Talking Proud: Service & Sacrifice
"Talking Proud" is a robust platform that celebrates the unwavering commitment and sacrifice of our military, first responders, and others. I bring you stories of courage, resilience, and heroism, showcasing extraordinary people who embody the true spirit of America.
Ed Marek
MV Ocean Trader: SOF floating lily pad
Special Operations barracks, command center, staging base
Beginning in August 2025, the US began deploying an air and naval armada to the Caribbean Sea with enormous lethal power, and there is more coming. The USS Gerald Ford has departed the Mediterranean Sea and is in the Caribbean area.
The MV Ocean Trader is a Special Warfare Support vessel designed for Special Operations Forces (SOF). Some have referred to her as a SOF Mothership. I was not aware of her existence, but I now think of her as a floating forward staging base for special forces. The US MSC operates the ship.
The evolution that has taken the US to the fielding of this ship is absorbing. I have, over the years, researched military basing developments and can see how we got here from there. I’ll point out a few examples.
November 12. 2025
Deep Sea 129: The price Silent Warriors pay
“Our conduct in the EC-121 crisis was weak,
indecisive and disorganized”
Henry Kissinger
On April 15, 1969, a North Korean MiG-21 shot down a US Navy EC-121M, callsign “Deep Sea 129,” electronic surveillance aircraft.
She was shot down over the Sea of Japan about 100 nm off the coast of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea, in international waters.
There were 31 American souls aboard, all lost, only two bodies recovered. The EC-121 was unarmed and had no escort. She was flying out there alone, just as so many others had done and still do.
The US, with President Richard Nixon at the helm, did not retaliate. The purpose of this story is to try to understand why.
November 7, 2025
Time to take a break from the “war stories” and have a little fun.
Leadership is among my favorite subjects. Several movies strike a chord with me when it comes to leadership.
"Crimson Tide," "Any Given Sunday,” and “Hidden Figures.”
Then there are Coaches Knute Rockne, Vince Lombardi and Paul "Bear" Bryant.
All this together, and you get a good sense of what leadership is all about.
October 29, 2025
Special Forces in Afghan’s Hindu Kush
“You can't take my heart and you can't take my soul.
I’m a Green Beret”
This is a remarkable story about remarkable men. Researching and writing this story gave me the willies. I cannot imagine going through what these men endured, profound determination and resilience.
On April 6, 2008, two Allied military units attacked numerically superior, well-dug-in, and well-armed opposing forces in Afghanistan’s Shok Valley, deep in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan. They were chasing the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) group led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the most radical Afghan insurgent group at the time.
The fight that would ensue lasted about seven hours. Six of the 12 Special Forces were wounded, four critically. They were all injured in one form or another. Two Afghan Commandos were killed in action. The estimate is that they killed anywhere from 150 to 200 enemy.
November 2, 2025
Hmong find F-105 pilot hanging from trees
334 F-105s were lost in Indochina War
This is a tough story, but for me, a mysterious one that peaked my curiosity and hoisted my respect for F-105 pilots in the Indochina War.
I was researching clandestine CIA Lima Sites (LS) in Laos during the US “Secret War” in Laos, and came across what I thought was a startling report by Don Moody, who has since passed away. Moody wrote,
“The body bag held the contents of one Major Sanders, former F-105D pilot, whose remains had been retrieved and returned to (Lima Site 20) Alternate (LS-20A) that very afternoon by a CIA case officer whose Hmong team cut them down out of the trees where he had been hanging for several weeks still in his ejection seat.”
I was stunned.
October 25, 2025
“The Rice Paddy Navy”
“Go to China and set up some bases”
Get us the weather!
The Navy began planning for war with Japan in 1897. Regrettably it did not plan for timely weather data. The Navy had a huge shortfall as its forces became engaged in the Pacific War. Its fleets lacked good weather data. The farthest west the US had a weather station was Hawaii.
Aircraft carriers could not operate in high, rugged seas, nor could the tankers and destroyers. Ships often were damaged by heavy storms, and enemy ships were sometimes hidden by storms.
Admiral King wanted Cdr. Milton Miles to set up weather stations inside China, which meant they had to be set up behind enemy lines. And that’s what he did.
“You are to go to China and set up some bases as soon as you can.”
October 20, 2025
Corps d’Afrique
A painful evolution to prove valor
This story centers on the Corps d’Afrique, black soldiers who fought for the Union in the American Civil War. That war was and remains a central event in American history.
The Corps did not develop overnight. Theirs is a complex story, an evolutionary story that began in Louisiana. It will expose you to a great deal of American history, good and bad.
Emancipation and military service in this war were woven together, much of it done through experimentation, and much a reflection of the complexities of society.
Major General National P. Banks of the Union Army proposed the Corps d’Afrique, using colored troops, on May 1, 1863. It became official in June 1863. There is quite a story here, not well-known, but it deserves attention.
October 6, 2025
The generals’ pilot, Capt. Lynch
“Hold on General. We’ve got to go in!”
Captain Eugene Michael “Gene” Lynch, USA, served as the personal pilot for Lt. General Walton Walker, USA, and Lt. General Matthew Ridgeway, USA, when they led the Eighth US Army (EUSA) in the Korean War. This is a story about Lynch and his generals.
While reading In Mortal Combat, a book about the Korean War by John Toland, I was struck by Lt. General Walton “Johnny” Walker’s deep warfighting knowledge and by his pilot, Captain Eugene Michael “Gene” Lynch, USA, a pilot who seemed immune to danger, somewhat of a daredevil.
On the one hand, he wanted to enable his general to see what he wanted, yet on the other, always mindful that he wanted to keep his general safe and sound for another day.
September 12, 2025
Recon Team Breaker
1967 Vietnam
“Scarface, this is Breaker. We're burning.
You gotta get us out!”
Many people are familiar with the siege of Khe Sanh, Vietnam, that occurred from January through April 1968.
Few know about the Hill Battles of 1967 in Vietnam.
This is a story about seven men from Reconnaissance Team (RT) Breaker, 3rd Marine Recon, engaged in a fierce fight on Hill 665 near Khe Sanh, a battle that occurred one year before the siege, in May 1967.
Four were killed. Three severely wounded men were heroically rescued and survived.
August 18, 2025
Kamikaze: USS Comfort hospital ship
“Kamaretta red, smoke boat make smoke"
The USS Comfort hospital ship was hit amidships by a Japanese kamikaze on April 28, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa. Thirty people died, including six nurses, six doctors, ten enlistend men, seven patients, and one Navy priest. Forty-eight were wounded.
There were at least 700 people aboard, including over 500 battlefield casualties from the fighting for Okinawa.
The ship sustained severe damage but managed to reach port in Guam and then proceeded to Hawaii.
There is no way to sugarcoat the Battle of Okinawa. The battles were meatgrinders.
August 11, 2025
Blind Bat, Yellowbirds, Willy the Whale
"Night Intruders" on Uncle Ho's trail
The journey to learn about the Blind Bats is a journey back through history to the beginnings of the Vietnam War, to a time when secretive, covert US military operations were going on with a greater assortment of oddball aircraft and daring crews than you can shake a stick at.
Blind Bat is the callsign for C-130A Hercules flareships that lit up the skies of the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos and southern North Vietnam. During the early years, the Blind Bat flew with two B-57 bombers, callsign either Yellowbird or Redbird, and a Marine Corps Douglas EF-10B Skynight fighter aircraft reconfigured for an electronic countermeasures (ECM) mission, redesignated the F3D-2Q, and redesignated again the EF-10B, "Willy the Whale."
July 19, 2025
Cpl Ziolkowski: "Angel on my Shoulder"
"Fallujah wasn’t hell, but it’s in the same area code."
Sgt. Monty Davenport, USMC
July11, 2025
Soviet Foxtrots: Cuban Missile Crisis
Loaded with nuke-tipped torpedos
It is debatable whether the US leadership was aware that these submarines were on their way. The Navy and US intelligence agencies seemed to have known about this early on. However, no one knew these submarines were armed with nuclear-tipped torpedoes. Even more concerning, no one in the US knew that the submarine captains were authorized to use them at will, without any command or control from Moscow.
July 5, 2025
Logistics in Iraq War: “Herculean feat”
“Good generals study tactics.
Great generals study logistics”
Lieutenant General John P. Abizaid, USA
"General Dave McKiernan offered the best testimony to the logistics troops when he noted on 1 May 2003, 'the truth of the matter is we did not stop operational tempo because of any class of supply, and what was accomplished was never impeded by logistics, and I think that is a remarkable story.'"
Col. Gregory Fontenot, USA
March 14, 2025
Venture into the unfamiliar
About two weeks later, on December 19, 2024, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced that there were about 2,000 US military members in Syria, more than twice the 900 it had previously acknowledged. What? Why?
I had paid scant attention to Syria over the years and needed to understand it better. This is my report, a primer, an introductory report in which I share what I have learned with those who may not know much about Syria. I cover the period from 2011 to 2024.
February 16, 2025
“Hope can mean anything you want it to mean.”
A sniper’s bullet struck her in the head.
“I don't regret anything that happened. I love the Navy. I love my job … This is our job.”
McGovern crashed into a hillside in Laos, about one-half mile short of an old abandoned runway.
“McGovern was more than a comic strip character … He was a superb pilot.”
I recall hearing the radio station talk about how many MiG-kills our F-86 Sabre jets achieved every day. I remember getting a huge charge from hearing how great the F-86 was against the MiG-15. It was the dawn of the jet age. However, I didn’t know why the F-86s were fighting the MiGs in a place the radio announcer called “MiG Alley.” I didn’t realize where MiG Alley was or why it was there.
This is in three parts.
Part One: Political wheeling & dealing.
Part Two: Military Invasion & the MiG-15 arrives
Ed Marek, editor
Marek Enterprise
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Eau Claire, WI 54701
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