From:
Vosot12@aol.com
To:
gunnyg@hotmail.com
Subject:
For Those Still At Sea.
Date:
Sun, 30 Apr 2000 10:43:13 EDT
There is a book available through your local library by the
above name,
written by Simas Kurderka. Though I am not mentioned in it, it
was written
because of me.
In the early seventies, I exposed a story that eventually led to
his being
freed from a Soviet prison. Today Simas is living somewhere in
Southern
California in the Los Angeles area, and I'm trying to locate
him. Perhaps
you could help.
While working in the Washington bureau for WTEV-6, I learned
that Simas had
jumped from a Soviet trawler onto the deck of the USCG Cutter
Vigilant, while
the two ships were along side each other on the high seas. He
was seeking
asylum.
Initially the Commander of the Coast Guard cutter, Ralph Eustis,
granted it
and hid him on his ship, but then his superior officers back in
Boston
learned of the incident, and ordered him to turn the man back to
the
Russians.
At first he refused, but both Admiral Ellis and Captain Brown
gave him a
direct order and reluctantly he complied. He was then sworn to
secrecy,
because they wished to avoid an international incident.
I had learned about it from a South Carolina Congressman who
somehow obtained
a copy of a secret communication between Boston and the State
Department. I
flew immediately back to New Bedford and informed my news
director. But he
told me to forget it. He said it wasn't the job of the news
media to second
guess the decisions of our nations leaders, and that it was
probably a matter
of national security.
He told me to go home. But when I got to the corner of the
street that would
lead me there, I could see the masts of the Vigilant, now tied
up at the
state pier. Everyone had written this man off. The Coast
Guard, the US
State Department, the Soviets, now even the news media. At this
crossroad,
Simas Kurderka's last chance was waiting at a red light, trying
to figure out
which way to turn. But I knew that if I went the wrong way
here, I'd be
doing it for the rest of my life.
In the Commanders quarters onboard the USCG Vigilant, Ralph
Eustis was in a
dark depressed mood. Two days before, he had made a fateful
decision, which
probably cost a Lithuanian radio operator his life. Kurderka
had committed
the most serious crime imaginable in the USSR; he had yearned to
breathe free
and had made a leap of faith. Although Eustis had obeyed his
orders and
allowed the Soviet security force to board his ship to take the
man back, he
now wished he had not.
They say you can't unring a bell. There was nothing Eustis
could ever do to
undue that wrong. Then his phone rang, and the voice told him a
television
reporter was at the foot of the catwalk asking permission to
come aboard.
Eustis then knew what he had to do. I was escorted to his cabin
and he told
me to set up my camera, and he would reveal the entire story.
When he had finished, he said he was under a gag order from
Boston Search &
Rescue and had been ordered not to talk to the press. He had
knowingly
scuttled his career when he let me onboard his ship. But in
doing so, he got
what few men ever get in this life; a second chance.
I had also disobeyed a direct order when I covered this story,
and now
returned to the station to turn in my resignation. But the news
director had
gone home for the day, and the anchorman decided to run the
story on his
show. We'd be fired together.
We made two copies and flew them out to CBS and NBC. When the
networks ran
it that evening, John A. Volpe, the Secretary of Transportation
immediately
fired the Admiral and the Captain. Commander Eustis lost his
command, but
because he had the courage to stand against the wind, he was
allowed to
remain in the service. Richard Nixon ordered the State
Department to begin
high level negotiations to get Simas returned. It took two
years, but they
finally got him.
I was not fired but I lost my Washington Bureau job. The news
director
reassigned me to New Bedford where he could "control" me. I
quit shortly
after and went over to the competition. Simas Kurderka never
learned that it
was Ralph Eustis who was directly responsible for his freedom.
I would like
to find him, wherever he is today, and tell him.
If I had it to do over, would I do the same thing again? Damn
right I would.
For Simas Kurderka, and for all those still at sea.
Frank Clynes
*****************
Note:
Frank Clynes is also the author of the information on my webpage, "The Man We Left Behind," the story of Sgt Bill Genaust, the Marine combat photographer who shot the motion-picture version of the Iwo Jima flag raising. Genaust was KIA several days later and sealed in a cave with the enemy. Mr Clynes continues his fight today to have the Navy Croos--which Genaust was recommended for but never received, and to have Genaust's body, and others, retrieved from Iwo Jima, and returned home to the U.S.
The Man We Left Behind
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/dickg/themanweleftbehind.html
-Dick Gaines
