A Brief History
On May 4, 1946, the US Marine Corps was called to assault and secure an island, this time in San Francisco Bay! Why would Marines assault an American island? Because that island was Alcatraz, home to Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, built to house the worst federal criminals, and those ultra-bad guys were in the middle of a violent riot.
Digging Deeper
The riot started as an escape attempt by convicts who overpowered a guard and managed to steal guns and gas grenades. Prisoners jammed a lock while trying different keys, ruining their escape. Then the convicts took more guards hostage and began a shootout with other guards.
After two days, the warden called for the Marines from Naval Station Treasure Island. A combined force of guards and two platoons of Marines using tactics learned during World War II freed the hostages and captured the rioters.
Casualties included two guards dead, 14 wounded, three convicts dead, and two later executed.
Question for students (and subscribers): Have you ever visited Alcatraz? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Lageson, Ernest. Battle at Alcatraz: A Desperate Attempt to Escape the Rock. Addicus Books, 1999.
Circadian, Robin. Carl “Sunny” Sundstrom and the Battle of Alcatraz. Ed. Ronald Edwin Lane. Circadian Rhythm, 2016.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Michael Rivera, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
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