AZ: The History of Arizona podcast · David Rookhuyzen

Episode 229: To You We Will Our Fighting Hearts

·32 min·2 clips

A barnstormer drops homemade bombs on Naco, Arizona, in what the host calls the first aerial attack on American soil by a foreign agent.

1. AZ: The History of Arizona podcast Episode 229 centers on the 10th Cavalry, the 25th Infantry, and the Apache Scouts at Fort Huachuca. 2. Host David Rickhausen frames the episode as the next chapter after last week's Buffalo Soldiers segment and names the 10th Cavalry and 25th Infantry as the main units. 3. The episode asks what happened to Arizona's Black cavalrymen and Apache scouts as the army pulled back from the border and modernized after World War I. 4. The host says the army began moving troops away from Arivaca, Ruby, L'Aquille, Naco, Douglas, and Nogales as border tensions eased. 5. A 1929 rebellion in Mexico led Bisbee and Naco residents to request troops to protect the Bisbee-Naco water supply. 6. The army sent 500 troops, including men from the 10th Cavalry and 25th Infantry, into the Naco area. 7. Patrick Murphy, described as an Irish-American barnstormer, entered the story in April 1929 with a biplane and homemade bombs. 8. The bombs were described by state historian Marshall Trimble as suitcase-sized leather bags filled with explosives, metal shards, and a fuse. 9. Several of Murphy's bombs landed in Naco, Arizona, hitting Newton's Garage, the Phelps Dodge Mercantile, the Naco Pharmacy, and a touring plane. 10. The host says one source also reports a bomb destroyed the post office, which would make the incident a federal crime. 11. Murphy's bombing run ended after a soldier shot down his plane, and the host notes that different sources disagree on whether he was jailed in Nogales, returned later from Mexico, or escaped Tucson jail. 12. The episode says the Naco attack became the first aerial attack on American soil by a foreign agent. 13. The host connects the event to the larger army reorganization that made mounted cavalry look outdated in a world of cars, armored vehicles, and planes. 14. He says black soldiers made up only 2% of the manpower in the U.S. Army and National Guard by the 1940s. 15. On August 29, 1931, the Nogales International reported that the 10th Cavalry would leave Fort Huachuca for West Point, Fort Riley, and Fort Myer. 16. The host says the regiment's support elements stayed behind, which ended its combat effectiveness and effectively closed out its Arizona combat role. 17. George W.P. Hunt, Carl Hayden, chambers of commerce, and the Northwest Enterprise all appear in the discussion of opposition to troop withdrawals. 18. The tone mixes newspaper quotations, military history, and dry humor, including a Jeopardy joke about Naco and a final note that the episode will return to dams and water rights later. 19. Listeners interested in Arizona border history, Black military units, and Fort Huachuca will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners who want a short, purely tactical military summary may skip the long border-history detours.

As heard by us

Arizona border troop cuts become a local story about fear, pride, and the slow end of an era.

Arizona's borderlands in the early 1920s are less a backdrop than the point of the story. The episode tracks Army retrenchment as camps are pulled back from border posts, and it gives the Buffalo Soldiers the weight they deserve in a history shaped by postwar cutbacks.

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Why you'd press play

You follow Arizona border camps from a 1923 rumor to the Buffalo Soldiers' final Fort Huachuca chapter.

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