Veterans Chronicles
Hear firsthand stories from America’s military heroes on Veterans Chronicles. From D-Day, Iwo Jima, and Khe Sanh to Baghdad, Fallujah, and Afghanistan, this podcast features exclusive interviews with eyewitnesses to history’s greatest battles. Rare archival recordings and segments like “Heroes of the Air” and “World War II Chronicles” bring their courage to life. Subscribe for gripping tales of bravery and sacrifice. For more information, visit radioamerica.com/veterans-chronicles/
Episodes
July 16, 2025 • 35 mins
Hal Urban grew up in a poor family hit hard by the Great Depression. Joining the military meant he would finally get three meals per day. He enlisted in the Army hoping to become a pilot, but less than perfect eyesight scuttled those dreams. He was trained on .50 caliber guns mounted on haltracks to protect American tanks and other convoys. Assigned to the 11th Armored Division, Urban arrived in Europe in late 1944 and was quickly ...
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July 11, 2025 • 26 mins
Join Emily Jones and Holly Worthington as they dive into this heart wrenching story of a child abduction. Five-year-old Bella was taken by someone her family trusted — a man they never expected, their father's roommate: Bill Mix. In a matter of moments, a normal day turned into every parent’s worst nightmare. As the Amber Alert spread across California and panic set in, one woman hundreds of miles away — Leisa Hilton in Utah — felt...
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July 9, 2025 • 48 mins
Kelly Elmlinger was a three-sport athlete in high school. She excelled in cross country, basketball, and track. After considering military service, she decided to keep playing sports at the next level, but she quickly decided college was not for her. That's when she joined the Army and became a combat medic, eventually with the 82nd Airborne Division, serving in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Later, she became a nurse and then a cancer...
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July 2, 2025 • 33 mins
Louis Bourgault was 16 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor - too young to formally join the military. After his father rejected a teenage plot to go join the Canadian forces, Bourgault enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps when he turned 17. After grueling basic training at Parris Island, Bourgault was tapped as a message runner. He was soon off to San Diego and then shipped to New Zealand. After spending time loading and...
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June 25, 2025 • 35 mins
Doug Bahrns knew he wanted to be a U.S. Marine Corps officer when he finished high school a couple of years before 9/11. He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute and was commissioned as a Marine Corps officer. After going to officer's training at Quantico, Bahrns was assigned command of 3rd Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines in 2003. By 2004 they were in Iraq, and a few months later they would be involved i...
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June 18, 2025 • 35 mins
Scotty Hasting is now a popular country music singer but his story of service will explain a lot about the performer you see today.
Hasting grew up in the Cincinnati, Ohio-Northern Kentucky area and developed immense respect for the U.S. military from the movies and television shows he watched. He enlisted in the Army at age 21, which quickly made him the "old man" in basic training. Hasting wanted to serve in the infantry because h...
Hasting grew up in the Cincinnati, Ohio-Northern Kentucky area and developed immense respect for the U.S. military from the movies and television shows he watched. He enlisted in the Army at age 21, which quickly made him the "old man" in basic training. Hasting wanted to serve in the infantry because h...
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June 11, 2025 • 35 mins
Bob Ingram joined the Navy after graduating high school in 1963 to give himself some direction. He was initially assigned to work in electronics, but after getting a bad case of pneumonia, Ingram was so impressed by the dedication of the Navy corpsmen, that he decided to become one. Corpsman training was long and demanding and Marine Corps aid training followed that.
After struggling to find a good Marine unit to join, Ingram was o...
After struggling to find a good Marine unit to join, Ingram was o...
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June 4, 2025 • 33 mins
Harold Terens was just 18 years old and playing basketball with his friends when he heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Like many Americans, he had no idea where Pearl Harbor was but he definitely wanted to serve. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942 with dreams of becoming a pilot. A vision test dashed those dreams but he quickly proved proficient at receiving and sending Morse Code.
Terens left for Europe ...
Terens left for Europe ...
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May 28, 2025 • 37 mins
Charlie Plumb ended up in the U.S. Navy because money was tight for his family and it was a big economic relief when he was recommended and accepted at the U.S. Naval Academy. Upon commissioning from Annapolis and competion of flight school, Plumb would soon be flying an F-4. Little did he know what awaited him just a few years later in Vietnam.
Plumb was deployed to the war zone in November 1966. He routinely flew missions over Nor...
Plumb was deployed to the war zone in November 1966. He routinely flew missions over Nor...
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May 21, 2025 • 35 mins
Kathleen Faircloth received the news that no parent wants to get. In late November 2004, she learned that her son, U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Bradley Faircloth, was killed during the Second Battle of Fallujah in Iraq. What followed was the anguish over losing her only child, slowly emerging from the immense grief that followed, and the unexpected joy of finding a family she never expected.
In this Memorial Day edition of Veter...
In this Memorial Day edition of Veter...
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May 14, 2025 • 40 mins
Doug Greenlaw sees his life as a series of "lightning strikes." He was literally struck by lightning when he was 13 years old, thankfully making an immediate recovery. He later left Indiana University to join the Army, become an officer, and serve in in the Vietnam War - first as a platoon commander and then as a company commander. He arrived in Vietnam in 1967.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Greenlaw takes us through his t...
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Greenlaw takes us through his t...
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May 7, 2025 • 31 mins
Melvin Hurwirz was 16 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Within just a few years, all four boys in his family were at war, each in a different branch of the service. After enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Corps, Hurwitz was assigned as a gunner and as a radio man for a B-17 bomber crew after an aptitude test showed his proficiency at Morse Code. His crew then had a bit of an adventure flying the bo...
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April 30, 2025 • 38 mins
Anthony "Tony" Wood grew up in a Marine Corps family and enlisted to begin his own service in 1964. Before long he was commissioned as a USMC officer. His first deployment to Vietnam came shortly after the Tet Offensive. Initially trained as an infantry platoon commander, he soon found himself leading an armored platoon.
Wood was deployed to Vietnam again in 1974, long after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords and American forces...
Wood was deployed to Vietnam again in 1974, long after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords and American forces...
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April 23, 2025 • 35 mins
Sarah Spradlin knew she wanted to serve her nation in uniform, and to her the only option was the U.S. Marine Corps. She was commissioned as an officer after completing ROTC training at Virginia Tech in May 2001. Within months, the U.S. was at war following the 9/11 attacks.
But Spradlin was not deployed to a war zone. After an assignment in Okinawa, she returned to the U.S. to oversee the training of female Marine recruits at Parri...
But Spradlin was not deployed to a war zone. After an assignment in Okinawa, she returned to the U.S. to oversee the training of female Marine recruits at Parri...
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April 16, 2025 • 32 mins
James Thompson joined the U.S. Army in 1948, in part to avoid the consequences for his troubled behavior. Soon he was off to segregated training at Ft. Dix, New Jersey. Within a few months, Thompson was deployed to Europe, where he and the other troops were able to gain valuable training experience.
The deployment was cut short, forces were brought home, and then they were shipped off to Japan. It was there that Thompson was assigne...
The deployment was cut short, forces were brought home, and then they were shipped off to Japan. It was there that Thompson was assigne...
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April 9, 2025 • 35 mins
Bruce McKenty was born into an Army family, as his father was a career officer. By the time he finished high school, McKenty knew he wanted to follow in his dad's footsteps. He was commissioned as an officer upon graduation from Texas A&M and soon went to flight training. After completing flight school in April 1972, McKenty was assigned to fly AH-1G Cobra attack helicopters in support of ground forces near the Cambodian border...
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April 2, 2025 • 34 mins
Kaj Larsen did not follow the typical route to becoming a U.S. Navy SEAL. He was admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy but left after two years to focus on playing water polo at the collegiate level. A few years later he enlisted in the Navy and immediately tried to get a slot in Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL (BUD/s) training in Coronado, California. Those billets are not usually given to men who left Annapolis but Larsen managed t...
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March 26, 2025 • 35 mins
Military historian and author Carole Engle Avriett joins us to tell the powerful story of U.S. Navy Mess Attendant Charles Jackson French, which is told in her new book, Midnight in Ironbottom Sound: The Harrowing World War II Story of Heroism in the Shark-Infested Waters of Guadalcanal.
Charles Jackson French was born into a poor family in the segregated south in 1919. Before turning 18 years old, French lost both of his parents a...
Charles Jackson French was born into a poor family in the segregated south in 1919. Before turning 18 years old, French lost both of his parents a...
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March 19, 2025 • 35 mins
Delmar Beard grew up near Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. But when it was time to join the military during World War II, he chose the Navy. Serving as a gunner aboard an LST, Beard made multiple landings during the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Later, he did join the Army, and served for 22 years. He rose to the rank of command sergeant major and was deployed to both Korea and Vietnam.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Beard tak...
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Beard tak...
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March 12, 2025 • 35 mins
Nils Mockler joined the U.S. Marine Corps at the age of 17, only because they wouldn't let him join when he was 16. Upon enlisting in 1944, Mockler completed boot camp and was soon tapped as a combat intelligence scout. He also dabbled in explosives as you'll hear. After more training in Hawaii, Mockler and many other Marines left for Iwo Jima, where they would land in February 1945 and become part of one of the most vicious battle...
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