WEBVTT - #45 Sgt. John Kapphahn 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:05.960 What I have a question. I'm looking from medical perspective. Yeah, 0:00:06.240 --> 0:00:10.399 I just had soup and kind of a bull o Bays, 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:13.200 you do not have what's a bull base? 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.919 Why did you say I was trying to impress you 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:19.400 so good? 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:24.880 Anyway, the point is, after I have a bowl of soup, 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.040 it really sloshes around in my stomach, like I really hear. 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:30.320 I've done that. I've always heard your stomach, They're going 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:30.920 for years. 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:32.440 How would you have heard my stomach? 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:36.879 Because everything about you is noisy, your finger lickings, noisy, 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:37.839 your stomach. 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:40.960 In some cultures, you know, it's considered a compliment. 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:44.760 I'm not doing this no. 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:55.520 From Gimblet Media. I'm Jonathan Goldstein and this is Heavyweight 0:00:56.400 --> 0:01:05.880 Today's episode Sergeant John Capon. Right after the break. 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:15.520 When I told some people at work that I would 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:18.479 be talking with someone on a podcast, they all immediately said, oh, 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:19.080 for murder. 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:20.520 It's about murder. 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:25.319 Melanie has never murdered anyone, and at the risk of 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:29.280 sounding like an old softy, neither of I. But the 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:33.920 story you're about to hear does involve a murder of sorts. 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:37.720 Thirty years ago, Melanie snuffed out the life of a 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:42.000 family heirloom. But as they say on the Murder podcasts, 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:49.720 more on that later. The story all begins in rural Minnesota, 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:53.000 on the bean farm where Melanie grew up. All her 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:56.760 friends lived miles away, so for company, all she had 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:59.400 were a couple Measley TV stations. 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:02.920 Channels that we can could get through our bonnied Ear antenna. 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:05.320 Like there'd be days where like my dad's up on 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:07.040 the roof, like, okay, tell me when you can see 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:07.480 the picture. 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:13.240 And on February seventeenth, nineteen ninety three, Melanie really needed 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:16.560 to see that picture, because that was the night ABC 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:20.640 was airing the television event of the century, a special 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:22.440 starring Melanie's favorite. 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.480 Artist, Billy ray Cyrus. 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:30.560 Billy ray Cyrus. 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:34.680 So cool, he could dance, great mullet, tight pants. 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:40.320 Oily biceps, Miley's dad, hip, soul patch, denim clad. The 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:41.040 special was. 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.080 Called Dreams Come True. 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:47.320 For Melanie, the name couldn't have been more appropriate. She 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:50.720 loved Billy ray Cyrus so much that she'd spend hours 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:53.720 plunking out a key breaky Heart on the family piano. 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:58.360 The only problem Melanie was nine years old and the 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:00.480 special came on after her time. 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:04.840 So my plan was to record the concert on a 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:07.080 VHS tape so I could watch it later. 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:10.880 Melanie's parents kept all the VHS tapes in a dining 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:13.560 room drawer, so she pulled one out from way in. 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:16.360 The back, slided it in, and pressed record. 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:21.120 Melanie's memory of what happened next is fuzzy. It might 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:23.080 have been the next morning, as she got ready to 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.600 watch the special in her PJS, that her mom asked, Hey, 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:29.560 by the way, what videotape did you record that on? 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.720 That would have been the moment Melanie learned the horrible truth. 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.240 The tape that I had grabbed to record an hour 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:42.000 of Billy Ray Cyrus over was an interview that my 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:46.920 father had done from Vietnam while injured and hospitalized. 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:51.040 And the interview was with Walter Cronkite. 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:54.240 On this videotape. 0:03:54.520 --> 0:04:02.320 Yes, that had now been recorded over by Billy Ray Cyrus. 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:04.920 Of course, as a nine year old, Melanie could only 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:08.320 understand so much about what she'd done. She never watched 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.040 the tape of her father's interview. She didn't know who 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.520 Walter Cronkite was or anything at all about the Vietnam War. 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:17.760 But you know, I was able to comprehend that this 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.039 was something we weren't going to get back. I have 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:23.200 an older sister, she's six years older, and I think 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:27.360 she probably helped me realize that by rubbing it in. 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:30.800 Why did you put this on? 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:33.360 Here? Do you know what was on this? 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.320 This is Melanie's older sister, Sam, who was old enough 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.200 to understand the significance of the tape and to remember 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.400 her father's reaction when he found out it had been erased. 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:45.479 Oh, it was like World War seventeen because there was 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:48.560 none of the interview left, like there wasn't like, oh, 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:50.920 here's where the beginning of the interview is. And then 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:53.559 it cuts to Billy ray Cyrus. This was just straight 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.400 up Billy Ray Cyrus on stage singing. 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:59.000 Can I ask, if you're a Billy ray Cyrus fan, 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:00.839 did you feel like, well, this isn't all bad. I 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:02.680 mean we lost a family heirloom. 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:06.839 No, no, not be something where I would have said that, 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:09.000 I would have considered that an equivalent swap. 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:09.560 Look was it? 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:12.800 Like, well, at least we've got Achy Breaky on VHS. 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:21.120 Now that Melanie's an adult, she feels terrible about her 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.359 mistake and wants to make things right. She wants to 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:28.520 unerase the video and return it to her father, But 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:32.520 after combing the CBS website emailing the network, her mom 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.640 even mailed them a physical letter. Melanie's had no luck 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:38.760 with finding a copy. She's not even sure the interview 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:42.760 still exists. So much from that era doesn't. Until the 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:46.320 late nineteen seventies, networks with white TV shows once they'd aired. 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.640 As a result, most Macy's Day parades are gone. Not 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.599 to mention, the first episode of The Ed Sullivan Show, 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:57.159 a surprise appearance from John Lennon on a nineteen seventy 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.479 four Monday night football, only exists because it was recorded 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:03.560 onto home video by a fan, a fan it would 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:07.599 seem without a Billy Ray Cyris super fan for a daughter. 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.159 What makes Melanie's guilt all the worse is that the 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:20.520 video was the one thing she could have turned to 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:22.839 to understand that time in her father's life. 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:27.720 Because growing up Vietnam was just kind of a subject 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:29.960 that we knew not to bring up. 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:33.920 Everything from her dad's time in the army felt off limits. 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.320 He kept his uniform deep in the closet, his purple 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.000 heart in the back of a drawer. On the rare 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:43.359 occasion their father did bring up Vietnam. It wasn't to 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:44.200 share memories. 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:47.839 There's times where my sister and I are just running 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:51.880 around and you know, him commenting to us, pick up 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.360 your feet. You wouldn't last five minutes in Vietnam. You 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:55.480 guys would all be blown up. 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:57.560 Pick up your feet. God damn it. 0:06:57.600 --> 0:06:59.359 You wouldn't have lasted four days, and. 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:00.920 Now you would have been shot. 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:06.039 So basically, all I knew about Vietnam was that I 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:07.320 would not survived. 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:09.760 I knew it was someplace where you needed to be quiet, 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:13.080 and that he had gotten hurt there. 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.360 John had been caught in an explosion of shrapnel in Vietnam, 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.160 but his daughters only knew this because of the pieces 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.440 of metal that would occasionally fall from his body. 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:26.240 I remember him sitting at our kitchen table, and every 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:28.160 now and then there would be this little piece of 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:32.080 metal that would get worked out of an arm or 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.559 a leg. He's like, well, that's shrapnel at shrapnel working 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.040 its way out. And of course they would be very small. 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:42.280 They weren't shiny, kind of like a very dark, dark gray, 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:43.080 not black. 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:49.800 I remember that, although Sam and Melanie are now adults, 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:53.120 their understanding of their father's time in Vietnam is as 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:56.080 piecemeal as when they were kids, and they're still too 0:07:56.120 --> 0:08:00.200 intimidated to broach the subject. So, as families tend to 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.840 with big conversations, they kick the topic of Vietnam down 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.840 the road to deal with someday. But given her dad's 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.240 age and temperament, Melanie worries there might not be a 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:11.760 some day. 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:17.080 He recently was hospitalized with heart failure. 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:18.440 Oh no, I'm sorry. 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:23.000 He's okay, but you know, some imminent health issues and 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:29.400 he's getting older, Like we don't have forever. It would 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:35.240 be it would be nice to know him. And I 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:37.760 feel like maybe this is something, you know, I kind 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:40.280 of effed up as a kid, and maybe I can 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:40.840 undo it. 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.440 Getting the video back is something Melanie wants to do 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:47.080 for her father, but she also wants to do it 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:51.200 for herself. The tape feels like her strongest hope, possibly 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:55.360 her last hope for understanding her dad. If she had 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.760 the video, she could hear about her father's experiences at 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.600 the moment he lived them, which is why she's come 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.320 to me, her fellow Minnesotan. Let's see what we can do. 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:08.480 Oh, you're so nice. 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.000 The nicest thing that you could tell the Minnesotan is 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:11.720 that they're nice. 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:14.280 Yeah, but I actually mean it. 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:16.839 Well, I can't really know, but it's nice to be 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:21.040 nice to the nice and no matter what state you're from, 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:24.880 I think we can all agree it's always nice to 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:28.480 hear from our trusted sponsors. Get ready to raise the 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:51.679 roof with savings. During the conversation with Melanie, I'd asked if, 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.920 after learning she'd erase the tape, she could bring herself 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:59.040 through her shame, through her mortification to actually watch the 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:00.440 Billie Ray Cyrus special. 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.800 Heck, yes, I did, you did? Yes? Oh yes. 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:11.360 The intro to this special, he has his back to 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:15.480 the camera. He's wearing a cutoff T shirt, skin tight jeans, 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:18.800 and it's just him like bopping back and forth with 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:20.120 his mullet swaying. 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:23.119 And that went on for like a minute. 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:24.840 And a half before you even see his face. 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:26.559 Oh yeah, yeah, it's just the back of him. 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:28.199 Man. That is confidence. 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:30.600 I don't know if they were like wanting to showcase 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:33.360 his body or just the mullet. 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:35.160 Was it like in an arena? 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:38.840 Yeah, and there's you know, ladies bawling and. 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:45.000 Wow like Beatlemania, billy mania. My mission is clear. I'll 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.720 need to begin my research by watching the Billy ray 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:56.440 Cyrus special for myself. Well, maybe not need to, but 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.679 watching an hour of Billy ray Cyrus seems easier than 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:05.480 search for a fifty year old news clip. In the special, 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:08.559 Billy stands on stage as the audience shouts for him 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:12.400 to take off his shirt, but Billy is demure, keeping 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:13.040 it classy. 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:18.000 How is my mom gonna feel when she wakes up 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:21.320 to read the flat Woods Kentucky Times Tomar and finds 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:23.720 out that her baby boy came all the way to 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.880 Reno and gotten naked on his first ABC special. 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:30.960 Yet sadly, Billy succumbs to peer pressure. 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.400 I lived my life on my fans, and if that 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:34.840 lets you run out too. 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.760 Just when it feels like things cannot possibly grow anymore, 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:43.920 sexually unhinged, Billy reaches behind his back and in one 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:47.880 fluid motion, unleashes the rear end of his lush mullet. 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:52.120 It wafts free in the arena vents like the main 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:53.960 on a majestic stallion. 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.280 Sing it to me one time Reno and is his tongue? 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:57.319 Where am I going on? 0:11:57.480 --> 0:11:57.720 Ria? 0:11:58.040 --> 0:11:58.920 I'm not get home. 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:08.200 I want to emphasize this is what supplanted John Capon's legacy. 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:12.040 This is where I was born raised. 0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:14.200 This is McDow Elementary School. 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:19.480 The special is also filled with autobiographical interstitials. Billy visits 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.080 his old elementary school, where the kids receive him as 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:26.240 a hero. He stops by his hometown church, and then 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.920 he races up the walkway of a small, unassuming house. 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.559 It's one of those moments you'd see on American Masters 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:37.560 where some American Master journeys back to his childhood home. 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:40.880 This is Cindy, my ex wife, Sandy, how you doing. 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:44.080 It's fine, But the house is in fact not Billy's 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.080 childhood home. It's his ex wife, Cindy's home. 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:49.200 This is the lighty that had the courtesy to set 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.400 my stuff out in the yard about four point thirty 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:52.839 in the morning into drisling right. 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:56.720 Cindy, he explains, is the inspiration for the song where 0:12:56.800 --> 0:12:58.760 am I gonna live when I get home? 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.760 And she was laying on this couch when I said, uh, 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:04.240 where am I gonna live when I get home? My 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:06.200 old lady stowed out everything home. 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:09.080 She meant what she said when she wished. 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:09.400 I was dead. 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:13.920 All the while Cindy stares into the camera teeth clenched 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:21.600 in a smile. The special ends with one last number, 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:26.800 one highly ironic number. It's a song called Some Gave All. 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:30.040 This is a song I wrote about a Vietnam veteran 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:32.439 I met back in Huntington, West Virginia, in the spring 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:35.880 of not ten eighty nine. 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.080 As it turns out, Billy Resyris is well known for 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.800 his work on behalf of veterans, and so as one 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:50.000 West Virginian vet is being elevated in song, another Minnesotan 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.360 vet is being brought low by song, his service to 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:57.080 his country erased by don't to my heart? 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.040 Oh Hi, Hi, how are you good? 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:10.480 How are you? 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:11.480 I'm good? 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:18.959 Best thing I found the clip of your father get. 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:19.320 Out of Town. 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:22.960 That's crazy, that's amazing, that's wonderful. 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:25.240 Sounds like a lot of digging. 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.880 I want to say yes, but I can't. One night, 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:34.640 over dinner with friends, I brought up the difficulty of 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.560 trying to find a news clip that's over fifty years old. Oh, 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:42.840 said Matt, my journalism professor friend. You just have to 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:47.120 search the Vendorbilt TV news archive. He pulled out his phone. 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:50.080 He had the app right there. And when you search 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:54.640 Melanie's father's name, Sergeant John Capon. The clip comes right up. 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:58.040 Well, you can't make it sound like it was super easy, 0:14:58.080 --> 0:14:59.760 otherwise I'm going to feel like an even worster. 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:02.200 No, no, no, it was very hard. Oh my god, 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.880 the reams of microfiches that we had to go through. 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.440 Now that we have the interview, Melanie and I strategize 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:14.440 about the best way to return it to her father, 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.760 when to do it, and where to do it, which 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:19.000 is somewhat complicated. 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:23.480 So fun fact, my parents are still married, but they 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:27.120 live in separate houses that are half a mile apart 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:28.720 with a lake in between them. 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:33.120 Do you think he would open his home to us? 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:38.800 No, you say that without hesitation, No, he won't. 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:38.960 No. 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:43.240 All entertaining, Melanie says, is done at her mom's place, 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:44.960 never at her dad's. 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:49.440 I haven't even been in there for probably fifteen twenty years. 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.360 His house, Yeah, where I grew up. Yeah. 0:15:52.440 --> 0:15:54.520 What about your sister? Has she been in there more recently? 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:56.000 No? 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:57.440 And what about your mom? 0:15:57.880 --> 0:15:58.000 Uh? 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:00.920 I think my mom like maybe broke there, wants to 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:02.320 try to get something. 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:03.360 And she had to break in there. 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:08.080 Yeah, he's like growing up, we couldn't have an answering 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:10.200 machine because he didn't want people listening to his. 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:14.720 Messages, seeing is how private Melanie's dat is. I wonder 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:17.840 how he'll feel about the recovered interview being accompanied by 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:22.520 a stranger with a microphone. But I hope for the best. 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:24.800 So if things went really well at your mother's, what 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.400 do you think the likelihood is that we would go 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:29.720 over there for cake and coffee afterwards? 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:31.320 Two percent? 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:36.200 I like those odds because two percent is how I 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.160 like my milk when it's clouding my coffee. Then I'm 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:43.440 drinking alongside the cake I'm being served in someone's house 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:52.400 that no one's been inside in twenty years. The interview 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.720 only exists as a digital file, so I decided to 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:59.720 have a transferred to VHS. Presenting John with a tape, 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:03.920 I'll have a certain poetic symmetry, So I start calling 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:07.920 video transfer services, the first of which informs me they 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:11.600 don't put things on VHS tapes, and in fact, quote 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:16.760 do exactly the opposite. Eventually, though, I find a place 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:20.199 willing to flout the Darwinian chain of media evolution for 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.760 one hundred and fifty dollars. It feels like a bargain, 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:28.240 and so videotape in hand I set off to see 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:48.119 the Capons. I'm on my way to Melanie's mom's house 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:51.399 to lure her dad over. Melanie told him she'd written 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.600 into a radio show that was featuring children of Vietnam vets. 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:57.399 The host is coming over to do a story about 0:17:57.400 --> 0:17:59.840 me and Sam. She told them, maybe you can show 0:17:59.920 --> 0:18:03.040 up to answer a few questions, and once he does, 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:06.520 that'll be when I spring into action, surprising him with 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:12.720 the tape. Oh, that was it. The house is on 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:15.880 a dirt road, nothing but farmland and sky for as 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:18.720 far as the eye can see. The Capons live in 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:22.520 a town called Elbow Lake in rural Minnesota. It's a 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:26.080 kind of place where everyone knows everyone, going back generations. 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:27.000 Hi. 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:30.960 I greet Melanie outside her mom's house. There's a dog 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:34.000 running around and a big American flag waving in the wind. 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:37.400 For COVID reasons, we all settle down in the garage 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:38.840 where the airflow is better. 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:39.160 Hello. 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:43.639 Melanie's mom, Diane, and her sister Sam are already seated inside. 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:52.119 Sam's four year old runs up to say Hi, Hi, Hello, Hello, 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:57.160 nice to meet you. And there's Melanie's dad, Sergeant John Capon. 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:01.639 He's large and imposing. I introduced myself and ask if 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:06.639 I can hook him up with a mic. I clipped 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:11.320 the microphone onto John's lapel. John, can you tell me 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:12.480 what you had for breakfast? 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:18.280 I had a piece of toast and some pretzels and 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:22.880 a hard boiled egg and two domus. 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:29.000 Yeah, the videotape is in my backpack. I consider how 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:32.240 the best surprise John present the tape with a flourish, 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:36.600 without a flourish, perhaps with a hearty handshake. Would it 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.879 be offensive to hand it over with a salute? But 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:44.000 before I can do any of these things, John surprises me. 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:49.560 Needs to be more of this, What more younger people 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:51.320 finding out what the hell went on? 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:54.760 How many years were you in Vietnam? 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:58.640 I was only there for about eight and a half 0:19:58.720 --> 0:19:59.480 nine months. 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.080 And just like that, John is talking. 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:05.840 No, I'll tell you what. When he got off the airplane, 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:08.560 they opened up the plane, the air conditioned plane door, 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:10.879 and it was one hundred and twenty gays, just like 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:13.200 somebody threw a hot pail of water in your face. 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:16.800 Maybe having a stranger present somebody doesn't have to worry 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:21.760 about burdening is actually helpful. Or maybe John just needed 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:23.240 someone to pose the question. 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:26.360 And I'll never forget this. They took us stone. 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:31.439 Like, And so the Sunday conversation becomes a Today conversation. 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:41.359 For the next couple hours, John shares stories that his 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.919 daughters have never heard, stories that even Diane, his wife 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:48.520 of many decades, never heard. It turns out that a 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.720 lot of what John did in Vietnam was called long 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:56.560 range reconnaissance patrol, which meant acting as a scout, tiptoeing 0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:59.840 through enemy territory. John was often the one who stayed 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:02.320 out in front, the most exposed of all the men. 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:06.760 Anything that don't look right isn't right. If you've seen 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:10.399 a leaf that was turned a little color where the 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:14.200 bottom of the leaf was up, there's something there was there? 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:15.800 Really, are you just exaggerating? 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:19.400 Well? Is that exaggerating? Because there'd be a trip wire there? 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:23.359 And the other thing is if you were walking along 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:26.280 and all of a sudden the birds didn't start singing anymore, 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:30.680 why because there's somebody else there. 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:34.520 You had to be careful about smoking too, John says, 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:38.720 or showering because the Vietcong might smell you. You had 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:41.760 to be on alert twenty four to seven. And of 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:44.720 course you had to pick up your feet and walk 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:51.520 real quietly. John shares the everyday things, like the food 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:54.680 he ate, sometimes bananas, which he said were the best 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:58.480 he'd ever tasted, plucked right from the trees. John looks 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:00.960 from Melanie to Sam, telling them about the guys he 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:03.800 served with and the nights they spent playing cards and 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:08.159 talking about their childhoods. He also shares the horrific things, 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:09.840 of which there were many. 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:13.840 Always used to tell us war as hell than it is. 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:16.800 But there's one time we had come along and there 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:18.880 was a school teacher with their head cut off, sitting 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:23.399 on a post. She was like a twenty five year 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:27.040 old woman. So that's the worse to humanity as far 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:27.840 as I'm concerned. 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:33.360 Eventually, John winds his way to the day he was wounded. 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:36.160 He'd been sent to check out an area by the river, 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:38.879 and there was a moment, he says, when he noticed 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:41.919 something feeling off no more than a leaf, turned it 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:45.679 a strange way, and suddenly his men were caught in 0:22:45.720 --> 0:22:48.840 a hail of gunfire. John was shot in the leg. 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:52.840 A helicopter came to evacuate him, but as John limbed 0:22:52.840 --> 0:22:56.160 towards it, he stepped onto a booby trap. That's when 0:22:56.160 --> 0:22:59.119 the shrapnel embedded all over his body and even in 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:01.720 his eyes, rendering him unable to see. 0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:05.080 And I woke up on my birthday, so that would 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:08.359 have been three days later. I remember this one nurse 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:15.480 telling me happy birthday. Yeah, okay, yeah. And then anyway, 0:23:15.560 --> 0:23:18.919 she said, well, you've got some very important there's people 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:20.719 here from CBS television. 0:23:20.840 --> 0:23:25.080 She said that what John and his family have not 0:23:25.160 --> 0:23:29.040 discussed the news clip in easily thirty years. Hearing John 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:31.959 bring it up now on his own, I'm struck by 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:34.359 how baked into the story of a service it is, 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:38.600 John says. So that he'd look presentable for television, the 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:41.520 nurse spent a lot of time washing his hair. He'd 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:43.920