Episodes
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Episode 38: WWII Veteran Bill Shoop, Witness to the Nuremberg Trials
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Tuesday Sep 13, 2022
Bill Shoop served as a teletype operator during the latter stages of World War II in Europe, first during the Battle of Bulge and later from the International Military Tribunal known as the Nuremburg Trials. Though he claims no special role in the Trials -- "I just happened to be there," he says -- Bill Shoop was quite literally a witness to history and we are proud to tell his story.
Friday Aug 26, 2022
Episode 37: A Recap of Flight 103, Our Operation Education Mission
Friday Aug 26, 2022
Friday Aug 26, 2022
Our 103rd flight on July 20, 2022, featured 111 senior war veterans receiving their long-awaited and much-deserved Day of Honor, Thanks, and Inspiration. It also featured 13 teachers and students from our rapidly growing "Operation Education" mission that seeks to connect veterans with local schools to inspire gratitude and service among our youngest generation. This is their story.
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Episode 36: Rodney Branch Plays TAPS In Combat
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Rodney Branch has always been a musician. When he joined the Army in 1966, his first duty station was with the 55th Army Band in Alabama as a trumpeter and a bugler. Soon, though, he got his orders for Vietnam. There his MOS continued to be of a musical nature: Rodney Branch braved ambush and attack to fly into fire bases and perform TAPS for fallen comrades during the TET Offensive, and he never ever missed a note!
Thursday Jul 28, 2022
Episode 35: Mike Osika and the USS Enterprise Explosion
Thursday Jul 28, 2022
Thursday Jul 28, 2022
Mike Osika was aboard the USS Enterprise on January 14, 1969, when -- 75 miles from Pearl Harbor and in preparations to sail to Vietnam -- explosions ripped across the flight deck. Mike joined the fight on the deck to save the ship from the inferno that claimed 28 lives and injured more than 300. Years later, Mike was aboard HFC100 as an honored veteran. Following his flight, he came across a veteran interview with an old high school friend participating in HFC101 that he long thought was KIA in Vietnam. Their reunion after 52 years is a fitting capstone to this episode!
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
Episode 34: Lew Bottando, ”Lucky” Vietnam Veteran With Three Purple Hearts
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
Thursday Jun 30, 2022
Lew Bottando describes himself as lucky. He has been married 50 years to his high school sweetheart, and retired from a long career in the Chicago Fire Department as a battalion chief. His luck began, however, before all of that: he came home alive from the jungles of Vietnam after earning two Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts. In this episode, Lew takes us back in time to those jungles an ocean away, using language that is evocative, graphic, and at times shocking. There's also an epilogue to his story for which you must stay tuned.
Wednesday Jun 01, 2022
Episode 33: Richie Louck, Vietnam Medic
Wednesday Jun 01, 2022
Wednesday Jun 01, 2022
Richie Louck served as an Army medic with the 1st Cavalry during the Vietnam War -- an assignment with a very short shelf life. In fact, he was the lone medic in his company to survive his tour. Richie also was a childhood friend of our host, Paul Meincke. The two lost touch for many decades, but have reunited in recent years. Their chemistry is obvious in this conversation that touches not only on Louck's Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts earned in the jungles of Cambodia, but also on baseball and friendship.
Wednesday May 18, 2022
Episode 32: Korean War Purple Heart Veteran Rich Bernier
Wednesday May 18, 2022
Wednesday May 18, 2022
Army Corporal Rich Bernier served "many months" on the front lines of the Korean War. One day, the bunker he had just left took a direct hit from a mortar, killing all inside. Rich received serious shrapnel wounds, recovered and came home. It was not until he and his son, Rick, traveled together on an Honor Flight Chicago mission to Washington, D.C., in 2016 that his family heard his battlefield tales.
Monday Apr 18, 2022
Episode 31: Honor Flight Chicago Celebrates Its 100th Flight
Monday Apr 18, 2022
Monday Apr 18, 2022
In the predawn hours of April 13, 2022, 116 senior war veterans arrived at Midway International Airport to experience a day of Honor, Thanks, and Inspiration meant as a grand gesture of gratitude from a grateful nation. The life-changing trip would not only celebrate these heroes, but the more than 9,100 who came before and the thousands still waiting for their Day of Honor. This is the story of HFC100: Honor Flight Chicago's 100th mission to Washington, D.C.
Thursday Mar 10, 2022
Episode 30: Purple Heart Vietnam Veteran Luis Rodriguez
Thursday Mar 10, 2022
Thursday Mar 10, 2022
The 30th episode of our moving and meaningful Honor. Thank. Inspire. podcast spotlights Luis Rodriguez, a Purple Heart veteran of the Vietnam War. His deeply personal descriptions of the conditions of battle bring all of the rawness of the jungle home, and make the story of his actual homecoming all the more heart wrenching. This is a story that is as explicitly real as it is explicitly told. Don't miss this powerful episode.
Friday Feb 25, 2022
Episode 29: Silver Star Vietnam Veteran Clyde Wilson
Friday Feb 25, 2022
Friday Feb 25, 2022
Clyde Wilson's first assignment after completing officer school was a command at Fort Leonard Wood with "McNamara’s Hundred Thousand." He -- like nearly all of them -- soon found himself heading to Vietnam where his eye-opening arrival foreshadowed an encounter in the field that would lead to the young first lieutenant being awarded the Silver Star.