Echoes of the Vietnam War
81 episodes - English - Latest episode: 4 days ago - ★★★★★ - 85 ratingsEven after 50 years, the impact of the Vietnam War echoes across generations. Hear the stories of service and sacrifice from people who are affected — veterans, their families, and others who add perspective to those experiences. Brought to you by the nonprofit that built the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, “The Wall,” in Washington, D.C.
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Episodes
The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday, Part 2
July 10, 2024 17:20 - 55 minutes - 50.4 MBWe conclude an Honor Flight for Navy SEALs who served in Vietnam by exploring more of the connections between these special warfare operators and the people whose lives they’ve impacted, including each other’s.
The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday (Part 1)
June 21, 2024 15:46 - 37 minutes - 34.8 MBOn an Honor Flight full of Navy SEALs who served during the Vietnam War, we learn about the origins and training of the earliest SEAL teams and hear first-hand accounts of some of their triumphs and tragedies in Southeast Asia.
The Long Shadow of War
June 06, 2024 14:50 - 50 minutes - 46 MBJune is National PTSD Awareness Month and June 16th is Father’s Day. In this episode we bring you an interview with a father and son who have traveled together on the long road from trauma to healing.
Front Man
May 23, 2024 15:50 - 49 minutes - 45.6 MBBruce Springsteen’s song “The Wall” was inspired, in large part, by a musician he idolized in his youth. Walter Cichon was the front man for a band called the Motifs, who were taking the New Jersey shore by storm in mid-to-late 1960’s. Walter’s voice was forever silenced in Vietnam when he was just 21 years old, but his indomitable spirit lives on through those who knew him — including, to a surprising degree, The Boss himself. For more information: https://www.vvmf.org/echoes/EP75/
The Hero in Your Midst
May 09, 2024 14:44 - 45 minutes - 41.8 MBAlfred Coke served 730 days in Vietnam and he estimates that he received enemy fire on 400 of them. He was wounded multiple times, and he has both the scars and the decorations to prove it. He never gave much thought to his own trauma until he formed an unlikely friendship with Allan Danroth, a Canadian engineer nearly three decades his junior. In this episode, we bring you an inspiring story of friendship... and the healing power of being interested.
Cherries Writer
April 24, 2024 15:07 - 49 minutes - 45.1 MBIn 1970-71, John Podlaski spent twelve months in Vietnam — seven with the Wolfhounds of the 25th Infantry Division, and five with the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division. John never dreamed that he’d become a writer, but his first novel, Cherries, led to five more books and a hugely popular website (cherrieswriter.com) that is a community chest of first-person stories, information, and imagery from the Vietnam War.
Fortunes
April 11, 2024 21:02 - 54 minutes - 49.4 MBForty-nine years ago this month, thousands of South Vietnamese children were airlifted to the U.S. and other Western countries in a mass evacuation known as Operation Babylift. In this episode, you’ll hear the incredible story of one of those children, including her reunion — 44 years later — with her birth mother in Vietnam.
Making an Impact at Home [Remastered]
March 29, 2024 13:00 - 40 minutes - 37.4 MBNext spring will mark 50 years since Saigon fell, an anniversary that will likely spin up more coverage and conversation about the Vietnam War than we’ve seen in decades. Much of that attention will probably focus on how the war ended. We've decided, instead, to emphasize the countless ways that Vietnam veterans have made America better since they came home. To set the tone for the next 15 months or so, we take you back to where we started... three years ago today.
Di Di Mau
March 14, 2024 12:36 - 59 minutes - 54.7 MBDarren Walton arrived in Vietnam in 1970 and served a full tour on Marine Corps Reconnaissance teams. In this episode, he breaks a 50-year silence to talk about being a Recon Marine, to explain why he hid his Vietnam experience for decades, and to thank the men who routinely risked their lives to save his.
We build. We fight.
February 28, 2024 15:23 - 53 minutes - 48.8 MBTrained for combat as well as construction, the Seabees of the U.S. Navy have been distinguishing themselves with their heroism since 1942. There are 85 Seabees memorialized on The Wall, including one Medal of Honor recipient. In this episode, we’ll hear from two Seabees who served in Vietnam.
Heart
February 14, 2024 13:12 - 1 hour - 58.9 MBA few years ago, Lee Ellis noticed that he and the other POWs who made it home from Vietnam were outperforming the general population in the area of romantic longevity. He looked into the reasons why that might be true, and then he published his findings in a book called Captured By Love: Inspiring True Romance Stories from Vietnam POWs. Happy Valentine's Day.
Red Eagle
January 31, 2024 20:44 - 55 minutes - 50.8 MBRed Eagle Rael’s tour started in February of 1968 in the Mekong Delta. The guys in his unit called him “Chief,” a common nickname for Native Americans serving in Vietnam. Highly decorated, Rael is a kind of living legend in New Mexico. In this episode we visit Picuris Pueblo, where Red Eagle grants a rare interview to share his story... or, at least, the parts that he is willing to talk about.
Aloha
January 17, 2024 18:55 - 1 hour - 59.9 MBHawaii holds a special place in the hearts and minds of many Vietnam veterans. We'll explore the state’s popularity as a destination for GIs on R&R, and a Vietnam combat veteran -- now living in Hawaii -- remembers the bloody battle that left him with a debt of gratitude that he works every to repay.
River Rats (Part 2)
December 14, 2023 19:59 - 46 minutes - 42.5 MBIn episode 64, we introduced you to the Mobile Riverine Force, a joint Army-Navy task force that patrolled the brown waters of the Mekong Delta in an effort to disrupt the movement of enemy troops, weapons, and supplies. In this episode, we’ll go a little deeper with stories of enemy engagement, environmental hazard, the lingering effects of the River Rat experience, and of course brotherhood and healing.
River Rats (Part 1)
December 01, 2023 17:26 - 43 minutes - 40.2 MBCommander Task Force 117 was a joint Army-Navy effort to disrupt the movement of communist troops, weapons, and supplies through the Mekong Delta. It was the first time since the Civil War that American soldiers and sailors operated under a joint command. In this episode, veterans of the Mobile Riverine Force — known as “river rats” — share their stories.
Healing Wounds (Part 2)
November 17, 2023 16:27 - 47 minutes - 43.3 MBDiane Carlson Evans picks a ten-year fight, facing enormous resistance from corners both surprising and unsurprising, resulting in the first memorial on the National Mall to honor the service of women in wartime.
Healing Wounds (Part 1)
November 02, 2023 16:23 - 59 minutes - 54.8 MBAfter her tour as a combat nurse in Vietnam, Diane Carlson Evans came home in 1969 to a country she hardly recognized. In 1982, a visit to Washington, DC started an avalanche that surged inside her for more than a decade, culminating in the dedication of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial thirty years ago this month. Diane talks about Vietnam, coming home, and why she picked a ten-year fight for women who served.
Advising the Ruff Puffs
October 19, 2023 22:41 - 44 minutes - 41.1 MBFrom 1968 to 1972, Mobile Advisory Training (MAT) teams worked alongside the South Vietnamese Regional Forces and Popular Forces — known as Ruff Puffs — who were the units responsible for protecting their local villages and hamlets against communist attacks. Bob Blair, who led MAT Team 44 in 1971, shares his experiences in this episode.
An Unbreakable Bond
October 05, 2023 12:36 - 38 minutes - 35.2 MBPeggy and Maryann were just little girls when a 1969 helicopter crash in Binh Dinh province changed their lives forever. The stories they heard from the adults around them were less than clear... and a long way from comforting. But kids grow up. And when they do, they write their own stories.
POSTSCRIPT: Nina and Bubba... and Bubba
September 27, 2023 14:55 - 14 minutes - 12.9 MBEver since Mike Stubbs left the Army in 1968, he has been trying to find the family of Luther Smith, who was among 64 infantrymen killed at the Battle of Ong Thanh. In this postscript, you’ll hear excerpts from the first-ever live conversation between Luther’s daughter and his best friend. Visit Luther's Wall of Faces page at https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/48432/LUTHER-A-SMITH/
Gus Kappler Is Still Angry
September 15, 2023 15:04 - 46 minutes - 42.7 MBGus Kappler laughs a lot. If you met him in line at the grocery store, you’d never guess that he spent a year in Vietnam as a real-life Hawkeye Pierce performing unimaginable surgeries on young men with unspeakable injuries. It made him angry, and that hasn’t changed. What has changed is the way he understands his anger… and how he deals with it.
Angel Fire
August 31, 2023 14:00 - 30 minutes - 28.3 MBIn a remote mountain town, a father turns his devastating personal loss into a place for public healing and remembrance.
CHOOK
August 17, 2023 16:27 - 34 minutes - 32 MBU.S. and Australian forces have fought side-by-side in every major conflict since World War I, and some 60,000 Australian service members served in the Vietnam War. August 18 is Vietnam Veterans Day in Australia, and in honor of that commemoration we bring you the personal story of an Australian helicopter pilot who served in Vietnam in 1970 and ’71.
The Red Scarf
July 25, 2023 15:30 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBWhile pursuing his lifelong ambition of becoming an infantry platoon leader, John Hedley overcame a lot of obstacles. His reward at the end of that long, difficult road was a tour in Vietnam starting in July of 1969, where he would lead the Army’s legendary red-scarved recon platoon known as Fox Force. John shares the story of that journey, his experiences in Vietnam, and a surprise ending that will boggle your mind and warm your heart at the same time.
POSTSCRIPT: Denny and the Sculptor
July 14, 2023 15:59 - 11 minutes - 10.7 MBIn EP55 we shared the story of Dennis Lobbezoo, one of 142 service members whose names are on the wall and who were born on the fourth of July. In this postscript, his then-fiancée Joyce Washburn shares the story of Denny and the surgeon-turned-sculptor who was inspired to cast the young Marine’s likeness in bronze 45 years after they met aboard the USS Repose.
Born on the Fourth of July
July 04, 2023 14:03 - 46 minutes - 43 MBJuly 4th is the birthday of the United States of America. It’s also the birthday of 142 service members whose names are on The Wall at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This is the story of one of them — Dennis Lobbezoo of Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is remembered by his then-fiancée, Joyce Washburn. Visit Dennis' Wall of Faces profile: https://bit.ly/46xI5Hu Read more about Dennis and Joyce: https://bit.ly/46wCLEf
Tunnel Rats (Part 2)
June 21, 2023 20:12 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBIn the wake of Operation Cedar Falls, tunnel-rat duties in the 1st Infantry Division were transferred to the 1st Engineer Battalion where men began to specialize in it. In this episode, we’ll hear personal stories from members of the Diehard Tunnel Rats. [WARNING: This episode contains vivid descriptions of combat, injury, and death.]
Tunnel Rats (Part 1)
June 07, 2023 18:07 - 30 minutes - 28.2 MBCommunist forces in South Vietnam used vast networks of subterranean tunnels as hiding places, bomb shelters, weapons factories, food stores, headquarters… even surgical hospitals. In this episode we’ll introduce you to the 1st Infantry Division’s dedicated team of Tunnel Rats — combat engineers who volunteered, whenever necessary, to do their fighting underground.
Unwavering
May 10, 2023 15:17 - 33 minutes - 31.1 MBThere are more than 72,000 U.S. service members still unaccounted for from World War II -- a war we fought in for four years. The number missing after 20 years of combat in Afghanistan? Zero. That’s no accident; it represents a dramatic shift in policy and priorities, another unheralded legacy of the Vietnam War generation. In this episode, author Taylor Baldwin Kiland shares the incredible true story of the military wives who fought to make “no man left behind” a promise that America keeps.
No Words Necessary
April 26, 2023 18:45 - 1 hour - 64.6 MBFor the tens of thousands of families who received tragic news during the Vietnam War, their lives were profoundly changed at that moment and their reactions to the news covered the full range of human grief. Imagine being the person who rang doorbell after doorbell for months on end, triggering that outpouring of emotion over and over, in all its forms. In this episode, two Marines talk about coming home from Vietnam and being assigned that terrible duty.
Familiar Voices, Surprising Updates
April 12, 2023 13:58 - 1 hour - 57.2 MBTo celebrate the fiftieth episode of our podcast, we reconnect with a few of the people who have shared their stories with us over the past two years. They talk about what they’ve been up to since, and we discover some surprising, real-life connections resulting from the podcast.
Operation Babylift
March 30, 2023 17:11 - 47 minutes - 43.2 MBThroughout the month of April 1975, in a mass evacuation known as Operation Babylift, around 2,000 infants and children were airlifted from orphanages in South Vietnam to the United States. In this episode, we bring you stories from the first and last flights of that operation — one ending in tragedy, the other in joy.
Humping The Boonies
March 15, 2023 17:30 - 52 minutes - 47.6 MBOf the 58,281 names on the wall, two-thirds of them died in 1967, ‘68, and ‘69. Robin Bartlett landed in I Corps right smack in the middle of that period. His training sergeant at Camp Evans said to him, “your life expectancy is less than 90 days.” In this episode, Robin talks about the realities behind that prediction, how he defied it, and the book he wrote about his Vietnam War experience.
Repo Depot
March 02, 2023 05:00 - 38 minutes - 35.5 MBFor soldiers joining the Vietnam War after the initial buildup, the first stop in Vietnam was usually at a replacement battalion — commonly referred to as a “repo depot” — where they would wait to be assigned to a unit. Those few hours or days unfolded in a strange kind of limbo where hot emotion met cold procedure. And somebody had to run it.
Donut Dollies
February 16, 2023 14:00 - 38 minutes - 35.7 MBAmerican Red Cross volunteers known as “Donut Dollies” were often called in to visit a unit after it had been experienced intense fighting and had suffered heavy casualties. Why would any twenty-something, college-educated woman volunteer to work in a war zone halfway around the world? In this episode, Peggy Kelly shares her personal reasons and talks about how that experience shaped the rest of her life.
Joe Zengerle
February 01, 2023 21:25 - 40 minutes - 36.8 MBDecember of 1967 was a pivotal time to arrive in Vietnam. A month later, the Tet Offensive would alter the course of the war, public sentiment about its prosecution, and the direction of a presidency. From his unique vantage point as General William Westmoreland’s special assistant, Joe Zengerle saw the world transform itself in the first half of 1968.
Capt. Jack Ensch
January 19, 2023 13:30 - 43 minutes - 40.2 MB*The pilot awarded the Navy Cross was Capt. Ronald E. “Mugs” McKeown. Commander Michael William Doyle was the pilot of the downed F-4 Phantom. CDR Michael W Doyle is honored on Panel 1W, Line 69 of The Wall: https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/13877/MICHAEL-W-DOYLE-2/
[REBROADCAST] Christmas and the Vietnam War
December 19, 2022 22:34 - 49 minutes - 45.7 MBSurprises are an essential part of the Christmas experience. But in wartime, the surprises aren’t often joyful. In this episode we’ll hear stories of Christmas from people who survived the war in Vietnam, and from people whose losses nearly 50 years ago have colored every Christmas since.
Ann-Margret
December 07, 2022 22:12 - 34 minutes - 31.4 MBShow-business legend Ann-Margret entertained troops in Southeast Asia in 1966 and 1968, and she remains an active and ardent supporter of Vietnam veterans to this day. In this episode, she sits down with Jim Knotts to talk about why she went to Vietnam and what those trips have meant to her — personally and professionally — in the five decades since.
Seawolves (Part Two)
November 23, 2022 17:45 - 43 minutes - 39.5 MBHonor Flight San Diego takes 85 HA(L)-3 Seawolves to Washington, D.C. for a tour of memorials and museums. Along the way, men who haven’t stood together in 50 years rekindle old connections and forge new ones, remember their fallen brothers… and receive the surprise of a lifetime.
Seawolves (Part One)
November 09, 2022 12:25 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MBThe HA(L)-3 Seawolves were the Navy’s first attack-helicopter squadron, and they remain the most decorated squadron in the history of U.S. naval aviation. Their courage, dedication, and ingenuity made them heroes to Navy SEALs and River Rats throughout the Mekong Delta from 1967 to 1972. So how come you’ve never heard of them?
Every Picture Tells a Story
October 26, 2022 17:05 - 29 minutes - 26.6 MBCompleting the Wall of Faces took more two decades of sustained effort by thousands of volunteers around the world. In this episode, you’ll hear the story of two of them — a story that sheds some light on why this project was so important to so many people.
[REBROADCAST] EP15: Longview
October 11, 2022 23:44 - 47 minutes - 43.1 MBOriginally published one year ago today, we reprise a very special episode. With audio gathered at a stop on last year’s 26-city tour of The Wall That Heals, we bring you several very personal stories that shed light on why people visit The Wall, the emotions they bring to it, and what happens when an entire community connects with its Vietnam War history.
No Limit
September 28, 2022 20:33 - 31 minutes - 28.7 MBDrafted out of high school, Alex Walker Jr. arrived in Vietnam in February of 1969 and served for more than a year. In that time he faced unimaginable threats from enemy fire, deadly predators, and a generally hostile environment. In this episode, he recounts those experiences and talks about why his younger self was drawn to danger.
Kiss Lori for Me
September 13, 2022 22:40 - 50 minutes - 46.2 MBWhen Lori Goss-Reaves set out to write a book about her father, a U.S. Navy corpsman, she couldn’t have imagined where that process would take her. In Kiss Lori For Me, she celebrates her parents’ inspiring love story and discovers, decades after the fact, the truth about her father’s death on Valentine’s Day 1968.
The Mind Benders
August 30, 2022 20:30 - 45 minutes - 42.1 MBDeceiving and demotivating an enemy, enlisting and engaging an ally, all of these are necessary in war. You have to get people to do things or to stop doing things. And for that, you need to understand them at a narrative level. Histories, cultures, belief systems… what are you up against, and what facts or fiction can you inject to change or influence it? Major Ray Ambrozak sheds some light on psychological warfare during the Vietnam War.
Brigadier General George B. Price
August 16, 2022 18:30 - 39 minutes - 36.1 MBGeorge Price was instrumental in getting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial’s design unstuck from a morass of politics and controversy. That was a pivotal moment for VVMF, but just a tiny blip on the radar screen of General Price’s remarkable life. In this episode, Jim Knotts sits down with the general to get the rest of his story.
Vietnam Goes to Hollywood
August 02, 2022 17:10 - 45 minutes - 41.9 MBCaptain Dale Dye served 20 years in the Marine Corps including three tours and 31 major combat operations in Vietnam. In 1985 he founded Warriors, Inc. to help Hollywood do a better job of depicting American fighting men and women. He has worked with some of the biggest names in the business — Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Oliver Stone, among others — and has appeared as an actor in dozens of films, including "Platoon", "Saving Private Ryan", and "Mission: Impossible."
TOPGUN: Call Sign “Wildman”
July 19, 2022 15:50 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MBThe United States Navy Fighter Weapons School — better known as TOPGUN — was established in 1969. Early TOPGUN graduates fanned out across the Navy’s fighter squadrons to share what they had learned about dogfighting, and the results were dramatic: according to the Navy, its kill-to-loss ratio against the North Vietnamese MiGs saw a sixfold improvement. In this episode you'll hear from a real TOPGUN graduate, a veteran who flew 150 combat missions in Vietnam.
Growing Up Gold Star
June 21, 2022 18:10 - 38 minutes - 52.6 MBTony Cordero talks about growing up without his father, realizing in early adulthood that there must be many thousands of other kids who lost their fathers in Vietnam, and creating an all-volunteer non-profit organization, Sons and Daughters in Touch, to connect them with each other.