E21: The Columbia Eagle mutiny, pt 1
Working Class History
Working Class History
5.0 • 813 Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2019
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You can listen to all 4 parts of this series, plus 2 bonus episodes, by supporting us on patreon: https://patreon.com/workingclasshistory
Full footnotes for this episode, including photos and more information are here on our website: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/wch-crime-columbia-eagle-mutiny/
WCH Crime will feature cases where people have faced criminal charges for their beliefs or political activities, and will look at cases where people have been framed or even killed by the state. It will be in the same feed as the regular Working Class History podcast.
All four parts, and two additional bonus episodes, are available for all of our patrons contributing $5 a month or more. For everyone else, subsequent parts will be released each week.
Pictured are the two mutineers: Alvin Glatkowski, left, and Clyde McKay, right, superimposed on the ship.
We speak to Al about his experiences, in addition to Vietnam war-era sailor and historian Roberto Loiederman.
We have been working on this miniseries for almost a year, and have put in so many hours we lost count some time ago. We are taking time out from our day jobs through 2019 to devote more time to WCH and podcast, but this will only be sustainable in the longer term if we get more support from our listeners on patreon. So if you appreciate what we do, and if you can afford it, please consider supporting us. If you can't afford it, no problem, please just give us a review on your podcast app, and share episodes on social media.
MORE INFORMATION
We will be adding more information about the mutiny, as well as photographs and videos to this our website shortly at https://workingclasshistory.com
For a detailed history of the events, we recommend the book The Eagle Mutiny, by Roberto Loiederman and Richard Linnett.
To find out more about different aspects of the Vietnam war check out the other WCH podcast episodes in our Vietnam war series: E14: The Vietnam war with Noam Chomsky and a member of the Vietnamese Women's Union is about the geopolitics of the conflict and human cost, especially on women, E10-11: The GI anti-war movement, E8: The strike wave is about the wave of strikes which took place in the US during the war
MERCH
We've produced a range of merchandise commemorating the anti-war movement by service people during the Vietnam war using some of their original artwork to help fund our work. Check it out here: shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/vietnam-gi-resistance
CORRECTIONS
Part 1: We erroneously say that Al was born in Norfolk, Virginia. Al was born in the military base at Ford Gorgon in Georgia. He later moved to Norfolk for his high school years.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
These episodes were written by WCH and Daniel Woldorff
Editing by Daniel Woldorff
Music composed by Austin Coulson: https://www.mixcloud.com/tsonazores/
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | With working class history are very excited today to be launching a new podcast series, WCH |
| 0:11.7 | Crime, where true crime meets the struggle for a better world. In these occasional mini-series, |
| 0:16.5 | we're going to be looking at cases where ordinary people have faced criminal charges for standing up for their beliefs, or where they've been framed or even killed by the state. |
| 0:23.8 | We've been working on this series for almost a year and have put a lot of hours into it. |
| 0:27.4 | We're also committed to having no adverts or corporate donors and having all of our content be available to everyone. With these episodes and over the next year, we're going to be putting a lot more time into our podcast than previously, |
| 0:38.2 | but this will only be sustainable in the long run if we get more support from you, our listeners, on Patreon. |
| 0:43.4 | More info on this at the end of the episode and in the show notes. We hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:48.4 | It's the case of the successful two-man mutiny aboard the American munitions ship, Columbia Eagle. |
| 0:53.9 | Two crewmen were armed when they took control of the cargo ship. |
| 0:58.4 | The hijackers, meanwhile, went on. |
| 1:04.4 | When we got the guns out to clean them, I got up. |
| 1:09.0 | And I told Clyde, I'll be right back. |
| 1:10.7 | I'm going to go to the bathroom before we do this. |
| 1:12.6 | Looked at the mirror and I said to myself you may not live through this. |
| 1:20.6 | This may be your last few minutes. |
| 1:23.6 | This is Al. It was 1970 and he's a sailor on a ship carrying thousands of tons of napalm into the Vietnam War. |
| 1:31.7 | The thing is helpful to start with a bit of background here. |
| 1:34.0 | So napalm is basically a highly flammable sticky jelly made by mixing chemicals with gasoline. |
| 1:39.5 | Early on in the conflict, US and South Vietnamese ground forces use napalm in flame throwers to burn villages |
| 1:44.7 | that they saw as being sympathetic to the Viet Cong and to clear bunkers, as even if flames |
| 1:50.0 | couldn't penetrate an entire bunker, they still consumed all the oxygen and suffocated anyone inside. |
| 1:55.5 | Later on, US bombers began dropping napalm bombs, burning and killing untold thousands, including |
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