Welcome to Episode 36 of the Voices to Veterans podcast. This episode features the story of Private First Class Oscar W. Green, U.S. Army. While I love all the veterans’ stories I’ve done, Oscar’s is one of my all-time favorites. His story is both a war story and a love story – it’s about a […]
Lieutenant Commander Alfred “Ski” Sokolowski, U.S. Navy (Retired), has experienced much over the last ninety-nine years. He had a front row seat in World War II as his ships plowed the North Atlantic, protecting convoys from German submarines. He fought on a destroyer in the Pacific, helping recapture islands lost to Japan at the start of the war, and then joined the fight again just five years later in the Korean War sailing off the coast of North Korea. As if that wasn’t enough, he took on the dangerous job of explosive ordnance disposal and managed weapons logistics in the western Pacific. He didn’t just watch U.S. history from a distance—he lived it over the course of thirty years. This is his story.
Welcome to Episode 29 of the Voices to Veterans podcast. This episode features the story of 1st Lieutenant Henry Lowenstern, U.S. Army.Henry served in the Army during World War II and has a truly amazing story. He and his family escaped from persecution in Nazi Germany in 1937 and came to the United States. Henry […]
The naval aviator training pipeline is grueling. It takes months of study to learn the basics of flying. It takes strength of body and mind to withstand the physical and mental strains of landing a plane on the pitching deck of an aircraft carrier at sea. Most of all, it takes courage, to launch from a ship in the middle of the ocean in search of a target with the hope of accomplishing the mission and returning home safely. Few have what it takes to even try to meet naval aviation’s high standards and even fewer succeed. At the height of World War II, with the naval war against Japan raging in the Pacific, Lieutenant Commander Joe Dwigans, U.S. Navy (Retired), raised his hand and said I can do it. This is his story.
I was hesitant to commit to reading Last Hope Island by Lynne Olson when a neighbor recommended it, but finally decided to give it a try. Boy, am I glad I did! The book discusses how England opened its doors to the exiled governments of Norway, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, after their countries […]
Master Chief Petty Officer Donald Gohman, U.S. Navy (Retired) is a humble man. When we began to talk, he told me his career was routine and he didn’t think he’d done anything special. Then he told me about how he helped keep planes flying from Henderson Field during the six-month long battle for Guadalcanal during World War II and kept carrier aircraft in fighting shape for missions over Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Needless to say, I was spellbound. Weaving in and out of peacetime and war, Don’s career is a thirty-year American history lesson taught at the individual level. I could not get enough of it, and I think you will share the same view. This is his story.
Welcome to Episode 22 of the Voices to Veterans podcast. This episode features the story of Petty Officer Second Class Arnold Fernandes, U.S. Coast Guard.Arnold’s service spanned two wars, World War II and the Korean War, and two services, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy. In World War II, Arnold served in one […]
In the 1965 World War II movie classic In Harm’s Way, the character Commander Paul Eddington, played by Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas, describes the coming war in the Pacific as “a gut bustin’, mother-lovin’ Navy war.” All the men who served on ships in the Pacific theater from the start of the war at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, to the end of the war in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, know just how true that statement was. One of those men was Seaman First Class Edward Collins, U.S. Navy, who joined the fray in 1943 aboard the USS San Jacinto (CVL-30), a light aircraft carrier that participated in all the major Pacific War Navy campaigns in 1944 and 1945. Manning his station on the USS San Jacinto’s flight deck during everything from hurricanes to kamikaze attacks, he lived and breathed the history that has inspired generations of Americans ever since. This is his story.
Welcome to Episode 11 of the Voices to Veterans podcast. This episode features the story of Staff Sergeant Jerry Ingram, U.S. Marine Corps.
Enlisting in 1942 and lying about his age, Jerry soon found himself driving tanks in the island-hopping war against Japan in 1944. After participating in
Sometimes when you’ve got your heart set on something, that’s all you can see. Your focus can cause you to miss even better opportunities that might present themselves in unexpected ways. Staff Sergeant Howard Berger had that kind of focus in February of 1946, looking forward to going home from Austria after […]