May - December 2011 Archives (this page under construction)
31 Dec 2011 Webcast	2011 in Review! 2011 was a difficult year for Veterans Radio with the loss of our partner Gary Lillie, but thanks to your support we look forward to 2012 with new energy and optimism. Thanks to all for you for your stories and suggestions. We have heard from authors, veterans and families all over the world. Thank you for sharing your lives with us. It has been our privilege and honor to share your stories with our listeners around the world every Saturday morning for over 8 years.  Join the Veterans Radio Crew as we look back on 2011.  Which programs were most memorable to you? What do you think was the biggest news story of 2011? Getting Bin Laden? Leaving Iraq? You tell us! Guests included Joyce Faulkner, President of the Military Writers Society of America and Bing West, author of "The Strongest Tribe" and "The Wrong War"
24 Dec 2011 Webcast	Where Were You On Christmas  Where were you stationed during Christmas? Let you kids, grandkids, friends and family hear what it was like being so far away or having your loved one gone for Christmas.
17 Dec 2011	Veterans Helping Veterans “On November 13, 1982, Ron Miller personally leased an L-1011 from Delta Airlines and took 300 Vietnam veterans to the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. As a result of his remarkable efforts, President Ronald Reagan asked him to form the Georgia Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program, a volunteer organization that was recognized as one of the best in the nation bys President George H.W. Bush who presented Ron and the GVVLP with his prestigious Thousand Points of Light award for their service to Vterans and their families. This story will encourage all Americans to reach out to others with their assistance.” Gov. Mike Huckabee Ron Miller retired as a Major in the U.S. Army with over 20 years of active duty, three tours in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot. He received two Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Stars and numerous other awards for service. And our good friend Elliott Storm, author of the award winning “These Scars Are Sacred” will be back to talk about the new audio version of his book “These Scars are Sacred” was written to heal and inform and give the American public some idea of what it was like to come home to a place where one was not wanted nor welcome. He will also be talking about his new novel, “Cast Your Fate To The Wind!”
10 Dec 2011 Webcast	Gifts for Vets What does your veteran want for Christmas this year? Maybe a great book, music, leather flight jacket or what? Join Veterans Radio this Saturday to hear about all kinds of great presents for veterans and active duty military. You’ll hear from authors, musicians, military clothing and memorabilia business owners, and veterans groups gathering gifts for hospitalized veterans and their families.
3 Dec 2011   Webcast	The Good Soldiers “The Good Soldiers is the most powerful story I have read about the war in Iraq. This is just one of many stories we did not see on television. You can feel the fears and heat and smell the odors of war in all its ugliness. This is a MUST READ for those who want to really know what war is like!” Dale Throneberry, Producer, Veterans Radio.  “It was the last-chance moment of the war. In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. He called it the surge. “Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences,” he told a skeptical nation. Among those listening were the young, optimistic army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them. Fifteen months later, the soldiers returned home forever changed. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David Finkel was with them in Bagdad, and almost every grueling step of the way. What was the true story of the surge? And was it really a success? Those are the questions he grapples with in his remarkable report from the front lines. Combining the action of Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down with the literary brio of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, The Good Soldiers is an unforgettable work of reportage. And in telling the story of these good soldiers, the heroes and the ruined, David Finkel has also produced an eternal tale—not just of the Iraq War, but of all wars, for all time.” (Description from Amazon.com) Join host Dale Throneberry and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Good Soldiers, David Finkel this week on Veterans Radio.
26 Nov 2011	Boeing B-29 Superfortress The B-29 Superfortress was a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber flown primarily by the United States Air Forces in late-World War II through the Korean War. The B-29 was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II. A very advanced bomber for its time, it included features such as a pressurized cabin, an electronic fire-control system, and remote-controlled machine-gun turrets. The name "Superfortress" was derived from that of its well-known predecessor, the B-17 Flying Fortress. Though the B-29 was designed as a high-altitude daytime bomber, in practice it actually flew more low-altitude nighttime incendiary bombing missions. It was the primary aircraft in the American firebombing campaign against the Empire of Japan in the final months of World War II, and carried out the atomic bombings that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki and ended the war. Join host Bob Gould and author Bob Dorr (Mission Berlin: The American Airmen Who Took The War To The Heart Of Hitler’s Reich and noted aviation historian), and Bob Kruty from U.S. Wings as they share some of the stories about the B-29 missions and the crewmen in the final days of World War II
19 Nov 2011  Webcast	Donut Dolly Donut Dolly puts you in the Vietnam War face down in the dirt under a sniper attack, inside a helicopter being struck by lightning, at dinner next to a commanding general, and slogging through the mud along a line of foxholes. You’ll see the war through the eyes of one of the first women officially allowed in the combat zone. When Joann Puffer Kotcher left for Vietnam in 1966, she was fresh out of the University of Michigan with a year of teaching, and a year as an American Red Cross Donut Dolly in Korea. All she wanted was to go someplace exciting. In Vietnam, she visited troops from the Central Highlands to the Mekong Delta, from the South China Sea to the Cambodian border. At four duty stations, she set up recreation centers and made mobile visits wherever commanders requested. That included Special Forces Teams in remote combat zone jungles. She brought reminders of home, thoughts of a sister or the girl next door. Officers asked her to take risks because they believed her visits to the front lines were important to the men. Every Vietnam veteran who meets her thinks of her as a brother-at-arms.  Join Donut Dolly Joann Puffer Kotcher and host Dale Throneberry this Saturday morning on Veterans Radio.  And Gina Elise, founder of Pin-ups for Vets and her special project to raise money for hospitalized veterans. Gina came up with the idea to recreate a nostalgic pin-up calendar that would serve three purposes: 1. The calendars would be sold to raise funds for our hospitalized Veterans. 2. The calendars would be delivered as gifts to our ill and injured Veterans with messages of appreciation from the donors.3. The calendars would be sent to our deployed troops to help boost morale and to let them know that Americans back home are thinking of them.
12 Nov 2011 Webcast	What Does Veterans Day Mean To You? Join Veterans Radio this Saturday morning as we honor America’s veterans. The men and women, who over the history of our country, have been willing to lay down their lives for their fellow Americans. Guests include the Director of the Ann Arbor VA Robert P. McDivitt, FACHE and much more… On November 15th 2003, Veterans Radio broadcast their first program from the studios of WSDS in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Since then we have produced over 400 live programs on a wide variety of topics. From the sands of Iwo Jima and Normandy to the jungles of Vietnam. From the freezing winters of Korea to the deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq. Join us in celebrating our 8th anniversary of telling the true stories of America’s real heroes.
5 Nov 2011 Webcast	What Really Happened to the Sultana? It was the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history, more costly than even the April 14, 1912 sinking of the Titanic, when 1,517 people were lost. But because the Sultana went down when it did, the disaster was not well covered in the newspapers or magazines, and was soon forgotten. It is scarcely remembered today. Join Dale Throneberry and his guest, noted historian, Civil War reenactor,  history instructor at Arkansas State University, and story teller extraordinaire, Louis Intres. You will not believe what he has to say about  what really happened that dark night 146 years ago. And more…
29 Oct. 2011	"Doug Stanton's Horse Soldiers......  is as gripping as the most intricately plotted thriller. It is a masterwork of thrilling military action, brilliant in-depth journalism, and powerful story telling. Finally Americans can know how just a few dozen courageous U.S. soldiers beat the Taliban under the most extreme and dangerous conditions imaginable. I could not put this book down." - Vince Flynn  Join author Doug Stanton and host Dale Throneberry this Saturday and learn about this amazing and dedicated group of men who went after the Taliban in Afghanistan in October 2001. This will be the first time many of you hear these true stories of what what really happened in those early days of the war on Al Qaeda
22 Oct 2011	What It Is Like To Go To War   In What It Is Like to Go to War, Karl Marlantes takes a deeply personal and candid look at the experience and ordeal of combat, critically examining how we might better prepare our young soldiers for war. Marlantes discusses the daily contradictions that warriors face in the grind of war, where each battle requires them to take life or spare life, and where they enter a state he likens to the fervor of religious ecstasy. He makes it clear just how poorly prepared our nineteen-year-old warriors—mainly men but increasingly women—are for the psychological and spiritual aspects of the journey. Karl Marlantes is a graduate of Yale University and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, He served as a Marine in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, and ten Air Medals. He is the author of the best-selling and prize-winning Matterhorn.
15 Oct. 2011	JOBS-JOBS-JOBS A Tough economy and changing employment opportunities have made it a challenge to find work.  Our program this Saturday will feature a representative from the VA to tell you how to take advantage of all the services available to you, the veteran, on finding work anywhere within the entire VA healthcare system.  Resume building, interviewing skills and much, much more will be discussed.  Then we will have our guest from the Sustainable Agriculture Program available.  The Sustainable Agriculture Program is open  to all veterans who are interested in a career in agriculture.  Have pen and paper handy for all the details.  So for yourself or a friend/relative you’ll want to tune-in this Saturday when Veterans Radio  presents jobs, jobs, jobs.
08 Oct. 2011	Talking With Heroes Join Veterans Radio in welcoming Bob Calvert, founder and host of Talking With Heroes to our program this Saturday morning. Since 2003 Bob has been doing video interviews, mostly by himself, with our troops and putting them up on YouTube. TheTalking with Heroes program is not about politics. It is about helping, honoring, and supporting our men and women in the military and their families. Talking With Heroes gives our military personnel an opportunity to share their mostly untold stories about the work they are doing worldwide. We believe that The American people have a right to hear their positive progress stories and our military personnel have a right to have their stories heard.  They also interview military support and veterans groups for them to share what they do to support our troops, their families, the wounded and more. He has interviewed Gold Star Moms and Dads, Military Wives, Moms and Dads, Wounded Warriors, Veterans, and Corporations about what they do to support our troops. We agree with Bob when he says, “2011 is the year for the American people to put aside politics and unite behind our troops and their families.”  Bob has been to Iraq five times since 2006 and to Afghanistan three times in 2010 and twice this year
01 Oct. 2011	Live from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania it’s Veterans Radio Don’t miss this opportunity to hear your favorite award winning authors. See you there! Broadcasting live from the Annual Military Writers Conference at the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott. Join host Dale Throneberry and his guests, some of the finest military writers in America. Many of these authors have appeared on Veterans Radio in the past and many more will be on the program in the future.
24 Sep 2011	Defining Moments A True Story of War, Family Conflict & Reconciliation "Defining Moments" is the compelling true life story of one American soldier's adventures in the South Pacific during World War II. It is a captivating tale of war behind the front lines as revealed through the prism of the more than 300 letters this young G.I. from rural Ohio wrote to his family between the years 1940-45. This memoir, written by the soldier's eldest son, captures in vivid detail Bill Dustman's transformation from a boy into a man. The book presents, in candid detail, the "defining moments" which shaped this young man's life after he was freed from the bucolic, but cloistered environment of his rural hometown to experience an unfamiliar and uncaring world over which he had little control."Defining Moments" graphically and honestly paints a word picture of Bill's romantic liaisons, his conflicted relationships with fellow G.I.'s, the bizarre, humorous, and even tragic moments that he encountered during his exciting odyssey through the mosquito-infested jungles of Fiji and Solomon Islands to the more inviting tropical beauty of the Philippines."Defining Moments" traces not only Bill Dustman's physical journey through war, but also his psychological and emotional sojourn as he battled to cope with fear, anger, frustration, self-doubt and sadness because of his long separation from family. This book will resonate with every reader on some very personal level. Join host Dale Throneberry and his guest, author Robert Dustman. Bob is a former broadcast journalist who enjoyed a twenty-five year career as a reporter, anchor, news director, sports director and political editor at radio and television stations throughout Michigan including all-news WWJ in Detroit.
17 Sep 2011 Webcast	Mission to Berlin The American Airmen Who Struck The Heart Of Hitler's Reich This is a great and important book that gives the average reader a real sense in the heroism and danger of air combat in World War II. It is difficult to imagine today just how complex a mechanism that a 1,000 airplane bomber raid, involving 15,000 men was. Nor can we envision just how furiously a bitter, dying Germany could defend against it. Author Bob Dorr, whose wide ranging interests makes him the dean of military writers, provides a thrilling, if sometimes heart-chilling story of the famous February 3, 1945 American daylight raid on Berlin. He uses a minute-by-minute account of the raid as the principal thrust of the book, detailing how the mission progressed from the pre-flight take-off to the 4;00 PM (British time) landing. Join host Bob Gould with author Bob Dorr and much more.
10 Sep 2011	How Did 9/11 Change Your Life? September 11, 2001 changed America forever. As we approach the 10th Anniversary of that day we are asking our audience how America has changed. First we’re going to be talking about how America’s military has changed over the last 10 years with our guest, retired Lieutenant General Robert W. Wagner, a West Point graduate who served for 39 years in the U.S. Army. During his military career, Gen. Bob Wagner was involved in many American covert military operations from Vietnam to Iraq.  Throughout his career, Wagner served in the airborne infantry, Ranger, special operation His final duty was as commanding general of Army Special Operations in Fort Bragg, N.C. He was responsible for all the forces in the United States, especially the integration of joint forces and technology. For instance, Central Command would submit a request for forces for Iraq. Wagner and his team would decide what units to send from the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force, taking into account how long the unit had been home and what it was qualified to do
3 Sept 2011	Joe Galloway: Encore Program Joe Galloway spent 22 years as a correspondent and bureau chief for U.S. News and World Report.  His postings in Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Singapore, included four tours as a war correspondent in Vietnam, a tour in the 1971 India-Pakistan war, UPI Bureau Chief in Moscow; and, he rode with the 24th Infantry in the assault into Iraq during Desert Shield/Desert Storm. You can find his weekly column on the McClatchey web site at http://www.mcclatchydc.com/galloway/ Galloway co-authored We Were Soldiers Once…And Young about the battle of LZ X-Ray in Vietnam. Mel Gibson made it into a movie and Galloway was portrayed by actor Barry Pepper. At X-Ray Galloway became the only civilian to be awarded the Bronze Star by the U.S. Army for bravery in Vietnam.  We are repeating one of Gary Lillie’s favorite interviews with Joe Galloway.  Listen to the amazing life story of a war correspondent; where he has been, who he has met and what he has seen.
27 Aug 2011 Webcast	The Shetland Bus The Shetland Bus was the nickname of a clandestine special operations group that made a permanent link between Shetland, Scotland, and German-occupied Norwayfrom 1941 until the German occupation ended on 8 May 1945. Using modified fishing trawlers and later submarine chasers, and manned by all volunteer crews of Norweigen fishermen and sailors, the Shetland Bus was a joint effort of the Special Operations Executives (SOE), the British Admiralty’s Naval Intelligence, and the Military Intelligence Service of Norway’s government in exile. Join  host Dale Throneberry and Defense Media Network award winning author Dwight Zimmerman and hear the crucial, but now all but forgotten true story of the SOE/Norwegian special operations program.
20 Aug 2011	The Wrong War Grit, Strategy, and the way out of Afghanistan “America cannot afford to lose the war in Afghanistan, and yet America cannot win it. In this definitive account of the conflict, acclaimed war correspondent and bestselling author Bing West provides a practical way out.  Having embedded with dozens of front line units over the past two years, he takes us on a battlefield journey from the mountains in the north to the opium fields in the south. West-dubbed “the grunt’s Homer”-shows why the Taliban fear the ferocity or our soldiers…
06 Aug 2011	- A TRIBUTE TO OUR DEAR FRIEND AND PARTNER GARY LILLIE - It is with deep sorrow that we inform you of the death of our dear friend and partner, Gary Lillie. Gary was hit and killed by a drunk driver while jogging near his home in Dexter, Michigan Thursday night.  This program is dedicated to Gary Lillie
28 July 2011  Webcast	Just A Regular Guy  Part II Just A Regular Guy is the story of Charlie Morris, growing up in Northern Ohio with the simple ambition to join the Navy, learn a trade, and raise a family in typical Midwest middle class fashion. His life took an abrupt turn when, in 1971 while serving in Vietnam, he was hit by enemy sniper fire while on a helicopter mission in the Mekong Delta. The result of his injuries was right side paralysis with the prognosis to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. This week on Veterans Radio we will talk with Charlie about how through hard work and determination he was able to overcome his physical disability and eventually earn his college degree and begin a high school teaching career. Despite his physical limitations, his desire was just to fit into normal society without standing out from the crowd. His belief that life’s hardest battles were behind him was shattered when the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder invaded his life. His book tells the story of a man fighting numerous and diverse battles just trying to be a regular guy. Join host Dale Throneberry and his guest, Navy veteran and author Charlie Morris, this Saturday on Veterans Radio. Don't miss this incredible story about an amazing man.  And the Military Writers Society of America’s Vice President Mike Mullins will be announcing the 2011 Award Nominees.
21 July 2011
14 July2011	Gated Grief By Leila Levinson After the death of her father, Dr. Reuben Levinson, Leila and her brother found some horrific pictures in their fathers’ medical office. They were shots from the concentration camp that her father, as Captain Levinson at the time, liberated in the aftermath of WWII. The pictures haunted her and led her on a quest to try to understand what it meant to be a liberator. Pictures don’t do justice to what her father and other GIs faced. She needed to understand how those pictures changed the men that left hopeful and ready to fight for the freedom of all people. What she found brought her closer to her father, closer to understanding the man that told her never to cry and to just move forward, closer to answers to the questions she always wanted to ask; needed to ask, but never did. She wasn’t just searching for how being a liberator changed her father and how it affected other liberators. It has been estimated that a minimum of 300,000 GIs witnessed the camps in one way or another. For the most part, none of these (mostly) men were warned or prepared for what they were going to see, they were just told to go there. What they saw, what they smelled, what they felt, is still something that many can’t talk about. Levinson noticed that many of the people she interviewed switched into third person when they were describing it. They were still trying to distance themselves from it decades later. A phrase that Levinson uses is: “The liberators became prisoners of the camps they liberated.”
07 July 2011 Web Cast	Anui Korean War Part III On May 28 and June 11 our guest was Paul Petredis; a soldier who had more lives than an alley full of cats. As an 18-year old Paul found himself in the town of Anui, Korea, shortly after the invasion by North Korea. History has recorded how American, South Korean and allied troops were nearly driven into the sea; finally holding firm at the “Pusan Perimeter.” With no more room to withdraw they staved off attack after attack by swarms of well-equipped, experienced, disciplined, murderous and sadistic North Koreans; killing them by the tens of thousands. Despite its pleas, America had not armed South Korea. Moreover, we not only stripped our own military of war materials, but provided virtually no training to our own troops. As a result, our young soldiers paid a terrible price; enduring slaughter after slaughter by a cruel enemy. It is a shameful chapter in the history of America – one those responsible preferred that it be left out of the books. That is why Korea is called “The Forgotten War.”  Tune in to Veterans Radio this Saturday for the remainder of Paul Petredis’ story.  Consider adding Paul’s book - Escape from North Korea to your library. Or read it and donate it to your community library. It is a remarkable account, written in an attempt to purge the terror, violent deaths, and extreme hardships from his mind and soul. Americans must learn the price that is paid to preserve their freedom.