Ward Carroll

The YouTube channel of Ward Carroll, musician and ex-F-14 radar intercept officer, is popular with his fellow former naval persons and lifelong civilians interested in military aviation. Under his call sign “Mooch,” Carroll reviews movies and shares stories from his own and others’ service for his 251,000 subscribers. He also has about 9,500 Twitter followers.

Carrol is a prize-winning writer for the prestigious Naval Institute Press, where he worked as editor, marketer and digital impact expert. He served in the Navy 15 years after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy.

A YouTube episode that impressed me, aired 10 months ago, was Carroll’s report from Afghanistan in 2009 for Military.com. I covered Oregon Army National Guard helicopter units there in 2005, losing young friends in the September shoot-down of Pendleton-based CH-47 Mustang 22.

Carroll sells T-shirts and coffee mugs to raise money for the Return Alive Foundation, which provides training and supplies to Ukrainians resisting the Russian invasion.

Carroll regrettably bought into Ukrainian propaganda about the “Ghost of Kyiv,” an unnamed MiG-29 pilot who supposedly shot down six Russian planes in one day. This improbable tally was later raised to 10, then to 40 total, before he was allegedly killed in action.

The Ghost was briefly identified as a real pilot, Maj. Stepan Tarabalka, 29, confirmed killed in combat on March 13. Now, however, Ukraine admits the Ghost was mythical, a composite of fliers serving in the 40th tactical aviation brigade defending Kyiv.

— John Tillman, reporter, East Oregonian