The following shows aired in February 2011. Click on the show date in the left column to listen to that show. Files are in MP3 format.
2/5/11 Operation Ranch Hand. Operation Ranch Hand was the code name of the Air Force Agent Orange spraying missions in Vietnam. Aircrews assigned to spray the defolient used a sardonic motto: “Only you can prevent forests”. But there were four other agents sprayed depending on what foliage or crop was to be destroyed. Host Gary Lillie and former Ranch Hand crew member Jack McManus talk about his job and other things we never knew about the defolients used in Vietnam…and the legacy left behind, not only for American G.I.s, but for the Vietnamese people as well.
2/12/11 One Hundred Feet Over Hell:. Flying with the men of the 220th Recon Airplane Company over I Corps and the DMZ, Vietnam 1968-1969. “The story of a handful of young pilots taking extraordinary risks to support those on the ground. Flying over Vietnam in two-seater Cessnas, they often made the difference between a soldier returning home alive to his family or having the lonely sound of “Taps” played over his grave. Based on extensive interviews, and often in the men’s own words, A Hundred Feet Over Hell puts the reader in the plane as this intrepid band of U.S. army aviators calls in fire support for the soldiers and marines of I Corps.”— From the book’s backcover.
 
“Warriors don’t fight for their country or flag, they fight for each other, often going beyond what their country asks. It was an honr to serve at the same time as these men. This story is about the nation’s best.”—Lance W. Lord, Gen., USAF (ret)
 
“A moving tribute to the men that flew these small aircraft with skill courage, determination-and a whole lot of brass.”—Mike Seely, Brig. Gen., USA (ret)
2/19/11 FINAL PATROL. It was February, 1945, the BATFISH US-130, A U.S. Navy fleet submarine was now in the midst of her sixth war patrol in ­the South China Sea. Captain John K “Jake” Fyfe was on the bridge, a tropical night, but the men aboard the Batfish and Captain Fyfe were alerted that there was something out there. Radar was telling them so.
 
Fyfe dropped his glasses, looked at his XO and said, “Looks like we have an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine.” But submarines were hard to attack. They were simply too stealthy.
 
The Batfish, and her crew, had no other thought but to try. Thirty six battle hours later.­..well, tune in this Saturday and hear the breathtaking twists, turns, developments and conclusion of this Batfish patrol and what was to become of her after the war.
2/26/11 Sons and Daughters of Iwo Jima. On 23 February 1945 the American flag was raised on Mt. Surabachi as seen in Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photograph. We know the battle for the island of Iwo Jima was one of the most brutal and bloodiest of World War II.
 
This week we are going to be looking back at Iwo Jima through the eyes and memories of the some of the children whose fathers fought on those black sand beaches so long ago. Joining host Dale Throneberry, whose father “Bill”was in the Coast Guard, is Joyce Faulkner, author of In the Shadow of Surabachi and daughter of a Marine, Diane Kuebler, daughter of Iwo Jima Navy Seabee veteran AO Kuebler, Michael Yellin, son of Army Air Corp pilot Jerry Yellin and many more including Shayne Jarosz, Executive Director of the Iwo Jima Association of America.