to order custom, high-quality banners for book readings. It also added a nice professional polish.

• 45:04Speaker 00

  It also made the events more memorable because readers and I could pose together in front of the banner for selfies to post online. And that's just one of the countless premium products Vistaprint offers to elevate your brand identity. From postcards and posters to tumblers and t-shirts, Vistaprint makes high-end, custom printing accessible to everyone, giving you exceptional quality and results that make every single dollar go further. With real people on standby and seamless tools, Vistaprint guides you through every step of the process so you always look completely polished. There's a reason over 17 million small businesses trust Vistaprint to elevate their vision. Vistaprint: Print Your Possible. Right now, new customers get 20% off with code NEW20 at Vistaprint.com.

• 45:47Speaker 00

  That's 20% off at Vistaprint.com using code NEW20.

• 46:02Speaker 00

  Japan's commander of the combined fleet, Koga Minnichi, is in a tough spot as we enter spring 1944. Here's the 30,000-foot view. He inherited a back-footed position when American flyboys killed his friend and predecessor, Yamamoto Isoroku, in April 1943, as we saw in episode 208. Since then, he's watched the Allies hop across the Gilberts and Marshals and cartwheel through New Guinea and the Solomons to choke off Rabal. That's rough. Koga draws a line. If the Americans come for the Mariana Islands, which lies halfway between New Guinea and Japan, and would put the United States' B-29 superfortresses close enough to strike the

• 46:46Speaker 00

  land of the rising sun itself, he'll confront his foe in what he terms a "decisive battle." But tragedy strikes the combined fleet commander before it comes to that. Flying across the Philippines on March 31st, 1944, his plane goes down in a typhoon. Nonetheless, Koga's successor, Admiral Toyoda Soemu, holds his line. Known as Operation Ago, Japan is determined to engage the US in the sea battle to end all sea battles. To quote Toyoda, "We must achieve our objectives by crushing with one stroke the nucleus of the great enemy concentration of forces in one decisive battle."

• 47:29Speaker 00

  The Americans are also thinking decisively with Operation Forager. This is their plan to hop to the Mariana Islands, starting with the most northern of the archipelago's larger islands: Saipan. This bold move would put the Japanese homeland within superfortress range. Worse, that would put striking the Emperor himself in range. This, the land of the rising sun, cannot abide. So, the decisive battle is on. But Japan faces two serious problems as this Mariana throwdown materializes. First is that the Americans just placed the battle far from where the Japanese hoped this epic clash would happen.

• 48:11Speaker 00

  More to the point, this means fighting far from the conquered oilfields of the Dutch East Indies, after already suffering the loss of 21 oil tankers taken out by the Allies in recent months. Thus, even as Toyoda sends the commander of the 1st Mobile Fleet, Admiral Ozawa Gisaburo, out to fight with an impressive armada, the experienced admiral's forces boast nine aircraft carriers with a total of nearly 500 aircraft. He has to be mindful about economizing his volatile fuel. Japan's second problem is that this fleet's pilots are as wet, if not wetter, behind the ears than the whole of their carriers. See, the United States sends its veterans home to train new pilots.

• 48:55Speaker 00

  Conversely, Japan's seasoned pilots stay in the fight until the fight takes them out. Thus, the Japanese boys flying these birds, some are teenagers, are brave but untrained. They're about to go cockpit to cockpit with more capable Americans who outnumber them 2 to 1. Opposite Ozawa is commander of the 5th Fleet Admiral Raymond Spruance, and under him, one of the nation's first Navy pilots turned aggressive vice adm. Mark Mitchur, whose Task Force 58 boasts a staggering 15 carriers with some 900 aircraft. On the other hand, Ozawa expects help from the land in the form of some 450 Japanese aircraft stationed between Saipan and Guam.

• 49:40Speaker 00

  Experience remains an issue, but at least on paper, that should bring parity back to the fight. But of course, the battle doesn't begin with the carriers. It begins with the Marines. On June 15th, 1944, nine days after the Allies' D-Day invasion of France's Normandy Beach, the Pacific's D-Day arrives. The 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions lead the landing on Saipan. It's reminiscent of the fighting we saw at the Battle of Tarawa in episode 209, but on a larger scale. As the Devil Dogs advance, they don't know that the anticipating Japanese have flags out on the reef, giving them a perfect knowledge of when to fire up their howitzers, their 75s, and batteries.

• 50:25Speaker 00

  Young American boys are blasted to bits in the water and on the beach. It's so bad, the total casualty count will never be clear. They are the blood sacrifice for their surviving brothers in arms to establish a hold on the island. On June 18th, Emperor Hirohito lays out the stakes for Prime Minister Tojo Hideki. "If we ever lose Saipan, repeated air attacks on Tokyo will follow. No matter what it takes, we have to hold there." And with those stakes at play, Admiral Ozawa's fleet arrives. The opposing fleets are in place. The battle is on. And while the Japanese don't quite realize it, here's the truth: they don't have a prayer.

• 51:13Speaker 00

  It's just before ten twenty in the morning, Monday, June nineteenth, nineteen forty-four. A twenty-five-year-old dark-haired Hoosier, Alex Verashu, is with eleven other pilots on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, or "The Blue Ghost," as she's also known, for her dark paint and her habit of surviving what should have killed her. They're located west of the Mariana Island of Guam. Alex leads this group, and they're on standby, waiting to join a fight that started without them twenty minutes ago. And yes, Alex is very eager. A double ace with twelve victories under his belt, he has every intention of adding to his count today. Finally, word comes down, and Alex and his flyboys don't waste a minute.

• 51:57Speaker 00

  They dash to their neatly lined up, single-engine Hellcat fighters and take off.

• 52:03Speaker 00

  Alex climbs and climbs through the air, only to find he has a more urgent foe than the Japanese: his own plane's mechanics. His engine spits oil that obstructs his view as it flies back in a spray on the cockpit's windshield. Okay, radioing back that his Hellcat cannot handle more than twenty thousand feet of altitude in its current condition, the fighter-director officer instructs Alex to have his group hang over and protect the task force at that very elevation. It's now just after eleven in the morning. Ordered to a vector of two-hundred-sixty-five degrees, Alex spots what he calls "a large, rambling mass of at least fifty enemy planes," headed right toward them. But that's just his estimate. The real number is sixty-nine.

• 52:49Speaker 00

  Alex shouts into his radio: "Tally-ho!" And with that, he's officially in the fray. Adrenaline pumping, Alex thinks to himself, "This could develop into a once-in-a-lifetime fighter pilot's dream." Flying above the Yokosuka D-4Y two-man dive bombers, or Judis, as the Americans call them, he prepares to move in. Alex comes in behind the Judy. He evades the tailgunner's fire, as he answers in kind. And it's a hit! The Judy sputters and spins into the sea below. Four more follow. Two, then two more diving for his Blue Ghost. Same maneuver, same results.

• 53:31Speaker 00

  With his fellow Hellcats ripping through the sky around him, Alex singles out one more Judy. He buzzes ahead of the bomber, turns back to line up against his foe, and fires. As Alex will later recall, "Number Six blew up with a tremendous explosion right in front of my face. I must have hit his bomb. I had seen planes blow up before, but never like this." Alex has to turn sharply just to avoid the shrapnel from his own kill. As he does, he radios out: "Splash, Number Six." That's right, six kills, all within eight minutes. And as Alex peers across the blue skies, all he sees are those white streaks of aviator-made condensation, or "contrails," and his fellow Americans.

• 54:17Speaker 00

  The Japanese appear only among the Pacific's blue below, wrecked and gone.

• 54:23Speaker 00

  Returning to the Lexington, Alex emerges from his Hellcat, all grins. A photo captures an image of the Hoosier as he holds up fingers to the crewman, indicating his total battle kill count of six. That's eighteen total kills across his military career to date, with one more confirmed kill to come. By the war's end, Alex will return to Indiana as the Navy's fourth-ranking ace.

• 54:51Speaker 00

  To say things are going Uncle Sam's way in this decisive battle, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, is an understatement. Of the three-hundred-seventy-three aircraft Admiral Ozawa launches against the US, only one-hundred-thirty of his rookie-piloted planes come back. Nor do the already under-seized Japanese forces on the Marianas provide the additional four-hundred-fifty aircraft he had hoped for. Only fifty or so get off the ground, and the Americans make short work of them, while only losing twenty-five Hellcats. An eleven-to-one-kill ratio. Back on the Lexington, pilot Ziggy Neff excitedly exclaims: "Hell, this is like an old-time turkey shoot." The name sticks.

• 55:34Speaker 00

  What we've just witnessed will be known as the Great Mariana's Turkey Shoot.

• 55:40Speaker 00

  The next day, June twentieth, nineteen forty-four. Hellcats dive on more unprepared Japanese Judis, leading Admiral Ozawa to retreat toward the safety of the island of Okinawa. Admiral Raymond Spruance is pleased. But Task Force Commander Mark Mitchur isn't about to let Ozawa escape. Risky to pursue the Japanese fleet some three-hundred miles out and on fumes, true, but the aggressive Admiral knows his planes and his pilots, and recognizes the enormous savings in American life it could mean if they sink those carriers. And so, he sends his bombers out into the night to "get the carriers," to quote the ready-room chalkboards.

• 56:24Speaker 00

  Well, they don't sink them all. Nonetheless, they do some serious damage. The American flyboys return to their carriers on fumes, and according to legend, the fleet's searchlights help them find their way. Yet another risky move, if true, as those same guiding lights all but dare Japanese subs to attack. Some planes crash on the flat tops, leaving heroic crews to extract pilots and push the wreckage off in time for another landing. Still, others crash in the Pacific's cold waters. Rescue operations fish some hundred-sixty pilots and crew from the water. That's most of them, but not all of them. By the end of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Americans have lost one-hundred-twenty-three

• 57:07Speaker 00

  aircraft in either forty-nine or a hundred-and-nine men. Source is conflict. Meanwhile, they've destroyed four-hundred Japanese planes, sunk three carriers, and killed upwards of three-thousand Japanese pilots and sailors. Japan got its decisive battle. In fact, there's really only one question afterward. Had more defensively-minded Admiral Raymond Spruance really let Admiral Mark Mitchur go full throttle and sunk even more carriers? Might the war come to an end sooner? But that's a question and a story for another day. For now, let's see our way through Operation Forger on Saipan.

• 57:49Speaker 00

  Japanese General Saito Yoshitsugu can see the writing on the wall. On July sixth, with two-thirds of the island in American hands, and all of his armed forces pushed to the northern tip of Saipan, he radios Tokyo to say that the battle is lost. Then he sends one final order to his troops: "Whether we attack or whether we stay where we are, there is only death. However, in death there is life. We must utilize this opportunity to exalt true Japanese manhood. I will advance with those who remain to deliver still another blow to the American devils. I will leave my bones on Saipan as a bulwark of the Pacific." But he doesn't lead the advance.

• 58:34Speaker 00

  Too ill and weak, Saito chooses to commit "sapuku." He cuts into himself with his sword. His adjutant then finishes it by shooting him in the head. Meanwhile, the departed general's men prepare. Private Kawaguchi Taro bows northward to Emperor Hirohito, then writes a last diary entry. "I am only twenty-six years old. It is deeply regrettable that I have nothing to report at this time, when my life is fluttering away like a flower petal to become a part of the soil. I, with my sacrificed body, will stand on this island until the friendly forces come to reclaim the soil of the Emperor." Huh. Another Banzai attack? Or something else?

• 59:20Speaker 00

  The honor-fueled Japanese move out in the coming hours.

• 59:27Speaker 00

  It's early in the still-dark morning, July eighth, nineteen forty-four, and twenty-five-year-old Benjamin Hazard is lying in his foxhole near a creek at Tanapag Harbor on the northwest side of Saipan. Just behind a creek with one bridge crossing, he's waiting for the onslaught. See, between Nisei friends at his high school in Los Angeles, night school, and UCLA, Ben speaks excellent Japanese. Now he's putting those language skills to use for military intelligence. And in recent days, he and Nisei interpreters have learned from a prisoner that the Japanese are planning a "gyoku sai." What's that? Ben translates it as "breaking," or "smashing the jewel."

• 1:00:11Speaker 00

  He goes on to say that, quote, "This is not the same as a Banzai attack. This is an attack until annihilation." The battle cry is "seven lives to repay the nation." In other words, a suicide attack in which each man should kill seven of the enemy before his own death. Warnings have been sent, but help isn't coming. The higher-ups, they don't get it. They haven't heard the word "gyoku sai" before, and neither Ben nor his Nisei colleagues can get the significance of it through to them just yet. Nonetheless, the early dark morning is quiet, apart from singing somewhere out in the distance. Ben waits.

• 1:00:54Speaker 00

  The singing gets closer and closer, and it isn't singing now. It's become shouts. Battle cries! The attack is here. A lingering Marine crew with a heavy machine gun lays down fire as Ben and other soldiers from the Army's Twenty-seventh Division put that cover to full advantage. Some add rifle fire, while others pile the falling bodies of the swarming Japanese on the bridge to choke off the access point to their position. Yet, the Japanese keep coming. Their first line bears bayoneted rifles. Behind them are men with swords. Then come the sick and the wounded, and even civilians, carrying makeshift spears and knives.

• 1:01:36Speaker 00

  Some are fueled by hate, some by patriotic fervor, many by sock. But whatever drives them, they won't stop until they're dead. Ben pulls out his rifle and fires into the mass of men. As he puts it, "We mowed them down." Well, the machine gun did most of it.

• 1:01:58Speaker 00

  As the battle comes to its end, Ben begins gathering intel by checking the identities of his attackers. He finds an officer wearing a katana. Ben takes the blade. Like the traumatic memories of this early morning, he will hold on to this sword for the rest of his life. Walking the battlefield in days following, Ben approaches the mass of dead bodies. Some are freshly dead, yes. Others, he realizes, were lying here long before the attack. These bodies are green and ash.

• 1:02:32Speaker 00

  And just how many of these bodies fell before this latest attack is unknown. But in total, 4,311 Japanese dead littered the ground along this creek held by the Americans. Yet, the horrors aren’t over. Between a belief that the Americans would torture and kill anyone found left on the island, and orders from local Japanese leaders, July 8th sees more death. Cyanide capsules are distributed. Soldiers are asked to behead their victims. Children stand around grenades. Mothers kill their children so that the soldiers won’t have to. And at the infamous Marapi Point, or Bonzai Cliff, as this northern cliff on Saipan

• 1:03:15Speaker 00

  will be known after today, civilians plunge onto the rocks and into churning surf below. While these deaths are often reported to be as high as, or even in excess of, 20,000, some jumping willingly, others not, historian Alexander Astroff’s work in the 21st century will demonstrate the figure was far less. Closer to 2,000 suicides and murders on Saipan and Tinian combined. Thus, the deaths at Marapi Point were likely in the hundreds, not thousands. The Battle of Saipan ends the next day, July 9th, 1944, when Marines seize Marapi Point. This is the costliest battle the US has seen in the Pacific to date.

• 1:03:58Speaker 00

  2,949 Americans are dead. Another 10,464 are wounded. Yet, that’s nothing compared to the Japanese. With essentially every soldier on the island lost, they’ve suffered at least 27,000 dead. More than that, Emperor Hirohito is right. The American hold on the Marianas opens Tokyo to super fortress bombings. Not long-shot, heroic, do little raids, but constant, successive bombings, just like the European theater. No wonder the Battle of Saipan is often called “The D-Day of the Pacific.” And no wonder the Japanese will only fight harder as the Americans continue to close in. Guam is yet to fall.

• 1:04:41Speaker 00

  Douglas MacArthur is yet to return to the Philippines. There is still much to do, and many who will die before the fight is through in the Pacific, even if Tokyo is now in sight. But we must now leave these blood-soaked beaches for a time, to visit still another. Not in this theater, but in Europe. Next time, we plan the landing on France’s northern shore. It’s time for Operation Overlord. History That Doesn’t Suck is created and hosted by me, Greg Jackson. Episode researched and written by Greg Jackson and Will Keating. Executive editor, Riley Newbauer. Production by Airship. Audio editing by Mohammed Shazade.

• 1:05:26Speaker 00

  Sound design by Molly Bach. Theme music composed by Greg Jackson. Arrangement and additional composition by Lindsey Graham and Airship. For bibliography of all primary and secondary sources consulted in writing this episode, visit htdspodcast.com.

• 1:05:51Speaker 00

  HTDS is supported by fans at htdspodcast.com/membership. My gratitude to you kind souls providing funding to help us keep going. Thank you. And a special thanks to our patrons whose monthly gift puts them at producer status. Adam Goran, Ahmed Chapman, Amy and Ross Hensman, Andrew Nissen, Andrew Sherwin, Anna M. Hutter, Art Lang, Baby Nico, Bob Stinnett, Bonnie Brooks, Ryan Gavigan, Ryan Boils, Ryan Goodson, Bruce Hibbert, Kayden Hallitz, Charles Planden, Charles Starkey, Charlie Majes, Christopher Merchant, Christopher Lyle, Christopher Pullman, Christopher Young, Cody Brown, Colleen Martin, Colin Ferris Pennington, Connor Hogan, Craig Burhost, Dan G., Daniel Beecham, Daniel

• 1:06:33Speaker 00

  Lucana, Darren Chambers, Daryl the Kid Lovell, David Rifkin, Dean Heiser, Donte Spencer, Donald Moore, Eli Edwards, Elizabeth Chris-Janson, Ellen Stewart, Ernesto Franco, Ernie Lomaster, Ethan Lowery, Ethan Thompson, G2303, Jeffrey Nelson, George J. Sherwood, Gareth Griffin, Gina Johnson, Gordon Garwood, Henry Brunges, Holly Hamilton, Jake Gilbreth, James Bledsoe, James Blue, James Schlender, Jarrett Zungora, Jeffrey Moots, Jennifer Mingioni, Jennifer Ruth, Jessica Poppin, Joe Dobis, John Booby, John Frugal Dugal, John Huber, John Messmer, John Oliveros, John Ritalich, John Schaefer, Jonathan Schaff, Jordan Corbett, Joseph Curry,

• 1:07:15Speaker 00

  Joshua Steiner, Julian Wright, Justin Tolman, Karen Bartholomew, Carl Friedman, Carl Romer, Ken Culver, Kim R., Kimberly Pruitt, Kristen Pratt, Kyle Decker, L. Paul Goringer, Laura Norman, Lawrence Newbauer, Linda Cunningham, Mark D. Worrell, Mark Ellis, Marcia Smith, Mason Glenn, Matt Siegel, Michael Longus, Michael Sullivan, Nick Caprell, Nicholas Powell, Owen W. Sedlak, Paul Huguenroth, Philip May, Randy Keane, Rich Ruckel, Rick Brown, Rob Dravovic, Robert Shelton, Rock Gay, Ryan Fogelman, Sam Holtzman, Sarah Prescott, Sarah Traywood, Scott Hurst, Shane Smith, Shannon Hoagland, Sharon Feasen, Sean Baines, Sean Collins, Stacy Ritter, Steve Williams, The Creepy Girl, Thomas Churchill, Thomas Matthew

• 1:08:00Speaker 00

  Edwards, Thomas Savitt, Tim and Sarah Turner, Todd Curran, Tom Bastofka, Travis Cox, Walter M. Ames, Wesley McKee, William Durham, William Curry, William Thompson, and Zach Jackson. Join me in two weeks, or I’d like to tell you a story.