October 12, 2020
Douglas Dietrich ranted about his father, George J. Dietrich after Peter Moon remarked his fathers' experiences were "Forrest Gump-like."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTvr-QVDUgc&t=9812s
2:41:25 - 2:48:55
I investigated and refuted this claim over a year ago:
"Dietrich Claims his father killed MSgt John C. Woods on Enewetak Atoll on July 21, 1950"
https://rkcolejr.blogspot.com/2021/07/dietrich-claims-his-father-killed-msgt.html
Since Dietrich has now embellished his previous claim, I am taking a second look at the history of John C. Woods, Enewetak Atoll, and this bizarre claim involving murder, his father, and German (Nazi) scientists.
"Since the civilian authorities ashore knew about it as well as the Navy authorities, John Clarence Woods couldn't get out of it, they couldn't cover up for him, so the Navy Dishonorably Discharged him, and later on, here was my father again at the atomic test sites, uh, it was either Enewetok or Bikini Atoll or might have been Ulithi, but all we have to do is look up where that motherfucker died. John Clarence Woods was electrocuted on one of those islands, that's where my father murdered him."
"This was the man who hanged all the Nazis at Nuremberg, came from Kansas, was a human piece of shit who was dishonorably discharged from the Navy, and yet they made him a non-commissioned officer immediately!"
"He was brought into the US Army during World War Two when my dad reported him was before WW2. During WW2 you get this Dishonorably Discharged child rapist shows up and the US Army immediately commissions him, they instantly made this guy a Master Sergent."
"Anyone who doubts "the US Army is seething with satanism and is Satan's Army and that all the men at the Presidio were proud to announce "we are Satan's army they were 'satans crusaders' anyone who doubts that should reflect on John Clarence Woods."
"This sick son-of-a-bitch and my father killed him when he was 39 years old on Enewetok Atoll when my father electrocuted him to death by throwing him a line, a 'live-wire', as my father expressed it."
"And of course, all the German scientists at Enewetok held a party on that man's death, and of course, the US Navy was totally dependant on them for the tests to be carried out at all, so they covered for my dad."
"This is the kind of life that really makes Forrest Gump look like nothing."
"Anchors Away, (or not)"
John C. Woods was born on June 5, 1911, and at age 18, enlisted in the US Navy on December 3, 1929. The 5' 3 1/2", 116 lb Woods reported to Naval Station San Diego, CA for training 3 days later and was initially assigned to the USS Saratoga (CV-3) on February 12, 1930. (1)
Woods' assignment to the Navy's second commissioned aircraft carrier should have been the beginning of an exciting career in the Navy. But it was not to be as Woods reported to "sick call" the day of his assignment and was admitted to the Naval Base Hospital at San Diego. He was released a week later for duty on the USS Melville (AD-2) (2) awaiting reassignment to the USS Hovey (DD-208). (3)
Woods was authorized leave/liberty for one day on February 23, 1930, but failed to return to the USS Melville. The Navy declared him a straggler the following morning and on March 6, 1930, declared him a deserter. (4)
Woods avoided apprehension for nearly three weeks and over 1,000 miles, "hoboing" the rails heading east. He would make it as far as La Junta, Colorado when he was apprehended by local police who transported him to a US Navy Recruiting Station in Denver where La Junta Police were paid $50 for apprehending him.
Woods spent 3 days in the Denver City Jail before the Navy took him into custody and transported him back to Naval Base San Diego where he arrived aboard the USS Hovey and was placed in the ship's brig on March 13, 1930.
Seaman 2nd Class Woods would stand a Summary Court Martial on March 31, 1930, and was convicted of being "Absent Over Leave." He was sentenced to 30 days of solitary confinement aboard the USS Hovey with bread and water (a full ration every third day).
Woods' Commanding Officer, Captain Stuart O. Grieg, attempted to lessen the blow to the young sailor by removing the charge of desertion and ordered that Woods continue to receive pay retroactive to February 24.
Woods served his time in the brig of the USS Hovey and was then transferred to the Naval Hospital at Mare Island, San Francisco for observation under recommendation by the medical officer on April 16, 1930.
A Medical Survey Board convened at Mare Island on April 23, 1930, and submitted the following report:
“This patient, though not intellectually inferior, gives a history of repeatedly running counter to authority both before and since enlistment. Stigmata of degeneration are present and the patient frequently bites his fingernails. He has a benign tumor of the soft palate for which he refuses operation. His commanding officer and division officers state that he shows inaptitude and does not respond to instruction. He is obviously poor service material. This man has had less than five months service. His disability is considered to be an inherent defect for which the service is in no way responsible. [He] is not considered a menace to himself or others.”
Contrary to many reports found on the internet today, Woods was not given a dishonorable discharge from the Navy as the Medical Board Report also provided a diagnosis of "Constitutional Psychopathic Inferiority without Psychosis" and recommended Woods be discharged from Naval service.
Author and military historian Col. French MacLean (USA, Ret) states in his book: American Hangman: MSgt. John C. Woods: The United States Army’s Notorious Executioner in World War II and Nürnberg (2019):
The sailor was declared to be discharged for the convenience of the government: Woods was not recommended for any further reenlistment. With that, John C. Woods was discharged from the Navy and given $75.89 for his transportation home to Witchita from North Vallejo Wharf near Mare Island." (page 24)
A Separation for the Convenience of the Government is extremely rare and is recommended for reasons which do not fall under any other category. (5) Such a discharge is administrative and in most cases the consequences are minimal if any. It is similar to a Medical Discharge or Entry Level Separation involving a person with less than 180 days of active duty service.
Woods served 5 1/2 months in the US Navy. Of those, he spent one week in the hospital, 3 weeks on the run, and one month in the brig. Contrary to Dietrich's claim, Woods never deployed at sea and was never charged with the raping of children by the US Navy or anyone else.
George J. Dietrich was born on October 23, 1919, and grew up near Rochester, New York. He would have been 10 years old when John C. Woods joined the US Navy. Dietrich would enlist in the Navy himself in June 1941.
Hard Times:
Like almost everyone during the Great Depression, Woods struggled through rough times. He attempted to upgrade his discharge in May 1931 but lied on the form stating he was given an "Honorable Disability Discharge". Woods was promptly issued a replacement for his original discharge type on June 8, 1931.
Fortunately for Woods, and millions of other young men, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. CCC Camps were administered by US Army Reserve Officers and Enlisted men. It provided manual labor jobs, food, clothing, and shelter with a wage of $30 per month until it was disbanded in 1942. (6)
Woods was accepted into the program at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas on June 4, 1933, claiming he had experience as a mechanic. The Camp Commander assigned him to the Mess Hall as a cook where Woods worked without any issues until June 23 when he was transferred to "CCC Company 1715" in Toronto where a man-made lake was being constructed.
But sometime after a promotion to "Mess Sergeant", Woods went AWOL again on September 21, 1933. He was given a Dishonorable Discharge from the CCC on September 27, 1933, for refusing to work, going AWOL, and insubordination.
Very shortly after, Woods married Hazel Chilcott, a local Eureka Kansas woman who worked as a nurse. He worked odd jobs and as a laborer at the local feed store. In December 1939 Woods bounced a $50 check. He plead guilty, was ordered to pay the victim and a $500 fine, and was placed on two years probation. He was registered with the Selective Service in Greenwood County in 1940.
The US Army issued two draft calls for the County in the summer of 1941 and Woods was required to report to Ft. Leavenworth both times. Woods was rejected for service each time, probably because he remained on probation.
He would report for possible induction a 3rd time on August 23, 1943, and was inducted into the US Army on August 30. Woods (now age 32) deployed to England in early 1944 and was assigned to Company B, 37th Engineer Combat Battalion, 5th Engineer Special Brigade at South Wales. (7)
According to historian/author Col. French MacLean, who obtained a copy of Wood's Official Army Personnel File from the National Archives and Records Administration,
"This study found no official documents placing Woods away from his unit when it participated in the landing at Omaha Beach on June 6. Additionally, members of the battalion present at Normandy on June 6 were later authorized to wear unit awards of the Presidential Unit Citation and the French Croix de Guerre with palm.
Woods's personnel file in 1950 authorizes a Distinguished Unit Badge and the Presidential Unit Citation. Woods also wore two official Army patches on his uniform associated with combat units on D-Day. Given those observations, this study believes that John Woods was on Omaha Beach at Normandy on D-day, slugging it out with the rest of his buddies." (p. 30)
Shortly after Normandy, Woods lied his way into volunteering for the Army's desperate request for men with experience in hanging. He was eventually chosen and orders were issued from the European Theater of Operations (ETO) Command Brig. Gen. R.B. Lord (Chief of Staff) that:
"G-1 has promised to provide the grade recommended by me for the hangman in order to compensate him in a small measure for the work he is to perform. I am recommending the hangman be made a Master Sergeant and assistant hangman a T/3 (Staff Sergeant)."
With that, Private John C. Woods was promoted to Master Sergeant in October 1944, (a pay increase from $50 a month to $138) and his brief, notorious career as a hangman began. (8)
Woods performed as the primary executioner in the hangings of 34 U.S. soldiers at various locations in France from 1944 to 1945 and assisted in at least three others. U.S. Army reports suggest that Woods participated in at least 11 bungled hangings of U.S. soldiers between 1944 and 1946.
Woods also participated in the execution of about 45 war criminals at various locations including Nuremberg where many of the Nazis he executed fell from the gallows with a drop insufficient to snap their necks, resulting in their death by strangulation that in some cases lasted several minutes.
Woods later appeared in photographs wearing his US Army uniform with seven service stripes sewn on his left sleeve. Normally, a service stripe in the US Army would reflect 3 years of active duty service and seven would indicate 21 years of service. At that time Woods had served less than three years in the US Army.
You can read the details about John C. Woods and his victims in this book by military historian Col. French MacLean: https://www.amazon.com/American-Hangman-Notorious-Executioner-N%C3%BCrnberg/dp/0764358154/
But for the purposes of this post, I will move forward to 1950 and Woods's assignment to Enewetok Atoll and Douglas Dietrich's ridiculous claim that Woods was murdered by his father George Joseph Dietrich.
Enewetok
Enewetok is an islet on the Southeast portion of a large coral atoll in the North Pacific Marshall Islands.
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| Enewetok at bottom right from the air |
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| Enewetok from the south |
Enewetok was captured by US Forces on February 23, 1944, and became a major forward operations base for the US Navy. (10) Following WW2 it was part of the Pacific Proving Grounds used for the testing of nuclear weapons from 1946 - 1962.
Following his post-war service in Germany, MSgt John C. Woods was assigned to units in Camp Gordon, GA, and Ft. Belvoir, VA. On January 12, 1950, Woods was assigned to the 7th Engineer Brigade "Joint Task Force Three."
The unit moved in staggard elements to Camp Stoneman, CA for training in 1950 and prepared for deployment overseas. Elements of the unit, including Woods, departed San Franciso on March 4, 1950, aboard the USAT Gen. A.W. Brewster (AP-155) and arrived at Enewetok on March 16, 1950. (p. 130)
"Joint Task Force Three" arrived at Enewetok two years after the first nuclear test Operation Sandstone (April-May) 1948 and one year before Operation Greenhouse (April-May) 1951.
This unclassified 1951 video "Operation Greenhouse" was produced for Joint Task Force Three by US Air Force and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The video gives a unique insight into the scale of operations.
https://archive.org/details/OperationGreenhouse1951
Joint Task Force Three had its work cut out for it in preparation for Operation Greenhouse and engineers worked day and night. According to Col. MacLean, "Engineers constructed 197 buildings and poured 450,000 square yards of asphalt."
In order to produce cement, a quarry was constructed on the northeast portion of Enewetok that extended into the coral reef. The island was only about 10 feet above sea level and the result was a shallow "pit" where seawater flowed into various locations at high tide.
George Joseph Dietrich (PO1 USN, Ret)
Douglas Dietrich's father, George Joseph Dietrich enlisted in the US Navy on June 26, 1941, and served honorably until he retired at the rank of Petty Officer First Class (E-6) on August 16, 1965.
George Dietrich was assigned as a cook to the heavy cruiser USS Pittsburgh (CA-72) during WW2 and was awarded the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal with two stars for participating in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He re-enlisted in the Navy in December 1945.
According to the National Archives and Records Administration (NPRC), George Dietrich deployed to the Pacific aboard the Attack Cargo Ship USS Virgo (AKA-20) from June 1949 to January 1950. His next assignment was the Navy Yard in Brooklyn, NY until February 1951 when he reported to AFSC, Norfolk, Virginia.
This proves that George J. Dietrich was over 7,000 miles away from Enewetok Atoll on July 21, 1950.
As Dietrich tells it, his father hung out with German scientists from Operation Paperclip on Enewetok Atoll (who were secretly Nazis and wanted to kill Woods). And on July 21, 1950, his father knocked Woods into the water and then tossed him a live wire cable that Woods grabbed, electrocuting him.
July 21, 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d5iyKochq0&t=37767s 10:17:30 to 10:32:15
"That island was frequented by German scientists and engineers as a part of Operation Paperclip. My father met them and of course, they instantly took a liking to him because they could see his name on his uniform. "Dietrich." My father would communicate with them and on July 21st of 1950 while both my father and MSgt John C. Woods were stationed on Enewetok Atoll in the Pacific the entire island was populated by German and American scientists and engineers working as part of Operation Paperclip.
While clinging to a lightbulb, standing in a pool of water, Woods was electrocuted. His death came faster than any of the Nazi war criminals he had executed. So, the way the Army proposed this, he was standing in a pool of water changing light bulbs when a current of electricity coursed through the water, and Woods screamed and fell back into the water dead.
Now, of course, everyone knew this death was suspicious, and the public did not fail to notice the presence of German scientists working on the atoll for the US weapons program, either way, MSgt John C. Woods's exit was quicker than his victims.
His death was a pedestrian end for a man who once held the world's stage. But his death was most certainly not an accident. What happened was when he fell into the water, my father threw him an open electrical line and like an idiot, he grabbed for it because a drowning man will even grab the tip of a sword.
It was my father who knocked him into the water and it was my father who handed him the cable and had the satisfaction of watching him fry in the water where my father said he lit up light a light bulb. My father was interrogated and they asked him what did you see, he said "he lit up like a light bulb" my father was worried he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison but the interrogator wrote down Woods died screwing in a light bulb and my father was dismissed.
So my father got away with murder, the German scientists and engineers helped him and I was warned this was something that would destroy my family name. I am proud of what the man who raised and guided me did and if I had been there with him I would have helped."
The Death of MSgt John Woods
On the night of July 21, 1950, Woods was informed by Pvt. Richard G. Griffin that the lights at the quarry were out. Griffin and others had stopped hauling rock for the night and a drilling crew was preparing to go to work. Woods sent Griffin to fetch two replacement bulbs for the lighting set.
Floodlights were used to illuminate the quarry at night and were operated using generators. In this case, the generator switch for the lighting was located in a tool shack. Woods and Griffin replaced the bulbs but the lights still did not work so they began checking the line running from the edge of the waterline back to the switch box and Griffin found a break in the line.
Woods sent Griffin to turn the switch off, which he did, and grabbed pliers and friction tape from the tool shed. Griffin said Woods then hollered for him to turn the switch off because he thought current was still in the line. After Griffin told Woods he had already done so, Woods went to check the switch himself to make sure and the two returned to fix the break in the line.
As Griffin, standing only a few feet away, held the line for Woods to splice, he felt a shock and threw down the line as Woods screamed and fell backward into the water. Griffin then yelled to a Cpl. Blanchard to call the ambulance and for Cpl Mahone to hold the switch down. Then Mahone and another soldier pulled Woods from the water. (p. 132)
An investigation conducted by 1Lt. Avery L. Granger later determined that Cpl. Ernest L. Blanchard, reporting for his shift in the quarry noticed the lights were off and unaware that Woods and Griffin were down in the quarry, had turned the switch on. Granger's report stated that although Blanchard had thrown the switch on, the accident was not the result of gross negligence and there was no indication of foul play. (p. 133)
Rumor and Speculation
It wasn't long before rumors and speculation about Woods's death began to surface, first from sources in Europe, then in the U.S. French magazine, Ici Paris reported that Woods was killed on July 25 by an exploding electric chair and that German scientists, (loyal Nazi's) were working at Enewetok and were responsible for his death.
German newspaper Der Spiegel said Woods had joined an "intelligence service" but left it so he could continue executions using an electric chair and when testing it, "received a lethal shock of 25,000 volts." The London News of the World said that it must have been an underground Nazi agent on Enewetok who killed him.
To my knowledge, Col. French MacLean is the only person who has researched the life and death of John C. Woods. One thing is for certain, George J. Dietrich never reported Woods to the US Navy and was nowhere near Enewetok Atoll on July 21, 1950.
Sources:
1. https://www.thoughtco.com/uss-saratoga-cv-3-2361553
2, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Melville_(AD-2)
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hovey
4. MacLean, French (Col. USA, Ret) American Hangman: MSgt. John C. Woods: The United States Army’s Notorious Executioner in World War II and Nürnberg - Schiffer Military, (2019). p: 22,23,24.
5. https://www.jordanucmjlaw.com/2021/10/what-are-the-different-types-of-military-discharge/
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Conservation_Corps
7. MacLean, French (Col. USA, Ret) American Hangman: MSgt. John C. Woods: The United States Army’s Notorious Executioner in World War II and Nürnberg - Schiffer Military, (2019). p: 25, 26,27, 30.
8. https://allthatsinteresting.com/john-c-woods
9. https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Enewetak_Atoll
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Eniwetok
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Proving_Grounds
12. https://archive.org/details/OperationGreenhouse1951
13. MacLean, French (Col. USA, Ret) American Hangman: MSgt. John C. Woods: The United States Army’s Notorious Executioner in World War II and Nürnberg - Schiffer Military, (2019). p: 129, 130, 131, 136, 137.
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