Last Men Out
The True Story of America’s Heroic Final Hours in Vietnam

In a gripping, moment-by-moment narrative based on a wealth of recently declassified documents and in depth interviews, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin focus on the story of the eleven young Marines who were the last men to leave, rescued from the Embassy roof just moments before capture, having voted to make an Alamo-like last stand. As politicians in Washington struggled to put the best face on disaster and the American ambassador refused to acknowledge that the end had come and to evacuate, these courageous men held their ground and helped save thousands of lives. They and their fellow troops on the ground and in the air had no room for error as frenzy broke out in the streets and lashing rains and enemy fire began to pelt the city. 
Drury and Clavin gained unprecedented access to the survivors, to the declassified "After-Action reports" of the operation, and to the transmissions among helicopter pilots, their officers, and officials in Saigon secretly recorded by the National Security Agency. They deliver a taut and stirring account of a turning point in American history which unfolds with the heart-stopping urgency of the best thrillers—a riveting true story finally told, in full, by those who lived it. 

Join host Dale Throneberry and authors Bob Drury and Tom Clavin and Marine Sgt Steve Schuller this week on Veterans Radio. You don’t want to miss this amazing and true story of the courage, nobility and discipline of a small group of Marines during the last days of the Vietnam War .

Humor in war
If you laugh, you were there

People who have been to war have all experienced it. Get back home, tell a hilarious story about something over there and…people just stare at you.
Okay – so they have not been there and have no idea what makes the story funny – especially when the story is about danger. Well, on Veterans Radio we and our listeners who have been there are going to tell each other the stories – because we know why they are funny! 

April 16 2011

No Webcast

Sgt. David Hack  -  US Wings

Today's broadcast is a replay of Sgt. David Hack's interview with Gary Lillie. The begining of the show is live with with Bob Gould's interview with US Wiings VP of Sales and Marketing, Bob Kruty. Followed by the March 5th program with Gary Lillie's interview of Sgt. Hack.  There is no Webcast.  

April 9 2011

No Webcast

　INSIDE THE PRESIDENT'S HELICOPTER...

takes the reader on an incredible journey through America's most controversial wars and presidential administrations--a real back stage view of the men and events that shaped world history, and Boyer was the fly on the wall. -- Ken Sewell, NYT bestselling author

If not for Boyer's headstrong determination, the history of the Army's Executive Flight Detachment and the prominent role it played at the White House might have been lost forever. --CW4 Carl Burhanan, first black aviator to fly for the White House, Gene Boyer provides ten years of closely held information on the comings and goings of three sitting, one future, and two former U.S. presidents as well as national leaders worldwide. --Colonel Bill Golden, Army aide to President Nixon Here is a story of high adventure, courage, and history-making moments. On one level, it is the saga of an Army veteran of Korea and Vietnam; and it is a very human close-up look at the U.S. Presidency. --Julie Nixon Eisenhower Sit down, buckle up, and get ready for an unforgettable ride! INSIDE THE PRESIDENT'S HELICOPTER is filled with stories never told by the media. --Flint Whitlock, editor of WWII Quarterly

From Korea to Vietnam to flying Presidents around the world, LTC Boyer’s passengers have included sitting Presidents, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon and Ford and future President Reagan, 55 Heads of State and many more. You don’t want to miss program with LTC Gene Boyer and Dale Thronebrry.

April 2 2011

No Webcast

Antarctica

Operation Deep Freeze: wintering over

As early as 1839, Captain Charles Wilkes led the first U.S. Naval expedition into Antarctic waters. In 1929, Admiral Richard E. Byrd established a naval base at Little America I; led an expedition to explore further inland, and conducted the first flight over the South Pole. From 1934–35, the second Byrd Expedition explored much further inland and also "wintered over." The third Byrd Expedition, in 1940, charted the Ross Sea.

After World War II, from 1946–47, the Navy's Operation Highjump charted most of the Antarctic coastline. In 1955/56 Operation Deep Freeze I prepared a permanent research station, which has been manned ever since for the purpose of conducting scientific research. 

But, what is it like to live in the Antarctic in summer…and then winter over? Is it possible to go swimming on the glacier in nothing but a swim suit? Join Gary Lillie and find out as his two guests, former Seabees, give us the humor and the drama of serving our country down at the bottom.

March 26 2011

No Webcast

O Say Can You See...

Dedication of the New Visitor and Education Center at Fort McHenry National Monument & Historic Shrine

During the War of 1812, Major George Armistead, Commanding Officer of Fort McHenry, knowing the city of Baltimore was going to be attacked by the British, desired " to have a flag so large that the British will have no difficulty seeing it from a distance." The 30' by 42' flag flown over Fort McHenry was seen by Francis Scott Key on the morning of September 14th, 1814 and the rest is history. 

Join host Dale Throneberry and Park Ranger Jim Bailey to learn more about The War of 1812 and Fort McHenry, "The Birthplace of the National Anthem.". 

Francis Scott Key, a young poet-lawyer, witnessed the bmbardment of Fort McHenry while under British guard on an American ship in the Patapsco River. Seeing his country's flag still flying over the Fort the next morning, he was moved to pen these immortal lines: 

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, 

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? 

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, 

O're the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming! 

And the rockest's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 

Gave proof to through the night that our flag was still there: 

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave, 

O're the land of the free and the home of the brave 

March 19 2011

Webcast

The Pacfic

Volume One - Peral Harbor to Guadalcanal

The Pacific, Volume One, Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal is the first of a ten part series, War Stories: World War II Firsthand. This incredible collection of stories and photographs is the only multi-volume history of the war to include hundreds of first person interviews and oral history recollections of the soldiers on the ground, the sailors on the high seas and the airmen in the sky.

Join author, Jay Wertz, and host Dale Throneberry and hear many of the amazing and heart wrenching stories Jay heard from survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Bataan Death March and much more.

March 12, 2011

Webcast

Bent Prop Project: P-MAN XIII

The Bent Prop Project is a group of volunteers who research, then search the waters and jungles of the western Pacific for American WWII aircraft crash sites, and the remains of men who gave their lives for our country. When successful they turn their findings over to JPAC: Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, Department of Defense.   http://www.jpac.pacom.mil/

P-MAN:  Palau - Marine, Army Air Force, Navy  XIII: this is the thirteenth expedition since they started numbering them in 1999.

Join host Gary Lillie and guest paul Schwimmer as paul gives us a report on P-MAN XIII mission, as well as the upcoming P-MAXIV mission.

March 5, 2011

Webcam

 Sarge Hack 

David Hack served four years in the U.S. Coast Guard, and later enlisted in the Army with a request for Ranger School. Well, instead he was assigned as an instructor in Ranger School. Months went by without being allowed to actually go through Ranger training and Hack finally lost his patience; so he wrote to President Lyndon Baines Johnson. 

Next stop ¨C Newfoundland.

Sarge Hack did end up in Vietnam and was awarded the not-so-coveted, but proudly worn Purple Heart.  After a full year in Army hospitals where he was "wired together in pieces/parts," Sarge Hack and his wife Lani founded and grew an astounding manufacturing business - IN THE USA - of the finest military gear available to civilians.  Their customers are you, me, politicans and Hollywood, both movies and celebrities.  In fact, one entertainer bought 400 US Wings leather flight jackets to give a gifts

26 February 2011

Webcast

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.

19 February 2011

Webcast

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¡­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

12 February 2011

Webcast

One Hundred Feet Over Hell

      Flying with the men of the 220^th 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 put 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)

       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.

At 24 years old Sandie Wilson was the youngest operating room supervisor to serve in Vietnam. She was dedicated to saving her boys back then and continues to do so today. Sandie served with the 8th field hospital in Nha Trang, the 36^th Evacuation Hospital in Vung Tau and the 7th surgical hospital at Black Horse Base Camp (11^th Armored Cav), carved out of rugged jungle south of Xuan Loc. Join host Gary Lillie and guest Sandie Wilson to learn the life of an operating room nurse in Vietna

22 January 2011

Webcast

Our Vietnam Generation

¡°Well they said it couldn¡¯t be done, they said it would never be supported, they told me it¡¯s a story no one was interested in. Well guess what? They were all wrong and wrong in a big way.¡±Those are the words of Keith Famie, director, producer; and nine-time Emmy award winner, who will be debuting his documentary, Our Vietnam Generation at Detroit¡¯s Fox Theatre on Friday, January 28, at 7p.m. Our Vietnam Generation features Michigan veterans talking about their experiences when they were in Vietnam and when they came home. Medics, pilots, grunts, nurses, Marines, Donut Dollies, entertainers and many many more are included in this amazing tribute to the veterans of Vietnam And we have the privilege of talking with just a few of them along with Keith Famie this Saturday morning on Veterans Radio.

15 January 2011

Webcast

Operation SAS

Sports, Afield & Stream Adventures

Operation SAS was an action packed 5-day event, totally free, for over 40 OIF/OEF warriors who suffered life time wounds while serving our country ¨C and the countries where the operations took them. It was capped off by a sportsman¡¯s banquet hosted by country singer Lee Greenwood.

In addition there was near-constant entertainment with workshops put on by fishing & hunting experts, stand-up comedians, photo ops, greetings from Montana Senator Tester, Lee Greenwood, celebrities via video, mentor speakers, social gatherings, live & silent auctions prizes and it goes on.

This Saturday join host Gary Lillie, one of the Operation SAS organizers, John Kinzinger and three of their guests Kathy Champion (Army), Joe Perez (Marine) and Peter Cabral (Air Force) for the saga of Operation SAS.

                                                                            Sound Off!

Join hosts Dale Throneberry and Gary Lillie and you as we talk about the issues that you are concerned about. Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Capt. Owen Honor and the incident on the USS Enterprise, Arlington and much more.

1 January 2011

webcast

Happy New Year
Welcome in the New Year with Dale and Gary as they look back on some of their favorite programs from 2010

______________________________________________________________________________________________________