Tom Young served in the Air National Guard for more than 20 years. During that time, he served in Afghanistan and Iraq and also flew in combat missions to Bosnia and Kosovo to name a couple. He flew to almost 40 countries and logged nearly five thousand hours as a flight engineer on the C-5 Galaxy and the C-130 Hercules. Young retired in 2013 and has spent n ... Show More
Dec 2023
Ep. 351 - Ian Fritz (U.S. Air Force / 'What The Taliban Told Me')
At eighteen, Ian Fritz joined the Air Force out of necessity and was soon selected to become an Airborne Cryptologic Linguist in the war in Afghanistan. Over the course of two tours, Fritz listened to the Taliban for hundreds of hours, all over the country night and day, in momen ... Show More
1h 38m
Dec 2023
Ep. 350 - Patrick Brown (U.S. Army / The Warrior Alliance)
Patrick Brown joined the Army in 2005 as an Infantryman in the US Army, deploying to multiple combat zones throughout his service. Immediately after service, he became a US Army Survival, Escape, Resistance, Evasion (SERE-C) instructor to soldiers who were at high risk of being c ... Show More
1h 23m
Jan 2022
EP171: How To Properly Brag About the World's Fastest Plane and Losing My Mentor, Finding Peace
On this episode of Our American Stories, SR-71 Blackbird pilot, Bryan Shall, explains how much fun you can have when you're the fastest plane in the sky. LCpl. Tom Morton tells the story of Sgt. Joe L. Wrightsman not only being his mentor and squad leader, but also a hero of the ... Show More
38m 16s
Nov 2022
Untold: Stories Of A World War II Liberator (Catalyst)
Deborah Levine, daughter of a World War II military intelligence officer/ Ritchie Boy, shares first-hand stories of WW II and the Holocaust with wartime letters of her father, Aaron Levine. He was assigned to interrogate Nazi prisoners of war. Also, hear the wartime love letters ... Show More
1 h
Sep 2022
Eugene Jacques Bullard, Combat Pilot (Pt. 1)
Bullard is often described as the first Black American fighter pilot – which is true – but he also had a full and fascinating life beyond that. This episode covers his travels before WWI and his military career.
Research:
"Bullard, Eugene." Encyclopedia of World Biography, edite ... Show More
31m 31s
May 2021
The Mystery of D.B. Cooper | The Man in Row 18 | 1
On November 24th, 1971, a man on a Boeing 727 bound for Seattle handed a flight attendant a note that read, “Miss, I have a bomb here.” No one knew the man’s real name. But soon, the press was calling him D.B. Cooper -- and his hijacking of Northwest Orient Flight 305 would go do ... Show More
35m 18s
Nov 2021
EP113: Legendary Hotel Executive Mike Leven, Empathy is Not Optional and He Made Paper Airplanes His Full Time Job
On this episode of Our American Stories, Mike Leven was President and Chief Operating Officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp. One of the great hoteliers of all time—a legend in his business. Here’s Mike with a story about what he learned from his unseemly college law professor; and John ... Show More
38m 16s
Dec 2023
A Bombing At LaGuardia Airport (1975)
** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **
It’s December 29th. This day in 1975, a bomb, planted in a luggage locker, exploded at NYC’s LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 and i ... Show More
19m 38s