
Episodes

Wednesday Mar 12, 2025
Episode 82: Richard O'Connor's Heroism and the Power of Love
Wednesday Mar 12, 2025
Wednesday Mar 12, 2025
Richard O'Connor earned a Bronze Star for his heroics on the battlefield one early April day in 1969, a fact that only came to light back home when his mom found the medal in his duffle bag. Dick did not want the attention as he dealt with the lasting emotional scars of service. Dick credits his wife, Patricia, with helping him deal with those scars, beginning with her letters to him in Vietnam through to the present day.

Friday Feb 28, 2025
Episode 81: Dr. John Wander's Work With Korean Orphans
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Dr. John Wander was drafted in 1967, certain he was headed to Vietnam where surgeons like himself were in great demand. Instead, he was assigned to an Army base eight miles from the DMZ in South Korea. As the base's Chief Surgeon, he used his authority to benefit not just those assigned there but to deliver much-needed care to hundreds of Koreans in the surrounding areas.

Monday Feb 03, 2025
Episode 80: Ken Burmeister's Healing Journey
Monday Feb 03, 2025
Monday Feb 03, 2025
Army E4 Ken Burmeister saw friends wounded and killed during his time in the jungles of Vietnam and Cambodia. He returned home and turned to alcohol to help process his experiences in combat. Now sober, his post-war healing received a boost after a surprise reunion decades later with a wounded friend, and from his efforts to track down the student author of an anonymous letter he received on his Honor Flight Chicago trip in October of 2024.

Monday Dec 09, 2024
Monday Dec 09, 2024
Robert Gurley and James Blue can't agree on when they first met, but what they can agree on is they have been the best of friends since childhood. When Robert was "snatched off the street and sent to Vietnam," it didn't take James long to enlist to follow his friend. Through the barbs and bonds that all good friends share, Robert and James have another commonality: helping each other through the post-war trauma of service in Vietnam.

Thursday Nov 21, 2024
Episode 78: Vietnam War Combat Chaplain Father Richard Shannon
Thursday Nov 21, 2024
Thursday Nov 21, 2024
When a young Catholic priest saw many of his parishioners being sent to war in Vietnam, he felt it was his duty to serve as well. It took Father Richard Shannon years of lobbying, but eventually, he was granted permission to enlist. During his tour of duty, Father Shannon said mass and ministered to countless troops, including at LZs deep in the jungles of Vietnam.

Monday Nov 04, 2024
Episode 77: Stuart Poticha and M*A*S*H in the Vietnam Era
Monday Nov 04, 2024
Monday Nov 04, 2024
Stuart Poticha, the youngest surgeon on faculty at Northwestern, received a phone call from a Colonel informing him he was going straight to Vietnam before his draft card ever arrived. At Basic Training, he couldn't hit a target feet from his face and generally refused calisthenics. His antics -- and those of his fellow doctors -- were tolerated only because "court-martialing a surgeon caused too much paperwork." But Stu Poticha could save lives. And the 12th Evac Hospital in Vietnam, where he was Chief of Surgery, did that better than anyone else.

Friday Oct 18, 2024
Episode 76: Vietnam Vet Jerry Zabel's Intelligence of War
Friday Oct 18, 2024
Friday Oct 18, 2024
Jerry Zabel was born in Munich, Germany, to a mother and father who barely survived Nazi concentration camps. The young family emigrated to the United States and Jerry found his parents always reluctant to talk about their experiences during WWII. When the Vietnam War broke out, Jerry's off-the-charts intelligence and insatiable curiosity about the nature of war drove him to enlist—and soon the realities became all too real.

Thursday Oct 03, 2024
Episode 75: F-4 Phantom Pilot Dave Adams
Thursday Oct 03, 2024
Thursday Oct 03, 2024
Air Force Captain Dave Adams was an F-4 Phantom fighter pilot in Vietnam, flying more than 200 missions over North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. A long-time member of the Honor Flight Chicago volunteer interview team, it's time for us to tell Dave's own remarkable life story.

Monday Sep 09, 2024
Episode 74: Sonny's Sequel: Zdancewicz Receives His Day of Honor
Monday Sep 09, 2024
Monday Sep 09, 2024
In Episode 47 of this podcast, we profiled long-time Welcome Home flag line member Sonny Zdancewicz, whose bravery in Vietnam earned him three Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts. Only recently did he become interested in receiving those medals at the urging of his family, and at the same time decided that it was time for his own Day of Honor. That day came on July 24, 2024, and you can travel along with him in this special episode.

Sunday Aug 11, 2024
Episode 73: Bob Gatenby's Vietnam Tale of Love and War
Sunday Aug 11, 2024
Sunday Aug 11, 2024
Robert Gatenby had just married his wife of 56 years, Diane, when his draft notice arrived. During his service in Vietnam, Bob experienced the darkest moments war can bring. To protect his wife and parents, however, Bob's steady stream of letters home never let on to the danger he faced. This is a story of how war changes those who fight, and how love can conquer all.