The following shows aired in February 2017. Click on the show date in the left column to listen to that show. Files are in MP3 format.

2/5/17

We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War.For a Kentucky rifleman who spent his tour trudging through Vietnam’s Central Highlands, it was Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” For a “tunnel rat” who blew smoke into the Viet Cong’s underground tunnels, it was Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.” For a black marine distraught over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., it was Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools.” And for countless other Vietnam vets, it was “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” or the song that gives this week’s program its title.

Join us this week on Veterans Radio. In We Gotta Get Out of This Place, Doug Bradley and Craig Werner place popular music at the heart of the American experience in Vietnam. We will be exploring  how and why U.S. troops turned to music as a way of connecting to each other and the World back home and of coping with the complexities of the war they had been sent to fight. They also demonstrate that music was important for every group of Vietnam veterans―black and white, Latino and Native American, men and women, officers and “grunts”―whose personal reflections drive the book’s narrative. Many of the voices are those of ordinary soldiers, airmen, seamen, and marines.
What about you? What song takes you back almost 50 years?

2/12/17 Hometown Veterans. Telling the stories of our veterans is the mission of Veterans Radio and we are reaching out to other story tellers around the world to share their stories with the veterans Radio audience. Randy Ark is not only a veteran, but he is also telling the stories of the Hometown Veterans in and around Springfield, Ohio. He is also a very strong veterans advocate who helps his fellow veterans anytime and anyway he can.
2/19/16

Keep On Trucking. This week on Veterans Radio join host Dale Throneberry and his guest, Vietnam Convoy Trucker, William “Bill” Patterson.

Vietnam Convoy Trucker recounts the story of Specialist Five William (Bill) Patterson, as he and his fellow truck drivers delivered supplies to American combat troops battling the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong. The men experienced moments of fear, boredom and humor during their almost year-long tour during the Vietnam War in the late 1960s. The Lord watched over them and brought all but one back safely. Various members of his company, the 319th Transportation Company(Light Truck), took the photographs that accompany many of the incidents he describes.He hopes his fellow Vietnam War Veterans and others will find this book worth reading. I know I did.

And much much more…including the music of Suzanne MacDermid and Jim Coury. Listen to their song “I’ll Raise My Flag Today”

2/26/16

Ashley’s War and Discharged and Deported. This week on Veterans Radio join host Jim Fausone and his guests.

Ashley’s War. In 2010, the Army created Cultural Support Teams, a secret pilot program to insert women alongside Special Operations soldiers battling in Afghanistan. The Army reasoned that women could play a unique role on Special Ops teams: accompanying their male colleagues on raids and, while those soldiers were searching for insurgents, questioning the mothers, sisters, daughters and wives living at the compound. Their presence had a calming effect on enemy households, but more importantly, the CSTs were able to search adult women for weapons and gather crucial intelligence. Their story is told by author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon.

And Discharged & Deported—the ACLU reports on non citizen soldiers after honorable discharge who find themselves deported for minor crimes because they did not become naturalized during military service.  Jennie Pasquarella —Director of Immigration Rights for the ACLU of S California and Prof Nathan Fletcher of University of California and a Marine veteran explain the problem.