On February 21, 1943, two P-40 fighters and five Hurricanes (British single-seater fighter aircraft) took off from the Soviet Military air base in Chupa on a World War II mission to halt an attack by the German Luftwaffe.
One of the Hurricanes was piloted by 22-year-old Boris Alexandrovich Lazarev from the 760th IPA. During the mission, he encountered German pilot Oberfeldwebel Rudolf Muller of 6 Jagdgeschwader, 5the fighter squadron Luftwaffe (German Air Force) “Expertenstaffel” and his squad of four Bf 109G fighters. Lazarev was shot down by Muller near a railway station in Polyarnyi-Krug.
His remains were not discovered until 1998 after Jury Rybin, a military history, discovered details of the dogfight while searching through archives. A swamp nearby where Lazarev’s Hurricane was shot down was searched and the plane wreckage was discovered with the 66-year-old mummified remains of Boris Lazarev still inside. The anaerobic conditions of the swamp, as well as the gasoline and oil present in the area from his crashed craft aided in preserving the body as well as personal belongings of the deceased.
The body was almost entirely intact; His feet were cut off at the ankles, most likely caused by the force of the crash and his face showed signs of blunt force trauma caused the pilot’s head slamming into the instrumental panel on impact.
Inside the cockpit, found alongside Boris’s severed feet, were flying goggles and a handmade knife with the inscription, “Friend Bors in the second year of the war.”
Inside his suit pockets were two letters, Komsomol cards, a book on the ‘Red Army’ and bullets
from a TT pistol which was still in his belt. Also discovered was a knife from a German paratrooper, German coins, Soviet medals and various documents. From his position, with hands at his straps, it is believed Boris was attempting to leave the aircraft by opening the canopy and using his parachute. Most likely after his aircraft was struck, he decended in altitude too quickly for him to manage an escape and died on impact due to a blow to his chest caused by the strong kick of the control panel. Boris Lazarev would be the last pilot Rudolf Muller would shoot down. Ironically, on April 19, 1943 Muller’s own aircraft was shot down and he was sent to a Soviet prison camp. Rudolf Muller was executed on October 21, 1943, exactly eight months after the death of Lazarev, while attempting to escape the facility. Boris Lazarev was buried with military honors in the cemetery in Chupa, Kareloan Republic and the remnants of his crashed aircraft are housed at the Central Milotary History Museum at Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. To this date, no living relatives of Boris Lazarvez have been found.
On June 11, 1963 amidst what became known as the “Buddhist Crisis” a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk known as Thich Quang Duc self-immolated (committed sacrificial suicide) at a busy intersection in Saigon. While Malcolm Browne’s Pulitzer Prize winning photo of Thich Quang Duc during self-immolation is one of the most famous and powerful photographs to this day, many people do not know what led the monk to end his life in protest.
Thich Quang Duc
Thich Quang Duc was born as “Lam Van Tac” in 1897 in Hoi Khan in the Van Ninh District, Khanh Hou province of Vietnam to Lam Huu Ung and Nguyen Thi Nuong. One of several children, Thich Quang Duc left his family at the age of eight to begin studying Buddhism under his uncle and spiritual master, Hoa Thuong Thich Hoang Tham, who raised him as though he were his own son. When Thich Quang Duc was fifteen, he took his Samanera (novice) vows and changed his name to Nguyen Van Khiet. At twenty he became an ordained monk and was given the name “Thich Quang Duc”. “Thich” (short for “Thich Ca”) is the surname given to all Mahayana Vietnamese Buddhist monks and nuns. The name means “Sakya” and indicates they are “sons of Sakyamuni the Buddha”. “Quang Duc” is a Dharma name which is traditionally chosen by one’s spiritual leader and is descriptive of the person’s admirable attributes. Once he became an ordained monk, Thich Quang Duc chose to travel to a mountain near Ninh Hoa to live in solitude; Afterwards, he opened the Thien Loc pagoda near the mountain on which he had spent three years as a hermit. In 1932 Thich Quang Duc was appointed as an inspector of monks for the Buddhist Association in Ninh Hoa, later being appointed as inspector to his home province of Khanh Hoa. Duc devoted two years to studying the traditions of Theravada Buddhism in Cambodia. He spent much of his life spreading the teachings of Buddhism throughout southern Vietnam and in his lifetime, was responsible for the construction of 31 Buddhist temples; One of them being the Quan The Am pagoda in the outskirts of Saigon. The street the temple sits on is now named after Thich Quang Duc in honor of his work and the sacrifice he made for the Buddhist population through self-immolation.
Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem
Vietnam’s first President, Ngo Dinh Diem was a devout Roman Catholic who took office in 1955. While the Roman Catholic minority had long been favored by French colonists in the area, Diem was well-known for severely persecuting the Buddhist population within the country. At the time, 70%-90% of the population was Buddhist and had been suffering mass discrimination during Diem’s presidency. Many Roman Catholic priests had formed their own armies which were instructed to brutalize the Buddhist population and force them to convert their religion under threat. The government refused to intervene while Buddhist pagodas were being looted and destroyed by these Catholic troops. The Buddhist flag had been banned in Vietnam and on May 8, 1963 during a protest regarding the ban, nine unarmed Buddhist protestors were shot and killed by government guards in the city of Hue. While Ngo Dinh Diem blamed communist terrorists, it was perfectly clear he had a hand in the shootings. On June 10 a spokesperson for the Vietnamese Buddhist population quietly informed a U.S. journalist covering the Buddhist Crisis that “something important” would happen the next day on the road outside the Cambodian Embassy in the city of Saigon. Three-hundred and fifty Buddhist monks and nuns carrying protest banners marched down the street that day while Thich Quang Duc and two other monks rode in a car.
The car Thich Quang Duc rode in to his June 11, 1963 self-immolation.
Once they were near the busy Saigon intersection, Thich Quang Duc and his companions exited the car as the protesters surrounded them in a protective circle. One monk placed a cushion in the road for Thich Quang Duc to sit on. He sat on the cushion in the lotus position before taking out his wooden holy beads and chanting, “Nam mo A di da Phat”, a prayer to Amida Buddha.
One of the monks accompanying him retrieved a 5 gallon petrol can from the vehicle and began to douse Thich Quang Duc in petroleum. After the prayer was finished, Thich Quang Duc self-immolated with the aid of another monk who lit the match.
David Halberstam, who witnessed the event wrote, “I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring.
In the air was the smell of human flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think…
As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.”.
It took approximately 10 minutes for the 66-year-old monk to completely self-immolate. Once the fire that had consumed Thich Quang Duc began to burn out, monks covered his smoldering body in yellow robes and placed his corpse inside a wooden coffin. The monks were unable to straighten his charred body; One arm protruded from the coffin as his remains were carried to the Xa Loi pagoda.
Astoundingly, despite being “re-cremated” at his funeral, the heart of Thich Quang Duc remained unscathed and was placed in a glass chalice where it, along with his ashes, remained at the Xa Loi pagoda. Photos of Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation circulated the world, putting more pressure on President Ngo Dinh Diem to reform his policies as he had previously promised the citizens of Vietnam.
American President John F. Kennedy commented on the photo saying, “No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one.” Still, the Buddhist Crisis of Vietnam continued. In August of 1963 Diem arrested over 1,000 Buddhists in the cities of Hue and Saigon and conducted massive raids on Buddhist pagodas including Xu Loi. During the raid, two monks managed to escape with the urn containing the martyred monk’s ashes. Unfortunately, Duc’s heart was confiscated by government forces. Many Buddhist monks across Vietnam were killed, others chose to join Duc in self-immolation to ensure their death would matter. Finally, on November 2, 1963 a coup was staged on President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother/advisor, Ngo Dinh Nhu, who many believe may have been behind most of the anti-Buddhist policies across Vietnam. After being arrested and promised safety in return for their surrender, Diem and Nhu were assassinated in the back of a truck while being transported to military headquarters. It began when Nhu was stabbed with a bayonet 15-20 times by one of the arresting officers (who Nhu had been insulting during transport) while the truck was stopped at a train crossing.
Body of President Ngo Dinh Diem after his assassination.
Diem was then shot in the head with a revolver at point-blank range. When it was noticed Nhu was still barely clinging to life, he too was shot in the head and killed. The assassinations of President Diem and his brother, Nhu, proved to be a huge turning point in the Vietnam War. Before his self-immolation, Thich Quang Duc documented his final thoughts in a letter, “Before closing my eyes and moving towards the vision of the Buddha, I respectfully plead to President Ngo Dinh Diem to take a mind of compassion towards the people of the nation and implement religious equality to maintain the strength of the homeland eternally. I call the venerables, reverends, members of the sangha [meaning “association”/”community” in Sanskrit and usually referring to ordained monks and nuns] and the lay Buddhists to organize in solidarity to make sacrifices to protect Buddhism.”.
The heart of Thich Quang Duc
Thich Quang Duc’s heart was recovered and is now kept in the Reserve Bank of Vietnam; It is considered to be a holy relic. Due in part to the miraculous preservationof Thich Quang Duc’s heart, he was deemed a Bodhisattva, “Enlightened Being”.
The following is news footage of the Buddhist Crisis in Vietnam and the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc on June 11, 1963 in Saigon. If you only wish to watch the self-immolation, skip to 6:00 minutes.
After writing a previous article entitled, “Victims of Terror”, I became slightly obsessed with the story of Cade, a boy who believes he is the reincarnation of a 9/11 victim. For several weeks, I couldn’t bring myself to focus on anything other than discovering the identity of the man Cade believes he was in his past life. From my research for the previous article, I knew:
-He was a businessman
-He could see the Statue of Liberty from his office window in the World Trade Center
-He either jumped or fell and saw his “brains come out of his head” before being covered by rubble
After searching the deep, dark recesses of the World Wide Web, I was able to find a few message boards Cade’s mother had gone on in hopes of discovering her son’s identity in his past life as well. Through this I learned additional information to aid in my search:
-The explosion occurred above him
-The ceiling on his floor collapsed, blocking the stairwell
-His parents were “abusive drunks” and he hated them
-He got married very young
-He was from New York State, and moved to New York City
-He lived in an apartment or hotel
-He rode a bike or motorcycle to work
-He had been in the armed forces
-He had loved taking ferry rides to the Statue of Liberty as a young man
-He got a dog when he was 25
-His remains are still at the former site of the World Trade Center
Unfortunately, this could describe hundreds of the World Trade Center employees killed in the attacks. Cade did, however, remember one extremely useful piece of information:
-His name was Robert
-His middle initial was ‘E’, for Elliot or Elion, he believes
-His last name, he thinks, might have been ‘Pattison’
There was, indeed, a man who worked and died in the World Trade Center named Robert E. Pattison. Although the ‘E’ stands for Edward, not Elliot or Elion, his parents are convinced this must be the man Cade was in his last life.
Robert E. Pattison was 40 years old when he was killed on September 11, 2001. He was employed by WCBS as a maintenance transmitter supervisor and tended to the transmitters on both the World Trade Center’s North Tower and the Empire State Building. Although most of Robert’s work was done on the 110th floor, on the day of the attack, it is believed Robert Pattison was on the roof of the North Tower. This would mean that unless he chose to jump from the roof sometime after the first plane hit, he would have remained there for over an hour until the North Tower came crashing down. He was one of six children born to a family in Woburn, Massachusetts and it has been said by his siblings that he was a bit of a trouble maker. After joining the air force, he began to straighten his life up. He lived in Boston for several years before moving to New York City, and although no wife is mentioned in his obituaries, through my research I have discovered he may at one point have been married to a woman named Maryellen who he later divorced. While there is not much information to be found about the life of Robert Edward Pattison (due in part to the overshadowing of information on actor Robert Pattison who plays Edward in the Twilight movies), you may have noticed that much of the information that is known regarding Robert’s life does not quite correlate with Cade’s memories of his former life. In fact, aside from the name, many of the memories contradict what Cade has told his parents. While I do not discount this boy’s story, I do discount the accuracy of some of his memories.
Most of us have experienced, at one time or another, a very long and detailed dream which we want to retell. As soon as you wake up, the dream is fresh in your mind and you remember it perfectly only to find later, when you try to tell someone about this crazy dream you had, you’ve forgotten pieces, have forgotten the order in which things occurred, and even forgotten or mixed up important details. “We were somewhere else- I don’t remember where but I think it was a corn field or something, maybe in Illinois or Ohio and I was a farmer… No wait, you were the farmer- anyway, it doesn’t matter- one of us was a farmer. We were in the field, then all of a sudden a crop circle just appeared… No, actually there was a bright light first. Oh no, that was after… Anyway, the space ship was full of people from my office. I don’t remember who all was there, but I remember they were from my office. I think my boss was there… Uhg I forgot what even happened in the dream that made me want to tell you about it. Nevermind.” Now imagine this dream lasted for 20, 40, 60 years or more and you waited five to ten years to tell anyone about it. It would be incredible if you remembered that dream at all, as it is incredible any children are able to recall past life memories at all. We must assume that often times, as in dreams, these children get details mixed up and begin to forget, especially as they get older.
In the case of Cade, while he seemed quite certain his name was ‘Robert’, he was a bit unsure about his middle and last name. ‘Pattison’ may have seemed familiar to him if he had ever heard the name of the actor ‘Robert Pattison’, which is quite likely due to his celebrity status, or he could have known Robert E. Pattison from having simply worked in the same building together, using the same elevator everyday. Cade was also quite insistent that he was born in New York state, whereas this Robert E. Pattison was born and raised in Massachusetts. Although Mr. Pattison was a supervisor, he was an electrician, not a ‘businessman’. If he was on the roof of the building on September 11th when the first plane hit the North Tower, he wouldn’t have been in his office, as Cade recalls and there would have been no ceiling above him to fall in and block him from escape. Even if Robert had not been on the roof that day, as is believed, and was instead on the 110th floor, Cade recalls an explosion somewhere above him. The plane which struck the North Tower ripped a hole spanning from the 93rd to the 98th floor, which suggests he was on or below the 92nd floor. Cade describes in graphic detail witnessing his “brains come out of his head” when he hit the ground. If Robert E. Pattison remained on the roof of One World Trade in hopes of a helicopter rescue and went down with the building as is his assumed fate, he wouldn’t have had the ability to see his “brains come out of his head”, as he left his body because he would have been entirely enveloped by the rubble in the fall. Not to mention, Cade requested his mother begin calling him ‘Robert’ because he didn’t like the name ‘Cade’ when in fact, Mr. Pattison hated being called ‘Robert’ and in life had always gone by ‘Bob’.
I continued my search for the real ‘Robert’ Cade claimed to be in his last life. I individually researched over one hundred men named ‘Robert’ who had died in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centers, slowly eliminating them based on careers, family history and anything other descriptors I could go off of. Unfortunately, there was absolutely no ‘Robert’ who fit the description Cade had given. Each and everyone had some piece of major information that was opposite of what Cade had recalled. Once again, I do not discredit this young man’s story but unfortunately for Cade, it has proven impossible to determine who he had been in his previous life. Often times, memories of dying in past lives relived through dreams can be just as traumatic as experiencing death everyday. Unless the individual is able to have some form of closure, they may be haunted and hindered by their past life memories in the current life. Hopefully, as time goes on and people become more accepting of the possibility of reincarnation, there will be more information and resources made available to people who are experiencing past life memories.
The infamous Bombing of Guernica was an aerial attack on the town of Guernica in Basque County, Spain that took place on April 26, 1937. The attack, which lasted three hours, was carried out by the German Air Force’s Condor Legion and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria, at the request of the Spanish National Government during the Spanish Civil War, often refered to as “dress rehearsal” for World War II. Although modern estimates range from 153-400 civilians killed in the raid on the Spanish town, the Basque government reported 1,654 deaths and Russian records from May 1, 1937 claim 800, not including those resulting from injury or bodies which were later recovered from the rubble. Guernica suffered one of the first raids carried out by an air force on a defenseless civilian population in modern times. The bombing and its aftermath were so horrific, the event went onto inspire Picasso’s anti-war painting ‘Guernica’ and was featured in a woodcut by German artist Heinz Kiwitz, who died while fighting for the International Brigades on the side of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The Bombing of Guernica, code name “Operation Rugen”, was executed in 5 waves of air strike with at least 45 aircraft. During the first wave, twelve 110lb (50kg) bombs were dropped on the city, the following wave destroyed the bridge to the east of the town preventing citizens from escaping. Fighter pilots were given specific instruction to not bomb the town itself, only possible escape routes during the second wave. Still, 36 additional 110lb (50kg) bombs were dropped on the city during a 60 second pass over Guernica from north to south. The three following waves of attack on the city caused the most devastation, destroying 3/4 of the buildings.
Josefinas Hospital was only one of many buildings destroyed in the bombing, when it was hit all 42 wounded militiamen inside the building were killed. Another 50 people, most of whom were women and children, were found trapped under burning wreckage. Those who tried to escape were shot and witnesses say there were thousands of bullets fired. Some did make it out of the town and hid in fields as far as 4 miles away from the burning city of Guernica. Even most who made it to these fields were shot down. One priest who survived, when asked what had happened in his town, pointed back towards Guernica and whispered, “Aviones… Bombas’… Mucho, mucho.” Which translates to, “Aircraft… Bombed… Much, much.”. People inside the city were hiding in shelters and praying. Aronategui, an elderly priest who was unable to make it out if the city was killed while rescuing children from a burning building. The flames engulfing the city could be seen from ten miles away and th fires lasted three days. Survivor accounts from inside the town after the attacks are horrific: a thick stench of burning human flesh, Basque soldiers sobbing and frantically trying to recover bodies from the rubble to no avail.
In the aftermath, approximately 100 survivors say in the town plaza in shock. Amazingly, the only things left of the city after the attack were The Santa Maria Church, a 600 year old tree which was a sacred symbol to the Basque people, and a small munitions factory on the outskirts of town.
George Steer of the New York Times visited Guernica shortly after the attack and reported on what he experienced there in his piece, The Tragedy of Guernica Town Destroyed in Air Attack Eye Witness Account published in The New York Times on April 22, 1937. Steer commented, “A sight that will haunt me for weeks was the charred bodies of several women and children huddled together in what had been the cellar of a house.” The Bombing of Guernica and its 7,000 citizens is still considered to be unparalleled in military history today.
Read George Steer’s New York Times Article The Tragedy of Guernica Town Destroyed in Air Attack Eye Witness Account from April 22, 1937 in its entirety
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Also discovered was a knife from a German paratrooper, German coins, Soviet medals and various documents. From his position, with hands at his straps, it is believed Boris was attempting to leave the aircraft by opening the canopy and using his parachute. Most likely after his aircraft was struck, he decended in altitude too quickly for him to manage an escape and died on impact due to a blow to his chest caused by the strong kick of the control panel. Boris Lazarev would be the last pilot Rudolf Muller would shoot down. Ironically, on April 19, 1943 Muller’s own aircraft was shot down and he was sent to a Soviet prison camp. Rudolf Muller was executed on October 21, 1943, exactly eight months after the death of Lazarev, while attempting to escape the facility. Boris Lazarev was buried with military honors in the cemetery in Chupa, Kareloan Republic and the remnants of his crashed aircraft are housed at the Central Milotary History Museum at Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. To this date, no living relatives of Boris Lazarvez have been found. 
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