Joshua Alvarez

Austin, Texas

Senior Editor at Texas Monthly

staff writer @texasmonthly

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Articles

A Daughter's 50-Year Quest to Find a Marine Shot Down Over Vietnam

1 month ago | texasmonthly.com | Joshua Alvarez

The Marines were solemn in their dress blues. On this spring day in 1979, at Arlington National Cemetery, a couple dozen of them stood in perfect rows, their rifles resting against their shoulders. Behind them, also standing in straight, perfect rows, white marble headstones covered the gently sloping hill. Another six Marines stood over a plot, each gripping the edge of an outstretched American flag, consecrating the spot where a new marker would be planted.
Behind the Story of a West Texas Pilot Missing in Vietnam

1 month ago | texasmonthly.com | Joshua Alvarez

In December 1972, just a month before American forces left Vietnam, a Marine Corps pilot from Odessa, Texas, named Ron Forrester went missing during a bombing run. His daughter Karoni, who was two years old at the time, spent the next fifty years trying to learn what happened to him.
‘The Final Flight of Captain Forrester,’ Episode 5: “The Final Flight”

1 month ago | texasmonthly.com | Joshua Alvarez

This episode is available one week early to Texas Monthly Audio subscribers. Listen for free starting on May 27, or subscribe to listen nowListen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. “Friday, we welcomed Dad home. It was also my fifty-fourth birthday. My little birthday dessert came out with a candle, and I froze. Lilian said, ‘Mom, pick a new wish now.’ ” —Karoni ForresterAfter decades of searching, Captain Ronald Forrester was finally accounted for.
‘The Final Flight of Captain Forrester’ Bonus: “Inside the DPAA Lab”

1 month ago | texasmonthly.com | Joshua Alvarez

This episode is available exclusively to Texas Monthly Audio subscribers. Subscribe to listen nowListen to the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. “We can do magic these days with even a tiny little piece.” —Dr. Greg BergAt a forensic laboratory in Hawaii, Defense Department scientists analyze remains recovered from dig sites and graves all over the world. One by one, they’re solving cases of service members who went missing during the last century of American wars.
‘The Final Flight of Captain Forrester’ Bonus: “The Enduring Myth of Stranded POWs”

1 month ago | texasmonthly.com | Joshua Alvarez

Listen to the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. Into the 1990s, a majority of Americans surveyed said they believed U.S. servicemen were still being held captive in Vietnam. Repeated investigations by the U.S. government failed to turn up evidence of POWs left behind. Nevertheless, the theory endured, inspiring Hollywood blockbusters and real-life rescue missions bankrolled by wealthy Americans, including the Texas billionaire Ross Perot.
‘The Final Flight of Captain Forrester,’ Episode 4: “The Dig”

1 month ago | texasmonthly.com | Joshua Alvarez

This episode is available one week early to Texas Monthly Audio subscribers. Listen for free starting on May 20, or subscribe to listen nowListen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript below. “It looked like it fell off his neck yesterday. Just fell out there in the rice paddy. It was so pristine.” —U.S. Army Captain Will RyanIn early 2020, a dig team of around 150 people set up an excavation site in a rice paddy near the Vietnamese village of An Thủy.
ZULU, Blood Command, Mouth Culture, Karen Dió and more to play…

Feb 27, 2025 | kerrang.com | Emily Garner |Joshua Alvarez

The first wave of acts have been announced for this year’s Burn It Down Festival in Torquay. Heading to England’s south west seaside town between Friday, August 29 and Saturday, August 30 – and with plenty of bands appearing on the fest’s first-ever no-barrier main stage, which is incredibly exciting – are the likes of ZULU, Blood Command, Mouth Culture, Karen Dió, God Complex, Feed The Rhino, Tropic Gold, Frozemode, Native James and many more.
Texas Horny Toads Could Be Making a Comeback

Dec 16, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Joshua Alvarez

For more Best Things in Texas coverage, read about the Texas Olympians who dominated at the Paris Games, the greatest show over Earth, the issue that brought Republicans and Democrats together, and the Man of the Year, Brisket Powell. For less dignified behavior, read the 2025 Bum Steer Awards. The Texas horned lizard, affectionately called the horny toad, may be iconic, but Texas hasn’t always treated it with due respect.
Meet the Mormon Farrier Who Kills Wild Hogs in His Spare Time

Dec 10, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Joshua Alvarez

It was almost 2 a.m. on a moonless October night at a ranch in Caldwell County, just northeast of San Antonio. I sat next to Eli Smith in his small utility terrain vehicle, the engine off. Behind us, the cargo bed held a kennel containing six dogs he had trained to track feral hogs. Smith is a large man with a keen appetite for killing invasive swine—he hunts them as often as four days a week. “I kill ’em any way I can,” he told me. “I shoot ’em with the AR-15.
Poet Naomi Shihab Nye Talks About Optimism, Despair, and Texas

Nov 15, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Joshua Alvarez

Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet, a Palestinian American, and a devoted optimist living through what she calls “mysterious” times. Though the recent reelection of former President Donald Trump and the grinding war in Gaza has her feeling “despondent,” she also has cause for gratitude. Nye is the 2024 winner of the Texas Writer Award, which will be presented to her at the Texas Book Festival this weekend in downtown Austin.