21. Secret Military History

1946-0107, UCMJ, Army CPT Murders Three Fellow Officers.
Army CPT accused in Axe slaying of three fellow officers in Germany. CPT James Leech is the prime man in the murders and is said to have set fire to a villa in Passau to cover up the crime. The CID bungled the case and charges were dropped. Ten years later CPT Leech died in a gasoline fire.
It took more than a decade, but the cold hand of fate reached out and killed a former Army captain said to be the "prime man" in the axe-murders of three fellow Army officers in a villa in Passau, Germany. James Leech, 46, got away with the grisly killings the victims were MAJ Everett S. Cofran, CPT Adrian L. Wessler and 1LT Stanley M. Rosewater when the CID bungled the case. Three times the investigation was re-opened, but lucky Leech got off despite a "mountain of circumstantial evidence" that he had the motive and means to murder the Army officers. Cofran was said to have fired Leech's German female friend from an Army job and an enraged Leech reportedly swore revenge.
At the wrong place at the wrong time:
That two other officers died that night of January 7, 1946, was a gruesome example of being "in the wrong place at the wrong time."
When Leech showed up to confront the major, cops said, the other two officers were in the villa as overnight guests. So, they had to die as well. Must not have "witnesses" around to talk to the military police.
CPT Leech was taken into custody but released four months later when a US prosecutor in Frankfurt admitted the case wouldn't hold up in court.
Leech got out of the Army and returned to his home in Ohio.
It is more than ironic that he met death in a sudden fireball as he welded a gas tank in his Lima, Ohio garage. To cover-up the grisly slayings of ten years earlier, Leech torched the villa, which burned to the ground.

1946-0615, Gay, Homosexuality in WW2.
Gays flocked to the military. Lesbians saw WAC life to meet and live with other lesbians. Some joined the military not realizing they were gay or lesbian until they were exposed to others of their kind. Whatever their individual reasons, many gays and lesbians rushed to enlist after Pearl Harbor.

1946-1209, Aviation, the First Class-A Army Helicopter Crash.
A Sikorsky H-5D crashed and burned at the Army helicopter school at San Marcos, TX.
1LT Robert L. Boyce
PVT Richard W. Soper
PFC Thomas J. Rippingale
Died in the crash.
1LT Jack E. Burlage died later of burns received while trying to rescue the crew. Sikorsky R-5 (H-5D) (1943). The Sikorsky (model S-48) R-5 (British name Dragonfly) was first flown on August 18, 1943.
The first XR-5, in 1944, was a tandem rotor model, the VS-272; all others, VS-327s, were single rotor. The R-5, developed concurrently with the R-6, with a crew of two seated in tandem, had an all-metal fuselage. It was designed to have a greater useful load, range, speed and service ceiling than the R-4.

1947-0709, Gender, the First Female Active-Duty Officer.
GEN Eisenhower appoints RN Florence Blanchfield directly to the rank of LTC (O5) in the active-Army. She is the first woman in US military history to hold permanent officer rank.
1917-0615, She founds the Army Nurse Corps (ANS,) since 1917.
1941-1207, She was the Chief of the ANS during WW2.
1947-0616, She advocated for the passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act of 1947.
1947-0709, the ANNA law is what made it possible for her to be promoted.
1951-0615, She received the Florence Nightingale Medal.
1978-0616, the Army hospital at Fort Campbell is named in her honor.

1948-0615, Military, Airborne, in Japan.
The Army did not get enough airborne volunteers, so they designated the 11th Div in Japan an Airborne Div. Every Soldier in Japan had to attend Jump School in Tokyo.


1948-1231, Gender, Statistics for the year 1948:
6,500 WAC strength after WW2.
02 Percent of the Military may be female maximum.
LTC The highest rank a female can hold.

1949-0522, Health, Secretary of Defense Commits Suicide.
Secretary of Defense James Forrestal jumps out of a 16th floor window at Bethesda Naval Hospital with a bathrobe cord knotted tightly around his neck. The death is ruled a suicide and Forrestal is buried in Arlington Cemetery.

1949-0615, Rape, Geneva Convention Forbids Rape as Part of War.
Prior to 1949 rape in war was considered normal.
It won’t be until 1996, that rape is recognized as a war crime. The first war criminal charged with rape in war was Serbian Dusko Tadic in 1997.
Article Eight of the Statue of International Criminal Court treats rape as a war crime and an attack against humanity.

1950-0628, War, the South Korean Army Dissolves.
The South Korean Military was aware the North was about to attack. The plan was to keep the North Koreans, North of the Han River that ran thru Seoul. The South Korean Army’s plan was to retreat to the southern banks of the Han. The bridges would be blown keeping the North Korean Army on the northern banks.
COL Choi Chang-Shik was the South Korean engineer in charge of blowing the 10-bridges. He blew the bridges early. Thousands of civilians and South Korean soldiers were on the bridges when they were blown. The majority of the South Korean Army was still on the north banks of the Han. The South Korean Army was trapped. 200,000 Soldiers dissolved into the city, rice fields, home. It is not known how many died. Most just went home.
COL Choi was executed by the South Koreans on 1950-0915. To this day, the South Korean’s blame him for the loss of the war and call him, “Fat Cho.”

1950-0627, Leadership, GA (5-star) MacArthur 70, Abandons his Staff.
US Army, HQ is in Tokyo. MacArthur and his primary staff of 6-COL fly 750-miles to Seoul. He is on the ground 1-hour. He tells his staff: You stay here, to fight the battle, I’m going back to Tokyo. Their bodies were never found.


1950-0721, War, First U.S. Fatality in the Korean War
Near Sojong, South Korea, PVT Kenneth Shadrick, a 19-year-old infantryman from Skin Fork, West Virginia, becomes the first American killed in the Korean War. Shadrick, a member of a bazooka squad, had just fired the weapon at a Soviet-made tank when he looked up to check his aim and was cut down by enemy machine-gun fire.

1950-0805, Leadership, AF Bugs Out to Japan.
With North Korean forces threatening Taegu AB, the officers of the 18th AF Wing ran to their fighter and cargo planes and flew to Japan, they were buggin’ out. They left the enlisted Airmen to be captured. The North Koreans, using safety-wire, hanged Airmen from the hanger roofs. 700 POW Airmen were murdered.
The commanders were charged with cowardice but never brought to trial. The Air Wing became cursed. The 18th Wing was ordered never to return to a stateside base until it could prove itself in battle. The aircraft tail flashes became “ZZ” for last to return. The wing adopted a new meaning for their unit patch, a black chicken on a yellow background, arms raised, surrendering and running in retreat. The patch is still worn by the 18th Wing. The AF has gone to great effort to discredit this true story.