War in Our Wake
The Untold Story of the Last American Military Presence of the Vietnam War
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The mission the USS Benjamin Stoddert undertook at the end of the war secured for our mighty warship, our hardworking young crew, and our impressive Commanding Officer a little-known place in history and an interesting story. There was the recovery of the floating body of a U.S. airman when there should have been no more American casualties; a sonar search for evidence that would help explain the tragedy of an Air Force jumbo transport’s crash, which killed one hundred and eighty infants and children, crewmembers, and nurses; a secret mission along the Vietnam coast to rendezvous with a mysterious rubber boat coming out of Cambodia; a surreal encounter with a merchant vessel over-laden with refugees; a midnight encounter with a slowly sinking Republic of Vietnam Navy gunboat; the heartbreak of leaving behind our beautiful young wives and, for many of the crew, their precious children as well; a constantly nagging concern about dwindling fuel; and, in the end, the courageous life or death decision by our Captain, who risked his command and the brilliant career that lay ahead of him, to save many, many lives.
Not every sea story is an epic and many are forgotten except in fuzzy reminiscences among sailors over a few beers. But through several reunions of our now gray-haired crew and today’s social media connectivity, some of my shipmates and I have come to realize the significance of our experiences. At the same time, though, the passage of many years and America’s focus on the difficult and elusive ends of the new wars we’ve been fighting have obscured the country’s memory of the end of the war in Vietnam. Thankfully, though, our memory was recently refreshed in a nearly perfect retelling of the end in Rory Kennedy’s searing 2014 documentary “Last Days in Vietnam.” Unfortunately, Ms. Kennedy’s excellent and critically acclaimed film was not informed by the whole story. So this is my attempt at providing a firsthand recollection of our story.
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About the Book
Three days after the last Marine Corps helicopter lifted off from Saigon, the author and his Navy shipmates became the very last American military presence of the Vietnam War. This is their untold story, the important final chapter in the history of that war’s bitter end.
When, as a newly commissioned officer, Jonathan Malay and his shipmates on the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Benjamin Stoddert (DDG-22) sailed away from Vietnamese coastal waters on May 3, 1975, they became the last American military presence of the Vietnam War. He tells their story in a gripping personal narrative that includes history, adventure, a love story, and the tale of a bold humanitarian action that saved over a hundred and fifty lives.
A sea story at its core, the author colorfully captures the feelings of the period, describing the demands of life at sea and the excitement of visits to exotic ports in the western Pacific and Indian oceans at the same time a tragic end to the war was becoming inevitable.
Finally, in telling the harrowing tale of the ship’s operations in Vietnam’s coastal waters as Saigon fell, he draws from multiple sources ranging from the ship’s terse deck log entries to the passion of his letters sent home to his wife in Hawaii.
This book reveals not just what the author saw, but how he felt about leaving the War in Our Wake.
About the Author
Jonathan Malay was a career Navy specialist in oceanography, meteorology, and space before becoming a senior aerospace executive in Washington, D.C. A former adviser to the NASA astronauts and finalist for astronaut selection himself, he lives with his wife in historic Fredericksburg, Virginia. He is also the author of Seraphim Sky, co-author of The National Geographic Encyclopedia of Space, and creator/editor of the AMS book, Partly to Mostly Funny: The Ultimate Weather Joke Book.