GENEVIEVE PLOKE SNOW
(Stan's mom. 3/15/41 - 4/22/11)
Biography #1 - GuamPedia
Biography #2 - Guam Stripes
War baby -- occupied Guam (Perez-Ploke resistance family).
Guam's 1957 Liberation Day Queen. Guam Governor's Office. Creighton University -- journalism. Guam's first woman naval officer: Lieutenant, U.S. Navy. Personnel, Public Relations -- Blue Angels. Naval Air Stations Glennview, Alameda, Moffet Field, and Treasure Island. Air Force wife. Substitute school teacher, Lake County, in retirement. Hula dance teacher. VFW, Vietnam Veterans of America, Military Officers Association, Lake County Line Dancers, St. Mary's, other.
ATANACIO TAITANO PEREZ
Stan's great grandfather
Guam Presidential Medal of Freedoom story (click here)
Servant to every U.S. naval governor of island Guam from 1899 to 1950. Interpreter of several languages, diplomat, spy, resistance chief/ acting governor (relation to Presidential Medal of Freedom story of don Pascual Artero & Antonio Artero). Secretary to Naval Governor, appeals court judge. Friend to Presidents Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt. Close friend of Governor/Congressman Willis W. Bradley (Medal of Honor; Bradley was one of the biggest influences on Guam evolution). Glass left eye lost to battleship shelling (Heroically rescued by young grandson, David Perez...an otherwise bad kid!)
A massive influence on the life, success, character, and survival of Stan's mom & family, and even Stan's course in life. His circle of family and friends remain Stan's family to this day.
Also, was an early, pre-war investor in Curtis-Wright airplane stock which helped him rebuild after the war.
Richard's legendary uncle and mentor in aviation. Stan's uncle.
COL. RUSSELL MAUGHAN
Early aviation speed racer. Army Air Corps pioneer and test pilot. Once the fastest man on Earth! First aviator to demonstrate crossing the continental United States from coast to coast by dusk to dawn.
Distinguished Flying Cross, World War 1. Survivor of an 11 to 1 dogfight with 2 kills accomplished. Almost a WW1 ace (4 kills). Led paratroop squadrons by World War 2. More in his biography.
CHESTER SNOW
One of the top 16 scientists vital to the development of nuclear energy. Mathematical physicist. Hypergeometry, electrodynamics, magnetism, and gravity control his specialties. Defense Science Board. Department of Commerce / National Bureau of Standards. U.S. Army +30 years. Exceptional Service Gold Medal - U.S. Commerce Department, 1949. Other.
Stan's great grandfather. Influential on mathematician course of Stan's father. His work in electrodynamics, magnetics, gravity, and hypergeometry have been influential also on Stan's aerospace energy & propulsion direction.
JOHN FRANCIS PLOKE
Chief Petty Officer, U.S. Navy (Retired).
Corpsman (medic).
Zentsuji Prisoner of War. (click here for Zentsuji story) See also: Hoover Institute archives,
Stan's grandpa.
Nebraska kid signed on with Navy underage. Thought he had it made: Married a pretty lady in Guam. Her father, Atanacio Perez, would only allow the marriage if Navy stationed Ploke permanently on Guam. Governor of Guam assisted. Ploke thought he was stationed in paradise! Then, the Japanese invaded.
Ploke was one of the original 7 (not 6) GI's who refused to surrender and figured they would hide in the jungle until fleet would surely return a couple weeks out (which turned out to be years). Japanese spies from Saipan had the Perez and Ploke homes marked and among the first invaded. Holding his family captive, Ploke's eldest daughter was sent out to retrieve him in the jungle, and so he surrendered first, whereby he joined all the other POWs earlier surrendered and headed to Zentsuji.
Resistance formed pre-war due to the expected invasion, but intensified in moving the other 6 GI's around in hiding. Five were hunted down and murdered after much torture of natives. The last survivor, Radioman George Tweed, was moved to the ranch of don Pascual Artero and hidden in a cave overlooking the sea. Resistance brought him supplies, a pistol, radio parts, intelligence on Japanese numbers / positions/ gun placements, etc. No transmitter could he build, but he managed to signal the invasion fleet by mirror and was picked up -- conveying all the island's intelligence. Tweed won the Legion of Merit. Our cousin, Antonio Artero, was properly awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Story (click here).
Meanwhile, Ploke's POW group has an untold story of heroism during the invasion of Guam -- a handful of Marines and Navy fending off thousands of Japanese and killing a few hundred before surrendered by their commander. Still diplomatically covered up is the story of the U.S.S. Penguin's crew and an Ensign White who died to Medal of Honor quality. That same feisty group, when in Zentsuji, went on to hold the highest survival rate of WW2 (less than 1% fatalities compared to over 30% for Allied prisoners), largely due to the medics and how everyone teamed up. They also murdered their abusive prison guard named "The Fist" on the way out -- beat him up and dumped him down a well to drown.
Since they never met, Ploke's drinking buddies took over as Stan's grandfathers. He is also why Stan's mom entered the Navy. Wherever Stan does things for Navy...that makes him technically 4th generation Navy.
CAPTAIN BOB & AUNT STELLA
Stan's adoptive grandfather
Robert bio:
Canadian farm boy and ski trooper signed on with U.K. Royal Navy pre-WW2. Sunk by U-boat attack off the northwest. coast of Scotland (near Isles of Barra) and awarded his ship's flag by skipper. Later XO on U.K. SOE Q-ships assigned to bait U-boat attacks and piracy. Q-ships would then open up with guns, circle, and drop depth charges trying to capture Enigma machines.
Implanted into U.S. Army Transport Service / Merchant Marines as a captain. Skippered Liberty ships, LSTs, and other vessels. Authorized double-agent. Collected intelligence everywhere sailed. Settled in pre-war Guam and married into Stan's family. Good friend of Guam Resistance pre and post-war.
Sunk again in the North Atlantic. Sunk again off the coast of Florida by U-boats.
Participated in the liberation of Guam where his wife, Stella, was captive. Returned the first POWs from Zentsuji. Post-war, he smuggled in the first and only beer for GIs on Guam -- helping John & Beatriz Ploke to rebuild wealth.
Skippered ships through Korean War, Cold War, shot once in Vietnam, and retired in the late 1980's.
As a rancher in Lake County, Bob & Stella introduced Stan's family to the area.
Historical distinction as the last commanding officer of the last U.S. iron-hulled sailing ship delivered to mothball. Also was General Eisenhower's bodyguard and driver for a day.
During the legendary Lake County biker wars with police, Bob was the Freemason friend pledged to assassinate biker enemies of the police chief and protect his family if fallen.
Active in intelligence beyond 2001, in old age, though fully American, he never conveyed all his old code books and files among loyalty to Queen. He and Stan burnt other documents and old scandals -- evidence of Allied war crimes best left forgotten (Especially since carried out by Stan's other uncles! Ugly stuff, but things we smile over with pride, actually --over 117 brutal executions, etc.).
For sake of the Queen (and in thanks for their being kind to classical homeopaths), Stan also keeps secrets on about 134 Nazi submariners sent to a watery grave in pretty ruthless manner over Enigma.
Stan also helped him collect and hide his Canadian Army pension from the IRS.
This one was Stan's best friend and second father. A soldier's soldier and the kind of skipper all sailors love. His home was filled will all sorts of artifacts gathered from all around the world. Little memories like a Pacific woodcut idol given to him by a chief for saving his little girl from infection by having his ship doctor tend her.
Bob was a major influence on Stan's love of the sea and maritime, though the air called more.
The oil portrait, Christ Our Pilot, he used to keep aboard the bridge on all his latter ships, and that young sailor was exactly the nature of his soul.
In his old age as a widower, Bob lived with a 200 pound Rottweiler (which is how Stan came to love the breed), two terriers, two cats, and one tortoise over 100 years old.
Bob was a good friend of also Stan's other resistance uncle, Vincente "Ben" Zafra and Atanasio Perez's daughter, Isabel Perez Zafra.
Ben Zafra is noted in An Island in Agony having two Saipanese spies locked up in jail prior to the occupation who threatened his life when the Japanese arrived. Though forced to work for the Japanese, he was one of Atanasio Perez's most active spies. As Commissioner of Guam and also a Guam Militia officer (major), the island's police chiefs reported to Ben prior to, during, and after the war. He, Bob, and much of the resistance were also long-time Freemasons and Shriners. Scottish Rite to Bob. Templar / Mason on Governor Bradley, and others. Fellow Masons were a central (and invisible to this day) part of the Guam resistance history.
Stan's godparents
COL. GEORGE THOMPSON & AUNT THELMA
Col. Thompson enlisted with the Army Air Corps after high school and wound up in their flight officer program, whereby he served as a B-17G navigator/ bombardier with General Doolittle's 8th Air Force out of England. He had something like over 150 to 250 combat missions there (well more than the usual; Stan forgets the number and needs dig it up again). There, he married a British Airways stewardess and started a family. Post-war, he was assigned stateside to navigator / bombardier training. From there, he flew again in the early Korean War on B-24's as a navigator/ bombardier with SAC ADVON with about the same high number of missions (~140? 240?). Was promoted to a high-level intelligence chief in Korea. Then, stateside again to head up aspects of the then secret B-52 program. Then, back in early Vietnam by B-52 as a navigator/bombardier again flying a high number of missions (+150?). He was the Wing Intelligence Officer at Fairchild, AFB and would give briefings to outgoing air crews, where he and Stan's father became good friends.
With Richard in Vietnam, it was the Thompsons who drove Genevieve to the hospital when Baby Stan insisted on hatching out a month early. Gazing upon a most magnificent and angelic child while just awestruck basking in his most holy aura, it was also Col. Thompson who broadcast news of Baby Stan's birth into North Vietnam. After retirement from the Air Force, he then finished off his career with Office of Special Investigation (OSI) and also mentored Stan as a cadet.
When asked the secret to being a good officer, he said: "Never ask your men to do anything you aren't willing to do yourself." And, his career was a testament to exactly that.
Meanwhile, Aunt Thelma baptized feisty Baby Stan with what they say are actually three female guardian angels: Faith, Hope, and Charity. They are surely not too happy with the devilish nature of Baby Stan, or his evolution into "The Abominable Snowman"!
JOE HORTA
Killed in Acton -- Libya -- strafing ISIL targets in his Mirage F1.
Too many are the old ghosts and fond memories. By Catholic tradition, we fondly remember the departed. We tell their great stories in keeping their memory alive, and showcasing their inspiring lives to others. We pray for their souls in case in Purgatory, and, whenever getting out of that remedial school to make Heaven, it is said they remember to plead on our behalf. Always good to have old ghosts watching over us!
Sadly, my old friend, Joe, became a ghost too young. His father was a pilot. They both flew Moonies when he was young. Joe went on to become one of the best and most daring civilian pilots around. He flew all sorts of aircraft. Singles, twins, turboprops, skydiving twins, Boeing 737, airshow stunt planes, and then he volunteered as a civilian fighter pilot -- contracted to defend the new Libya against Islamic radicals. Their air force was only a couple jets when he was shot down.
Joe was just this really nice guy and excellent pilot. He came from a wealthy family, but paid his way among early flight training in the U.S. even washing and detailing airplanes out of the Hayward Airport.
Come to think of it, he was this young and handsome dude -- total stud -- with fancy hair and he made all the girls goo goo. He stole a girl from Stan once but didn't mean to do so. Stan forgives him. "Bros before hos!" It's an honor to have yielded a bimbo to a mighty alpha dog like Joe.
His ghost surely has nicer wings in Heaven. Perhaps he'll look down upon and help watch over our flying. And, if you're listening, Joe: You owe Stan a girl, dammit!!!