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[Leatherneck readers] may be interested in the conclusion of that yarn about the mysterious 4th Marines "smoking jacket" that my Marine band buddy, Dick Teresi, tried to track down with Leatherneck's help last year. If you recall, the jacket -- beautifully tailored from dress blues -- was purchased on eBay and given to Dick by his son a couple of years ago. The original owner's initials were on the jacket, along with "4th Marines," "Shanghai, China," and "1937-1939."
That raised the obvious question of how the jacket had survived in off-the-rack condition, given the 4th Marines' tragic capture and confinement. Did its owner perish in the Bataan Death March and POW ordeal? But DIck's attempts to trace the owner ran into a dead end. When Elaine and I visited Dick in January, I was able to suggest another approach: that we contact one of my favorite PBS programs, "History Detectives," and see if its researchers could solve the mystery. To our surprise, the producers responded almost immediately and launched their own investigation.
Skipping to the bottom line, "History Detectives" will air on Monday night, July 21, telling the story of the China Marines and explaining how they tracked down the jacket's original owner -- a 4th Marines veteran who had returned to the States before the unit was shipped to the Philippines shortly before Pearl Harbor. The jacket had been sold at an estate sale upon his death in 2006 (?).
DIck Teresi will appear on the program, along with Donald Versaw, a 4th Marines bandsman who survived years as a POW and has written several books about the experience. The program runs at 9 p.m. July 21 on CIncinnati stations (we're Eastern Time Zone), and should broadcast about the same time in DC.
Don Bedwell
