Obit watch: April 9, 2024.

April 9th, 2024

Col. Ralph Puckett Jr. (US Army – ret.). He was 97.

Col. Puckett received the Medal of Honor in 2021 for actions on the night of November 25, 1950, during the Korean War. From his Medal of Honor citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty:

First Lieutenant Ralph Puckett, Jr., distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as the commander 8th U.S. Army Ranger Company during the period of 25 November, 1950, through 26 November, 1950, in Korea. As his unit commenced a daylight attack on Hill 205, the enemy directed mortar, machine gun, and small-arms fire against the advancing force. To obtain fire, First Lieutenant Puckett mounted the closest tank, exposing himself to the deadly enemy fire. Leaping from the tank, he shouted words of encouragement to his men and began to lead the Rangers in the attack. Almost immediately, enemy fire threatened the success of the attack by pinning down one platoon. Leaving the safety of his position, with full knowledge of the danger, First Lieutenant Puckett intentionally ran across an open area three times to draw enemy fire, thereby allowing the Rangers to locate and destroy the enemy positions and to seize Hill 205. During the night, the enemy launched a counterattack that lasted four hours. Over the course of the counterattack, the Rangers were inspired and motivated by the extraordinary leadership and courageous example exhibited by First Lieutenant Puckett. As a result, five human-wave attacks by a battalion-strength enemy — enemy element were repulsed. During the first attack, First Lieutenant Puckett was wounded by grenade fragments, but refused evacuation and continually directed artillery support that decimated attacking enemy formations. He repeatedly abandoned positions of relative safety to make his way from foxhole to foxhole, to check the company’s perimeter and to distribute ammunition amongst the Rangers. When the enemy launched a sixth attack, it became clear to First Lieutenant Puckett that the position was untenable due to the unavailability of supporting artillery fire. During this attack, two enemy mortar rounds landed in his foxhole, inflicting grievous wounds, which limited his mobility. Knowing his men were in a precarious situation, First Lieutenant Puckett commanded the Rangers to leave him behind and evacuate the area. Feeling a sense of duty to aid him, the Rangers refused the order and staged an effort to retrieve him from the foxhole while still under fire from the enemy. Ultimately, the Rangers succeeded in retrieving First Lieutenant Puckett and they moved to the bottom of the hill, where First Lieutenant Puckett called for devastating artillery fire on the top of the enemy-controlled hill. First Lieutenant Puckett’s extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

…

When night came, some 500 Chinese counterattacked in six waves. Lieutenant Puckett moved among his men from foxhole to foxhole, organizing their resistance. But at 2:30 a.m., he was crouched with a radio in his foxhole when it “churned with an explosion,” as he told it in his memoir. He had already incurred a thigh wound. This time mortar or grenade fragments slammed into his feet, buttocks and an arm, leaving him immobile.
“Thinking it meant sure death if I remained in my hole, I struggled my way out,” he wrote in his memoir. “Now on my hands and knees, I saw carnage all around.”
Two Rangers, Billy Walls and David Pollock, shot three Chinese soldiers who were yards from Lieutenant Puckett’s foxhole. As he related it to the Witness to War website long afterward, he told the Rangers, “I can’t move, leave me behind.” But they evacuated him to the Rangers’ rear command post on a trek in which he was carried and sometimes dragged. Despite his desperate condition, Lieutenant Puckett directed massive artillery fire at the Chinese from that post.

The two Rangers received Silver Stars. Col. Puckett spent 11 months in hospitals recovering, but returned to active duty. He went on to serve in Vietnam before retiring in 1971.

In addition to the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest decoration for valor, Colonel Puckett held a Distinguished Service Cross for his actions during the Vietnam War, along with two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars and five Purple Hearts in his 22 years of military service.

…

In August 1967, serving as a battalion commander in the 101st Airborne Division, he earned the Distinguished Service Cross for having “exposed himself to withering fire” in rallying his undermanned unit to vanquish Viet Cong forces in a firefight near Duc Pho, South Vietnam.

…

In April 2023, President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea awarded his country’s highest decoration for bravery, the Taegeuk Order of Military Merit, to Colonel Puckett and two other veterans of the Korean War (one honored posthumously) on a state visit to Washington marking the 70th anniversary of the U.S.-South Korea bilateral alliance.
“If it had not been for the sacrifice of Korean War veterans, the Republic of Korea of today would not exist,” he said.

…

John D. Lock, a retired Army officer and military historian, undertook a campaign dating back to 2003 to have Colonel Puckett’s Distinguished Service Cross, earned in November 1950, upgraded to the Medal of Honor. His efforts succeeded when President Biden presented the medal to Colonel Puckett at a White House ceremony attended by the South Korean president at the time, Moon Jae-in.

Col. Puckett’s book, Ranger: A Soldier’s Life on Amazon (affiliate link).

He was the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the Korean War.

His page at the Congressional Medal of Honor website.

There are now 62 living Medal of Honor Recipients today.

Posted in Heroism, History, Obits | 2 Comments »

Musical interlude.

April 8th, 2024

I know, this is an obvious choice, but it is still a classic:

Posted in Music | 2 Comments »

Obit watch: April 4, 2024.

April 4th, 2024

Apologies for being silent yesterday. I have not been feeling well pretty much all week. While I’ve been to our local Quack In the Box and gotten prescriptions, and while they seem to be helping with some things, they’re not helping as much as I would like with others. Then again, I haven’t taken the full course of antibiotics yet.

Joe Flaherty, SCTV guy. While the obit is silent on his cause of death, I do not believe he blowed up real good.

NYT (archived).

John Barth, writer. I’ve seen Giles Goat-Boy cited as a cyberpunk precursor, but have never actually read it.

Christopher Durang, playwright. I’d actually heard of him, but I’ve never seen a performance of “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You”. I think I’d kind of like to, if only to push myself outside of my comfort zone.

Posted in Books, Obits, Theatre, TV | No Comments »

Obit watch: April 2, 2024.

April 2nd, 2024

LTC Lou Conter (USN – ret.) passed away on Monday. He was 102. Internet Archive link.

LTC Conter was the last known survivor of the USS Arizona.

He rejected any notion that the dwindling number of Arizona survivors should be hailed as heroes. “The 2,403 men that died are the heroes,” he said in a 2022 interview with The Associated Press, referring to all the Americans who perished in the Pearl Harbor attack. “I’m not a hero. I was just doing my job.”

…

Mr. Conter, who held the rank of quartermaster, a position assisting in the Arizona’s navigation, was on his shift shortly after 8 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, when a Japanese armor-piercing bomb penetrated five steel decks and blew up more than one million pounds of gunpowder and thousands of rounds of ammunition stored in its hull as the ship was moored in the harbor, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
“The ship was consumed in a giant fireball,” he wrote in his memoir.
Mr. Conter, who was knocked forward but uninjured, tended to survivors, many of them blinded and badly burned. When the order to abandon ship came, he was knee deep in water. A lifeboat took him ashore, and in the days that followed he helped in recovering bodies and putting out fires. Only 93 of those who were aboard the ship at the time lived; 242 other crew members were ashore.

But wait, there’s more.

Mr. Conter later attended Navy flight school and flew 200 combat missions in the Pacific, some of them involving nighttime dive bombing of Japanese targets. During one three-night period, his crew rescued 219 Australian coast watchers from New Guinea who were in danger of being overrun by approaching Japanese. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for that exploit.

200 combat missions. And the DFC. But wait, there’s more.

Holding the rank of lieutenant, Mr. Conter went on to fly 29 combat missions during the Korean War and serve as an intelligence officer for a Navy aircraft carrier group.

But wait, there’s more.

In the late 1950s, he helped establish the Navy’s first SERE program (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) to train Navy airmen in how to survive if they were shot down in the jungle and captured.

The Lou Conter Story: From USS Arizona Survivor to Unsung American Hero on Amazon.

Barbara Baldavin, actress. Other credits include “The F.B.I.”, “Airport 1975”, “McMillan and Wife” and “Columbo”…

…and “Mannix”. (“You Can Get Killed Out There”, season 1, episode 19. “To Save a Dead Man”, season 5, episode 14.)

Vontae Davis, former NFL cornerback. He was 35.

Posted in Heroism, History, Mannix, NFL, Obits, Planes, Sports, TV | No Comments »

Firings watch.

April 1st, 2024

Kellie Harper out as head coach of Tennessee women’s basketball.

108-52 in five seasons.

Posted in Firings, Sports | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: April 1, 2024.

April 1st, 2024

Barbara Rush, actress. (Edited to add: NYT obit (archived).)

“Bigger Than Life” is available from Criterion, and I kind of want to see it: unfortunately, none of the B&N stores I’ve gone to has had it in stock during the last few sales. (I know, I can order it online, but I just hate paying shipping.) Also, that may be a hard sell to the Saturday Movie Group.

Other credits include “Fantasy Island”, “Murder She Wrote”, “Death Car on the Freeway”, and quite a few cop shows…

…including “Mannix”. (“A Copy of Murder”, season 2, episode 6. “Design For Dying”, season 8, episode 22.)

Posted in 1970s, Mannix, Movies, Obits, TV | No Comments »

Gonzaga!

March 30th, 2024

Gonzaga 68, Purdue 80.

Oh, well. There’s always next year. And maybe next year, Lawrence and I will be able to pull it together and make a bet on the games.

Posted in Bagatelle, Sports | No Comments »

Norts spews.

March 29th, 2024

The baseball season started yesterday.

Yankees 5, Astros 4.

As we all know, Bob, this means the Astros won’t be able to sell beer at Minute Maid Park the rest of the season…

…because they lost the opener.

(“222 best dad jokes to tickle everyone’s funny bone“. See also.)

In case anyone was wondering, Gonzaga plays Purdue tonight. Purdue is a pretty heavy favorite, but we’ve seen a lot of favorites get knocked out this year. I wouldn’t count Gonzaga out just yet.

Posted in Bagatelle, Sports | 2 Comments »

Short random gun crankery.

March 29th, 2024

Happy 1911 Day.

At least, according to Brownell’s.

Following its success in trials, the Colt pistol was formally adopted by the Army on March 29, 1911, when it was designated “Model of 1911”, later changed in 1917 to “Model 1911”, and then “M1911” in the mid-1920s.

I’d celebrate by going to the range and putting a few rounds through mine, but today’s going to be a busy day. Also, I’m not sure if it is religiously appropriate to go to the range on Good Friday. Though Luke 22:36 seems like an appropriate response to anybody who would complain…

Posted in 1911, Bagatelle, Guns | No Comments »

Obit watch: March 29, 2024.

March 29th, 2024

Harvey Elwood Gann (US Army – ret.). He was 103.

Mr. Gann was a flight engineer and top turret gunner with the 449th Bomb Group, 718th Squadron, on B24s. His plane was shot down during a bombing raid and he had to bail out. He was the only member of his crew to survive, but was imprisoned in a German POW camp. He escaped and was recaptured three times: his fourth escape attempt was successful.

He served as a Austin police officer for 38 years, mostly in vice and narcotics according to the online obit. He also wrote a book about his wartime experiences, Escape I Must (affiliate link).

(Hattip on this one to a source who I will leave anonymous for now. While Mr. Gann has an online obituary, my source was informed of this through other non-public channels, and I’m not sure they want to be named right now.)

Louis Gossett Jr.

200 acting credits in IMDB, with 12 more upcoming. They include five episodes of “Hap and Leonard”, “The Rockford Files”, “The Bold Ones: The New Doctors”, and “Longstreet”.

NYT obit for Vernor Vinge (archived).

Jennifer Leak, actress. Other credits include the good “Hawaii Five-O”, “The Delphi Bureau”, and “Nero Wolfe” (the 1981 series with William Conrad in the title role).

Posted in 1970s, Books, Cops, Heroism, Movies, Obits, TV | No Comments »

Obit watch: March 28, 2024.

March 28th, 2024

Joseph Lieberman. WP (through the Internet Archive).

Posted in Obits, Politics | No Comments »

Obit watch: March 27, 2024.

March 27th, 2024

Daniel Kahneman, psychologist and winner of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

Professor Kahneman, who was long associated with Princeton University and lived in Manhattan, employed his training as a psychologist to advance what came to be called behavioral economics. The work, done largely in the 1970s, led to a rethinking of issues as far-flung as medical malpractice, international political negotiations and the evaluation of baseball talent, all of which he analyzed, mostly in collaboration with Amos Tversky, a Stanford cognitive psychologist who did groundbreaking work on human judgment and decision-making.

I’ve heard some people endorse Thinking, Fast and Slow. I’ve heard other people say it is overrated and much of the research cited has not been replicated.

Much of Professor Kahneman’s work is grounded in the notion — which he did not originate but organized and advanced — that the mind operates in two modes: fast and intuitive (mental activities that we’re more or less born with, called System One), or slow and analytical, a more complex mode involving experience and requiring effort (System Two).
Others have personified these mental modes as Econs (rational, analytical people) and Humans (emotional, impulsive and prone to exhibit unconscious mental biases and an unwise reliance on dubious rules of thumb). Professor Kahneman and Professor Tversky used the word “heuristics” to describe these rules of thumb. One is the “halo effect,” where in observing a positive attribute of another person one perceives other strengths that aren’t really there.

Ron Harper, actor. Other credits include “FBI: The Unheard Music Untold Stories”, “Dragnet” (the 1989-1991 version), “87th Precinct” (he played “Bert Kling”), and “Walker, Texas Ranger” (the Chuck Norris one).

Richard Serra, sculptor.

Mr. Serra enjoyed both great notoriety and great fame over the course of his long career, with notoriety coming first. In 1971, a rigger was crushed to death when one plate of a piece being installed at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis accidentally came loose. Many people in the art world — artists, curators, critics, museum directors — urged Mr. Serra to stop making sculpture, even though an investigation revealed that the crane operator had not properly followed the rigging instructions.
Mr. Serra’s early public pieces sometimes met with opposition, most famously “Tilted Arc,” commissioned by the General Services Administration and completed in 1981. The work — a gently curving, slightly leaning wall of rusting steel 12 feet high and 120 feet long — was installed in a plaza in front of a federal office building in Lower Manhattan. Some people who worked there regarded it as an eyesore and a danger and petitioned to have it removed. A hearing was held to consider arguments pro and con, after which the G.S.A. decided in favor of removal.
Dismayed and infuriated, Mr. Serra sued the government to keep the work in place, vowing that he would leave the country if it were dismantled. He lost his suit, and “Tilted Arc” was taken down in March 1989. But he continued to be based in New York.

Peter G. Angelos, former owner of the Baltimore Orioles. (He and his family made a deal to sell the team earlier this year, but it hasn’t been approved by MLB yet.)

Posted in Art, Geek, Obits, Sports, TV | No Comments »

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