TL;DR: This is the final installment on the posts concerning tire manufacturers. It covers some of the stranger (but always significant) connections that came up during the research.

As I wrote about in the post on Charles Goodyear, when I began researching the tire industry I was very surprised to learn the whole shebang came out of Akron, Ohio. And as I remarked back then, I suppose one could mentally gymnastic oneself into vaguely dismissing that fact for some reason you could not quite think of at the present time.

But upon consideration, I think we have to give up that notion completely. At least I have to, and recognize that just as in Denver, SeaTac, Lincoln County and elsewhere, the Salem Witches set up one of their Strongholds in Akron.

The point is to reframe whatever you may be thinking about Akron, the tire industry, and other related topics we hit on along the way. That is, rather than, “The Salem Witches happened set up the tire industry and it happened to be in Akron,” it should probably be more like, “The Salem Witches set up shop in Akron, and the tire industry was one of many projects run out of that locale.”

We hit on some other suspicious facts about Akron and its environs along the way, and in the future there will (hopefully) be another post to round it all up and expand the list. For now, let me add one item that was already written up: the iconic experimental band from the 70’s and 80’s, Devo. Frankly, I had totally forgotten that they were out of Akron, and that’s after I had written them up not even a year ago:

Echoes of Dave McGowan: Devo and their connections to Kent State, Monsanto, David Bowie, Neil Young, Salem and Roswell (conspiracies.win 6/16/2025)

I’m too ashamed to go back and read that now myself because I fear it will seem painfully naïve, so good luck and please get what you can out of it. The enhanced context will change from, “Turns out Devo just so happened to be at Kent State,” to, “The Salem Witches both spun up Devo and ran their phony massacre out of their Stronghold in Akron.” As I say, live and learn.

And now for something completely different….

I think that most people who picked out a “Top 3” from the list of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents would choose the fire on Apollo 1 and the destruction of Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia. What if I told you the connection between them was (drum roll) tires and the Salem Witches? I will explain, of course.

I tripped over a couple of anomalies when writing these posts on tire manufacturers. Grabbing on to anomalies and wrestling them to the ground has become a specialty of mine. The first one came on the Wikipedia page for Charles Goodyear. It concerned a crucial contribution from a mysterious “Mr.Chaffee” of Boston:

A man named Mr. Chaffee was also helpful and willing to listen to his plans, as well as to provide financial assistance. Around this time, Mr. Chaffee suggested that many of the difficulties encountered in working India rubber might result from the solvent being used.

“Chaffee” is a rather unusual name, is it not? I’ve only ever heard of two people with it. Roger B. Chaffee (1935-1967) was one of the three astronauts incinerated by the very tragic and very suspicious fire in the capsule of Apollo 1. Thus, we file this anomaly with other “Spaceflight Disasters” for later investigation.

Another anomaly I found was at the top of the page for BFGoodrich. They promote the company by stating that, “BFGoodrich tires have been fitted to several noteworthy historical vehicles”. The first car to cross the US had BFGoodrich tires, as well as Charles Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St. Louis”. In “Lucky Lindy?” (2/23/2016 34-page PDF), Miles Mathis shows that the flight was a hoax, but we’re going to let that go for now.

The first two highlights were reasonable enough, but why in the hell would you want people to remember this?

The Space Shuttle Columbia's landing gear was fitted with BFGoodrich tires.

This association is extraordinarily bad marketing, don’t you agree? Not only that, if the Columbia had BFGoodrich tires, wouldn’t you assume that all the Space Shuttles had BFGoodrich tires all along? “For the tires of their Space Shuttle program, NASA selected BFGoodrich among all their competitors for their superior reliability and value.” Sounds far better, right?

Now, I wouldn’t hang my hat on that alone, but there was a bit of trivia I recalled from years ago when I was studying the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster:

The crew first received an indication of a problem at 8:58:39, when the Backup Flight Software monitor began displaying fault messages for a loss of pressure in the tires of the left landing gear.

You see, up to that point (or so we are told), automated systems had silently compensated for everything that was going wrong with their vehicle. Thus, their literal death knell was a tire icon blinking red on the spacecraft dashboard (or whatever it may have been). Cascading failures and disintegration occurred over the next couple of minutes.

How about that Columbia disaster, then? Just probing a bit into it, the mission commander was Rick Husband. Does that name ring a bell? Admiral Husband E. Kimmel was CINCPACFLT as the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the jerkoff who watched it all unfold through a plate glass window.

And no, “Husband” was not his parents’ idea of a joke of a first name, it was the maiden surname of his great-grandmother. See where I’m going with this? If not, where I’m going with it will have to wait for a future post.

And now for something completely different….

The Goodyear Blimp was once an IRL American meme of the last half of the 20th Century, floating grandly over various sports stadia providing aerial camera views. What few were aware of was that these airships were not merely an ad gimmick.

Rather, these blimps were the remnant of a once-serious program where Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation built hundreds of airships of various designs, primarily for the US Navy.

One of them was the USS Akron, a dirigible very much like the Hindenburg. Although a bit shorter, it was wider and more internally voluminous. Impressive! However, the ship had several accidents and then finally crashed into the Atlantic in 1933, killing nearly everyone aboard. Let me tell you what caught my attention:

Rear Admiral Moffett was again on board, along with his aide, Commander Henry Barton Cecil, Commander Fred T. Berry, the commanding officer of NAS Lakehurst, and Lieutenant Colonel Alfred F. Masury, U.S. Army Reserve, a guest of the admiral, the vice president of Mack Trucks, and a strong proponent of the potential civilian uses of rigid airships.

Did you guess that it was Mack Trucks? Tough one to pick up on radar, huh? But I had—as always—been researching ahead, specifically concerning the “Streetcar Conspiracy” and it turns out (1) Mack Trucks was involved, and (2) Mack Trucks is a Salem Witch op.

It takes a bit of digging, but that Lt Col’s full name is Alfred Fellows Masury. There was one Fellows and three Felloes at the Salem Witch Trials. Catches your attention too, now, doesn’t it? Also, there is no genealogical information available on him, but Naval Air Station Cecil Field is named in honor of Commander Henry Barton Cecil.

I can’t tell you what happened to the Akron that night, I’m just here to point out the weird shit I found about the incident. I suspect many reading this already know that I argue the sinking of the Titanic was a complete and utter hoax, so I don’t consider anything here off the table. Let’s jump in….

You may have already noticed from that last quote that there was a ton of brass aboard. A joyride featuring cocktails on the poopdeck, perhaps? No mission of any importance was underway:

On the evening of 3 April 1933, Akron cast off from the mooring mast to operate along the coast of New England, assisting in the calibration of radio direction finder stations.

But does this sound like a pleasure cruise for the .MIL shot-callers aboard?

After casting off at 19:28, Akron soon encountered fog and then severe weather, which did not improve when the airship passed over Barnegat Light, New Jersey, at 22:00.

According to Richard K. Smith, "[u]nknown to the men on board the Akron, they were flying ahead of one of the most violent stormfronts to sweep the North Atlantic states in 10 years. It would soon envelop them."

I do not at all believe they had no idea the weather was bad, getting worse, and it was time to go home. And it was Tuesday, a school night. But down she goes, killing 73 of 76:

Father Of Naval Aviation Killed In Crash Of The Akron, 04 April 1933 (Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum 4/4/2011)

Now it gets weird. A German ship arrived on scene first, but the first American ship was the destroyer USS Tucker. We just read all about failed carmaker and Salem Witch Preston Tucker.

Indeed, the ship was named after naval officer Samuel Tucker (1747-1833). He was born in Marblehead MA, just SE of Salem, and had commanded the USS Franklin, named for Ben Franklin. Small world.

Okay, at best it’s a tragic accident and at worst a legendary foul-up, right? So the US Navy… named a ship after the skipper. Not some bullshit rowboat, neither: the USS McCord was a Fletcher-class destroyer, the biggest and baddest of US destroyers in WW2, replacing the unsatisfactory destroyer leader Porter and Somers classes.

For reference, modern Salem Witch and arch-weirdo Tom Hanks drove a Fletcher-class around the ocean in Greyhound. For further reference, Fletcher, Porter, and Somers are all Salem Witch names. We’re in deep water, huh?

Almost no info is available on Commander Frank C. McCord because his hyperlink just leads to the “Namesake” section for the McCord. He evidently did nothing in his career except get a bunch of people killed.

I do note that USN Cmdr McCord was born in Vincennes, Indiana. The Navy destroyer USS Vincennes (CG-49) is noted for, in 1985, shooting down Iran Air Flight 655, killing all 290 passengers. Over the Strait of Hormuz, of all places!

As noted, Rear Admiral William Adger Moffett (1869-1933), the guy running the Navy airship program, was also killed in the Akron crash. Moffett Federal Airfield is named in his honor. Moffett’s most iconic features are three giant airship hangars, including the gargantuan Hangar One. Iconic and ironic, I suppose.

Moffett Field is directly adjacent to the Googleplex, the HQ of SkyNet. Well, to be more specific, adjacent and partially underneath:

On November 10, 2014, NASA announced that it would be leasing 1,000 acres (400 ha) of the airfield property to Google for 60 years.

Finally, go back to that “Patriots Point” link and you’ll find a photo of the three survivors of the crash. It’s fake. Contrast is off, shadows don’t match, and composition is wrong. I mean. can anyone tell me WTF is going on with the background? Make of that what you will.

Bonus: I mentioned I was familiar with two Chaffees. The other is Suzy Chaffee (b1946).

Suzy was at one time very well-known, an Olympic alpine ski racer and freestyle ballet skier who modeled and acted along the way. She earned the nickname “Suzy Chapstick” because of unceasing TV commercials where she flogged the popular lip balm like no one knew it existed. Ask your parents or grandparents. All very innocent, right?

Suzy was born in Vermont but for some reason decided to attend the University of Denver. Yes, Denver again. It’s a small private research university focusing on doctorates. Not known for their powerhouse winter sports program, if you were wondering. More to say but you know where it’s going.

She signed with what is now known as Ford Models. Can you believe it? I didn’t have the heart to even check into it. I did look up innocuous ChapStick. Formerly innocuous, because you already know what I found.

Bonus to the bonus: I learned that Suzy’s full name is Suzanne Stevia Chaffee. Uh, is “Stevia” a name? For a human being, that is? She was born in 1946, before people just started making up shit to put on birth certificates.

In news which you may choose to consider unrelated, Stevia is an artificial sugar-substitute. The second best-selling artificial sweetener is the version of it known as Truvia, co-developed by Coca-Cola and Cargill. B.F. Goodrich’s 2g-grandmother was born Annis Cargill (abt. 1688 - 1782). Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Guess that about winds it up. Thanks for coming on the long, strange trip!