World War II / Korea

Royce Williams kept a huge secret for fifty years.  He had been given strict orders. Royce joins us as part of our partnership with the Distinguished Flying Cross Society. Royce and his brother signed up after the attack on Pearl Harbor. During his career he flew everything from open cockpit biplanes to jets at Mach 2 in three wars. During the Korean War, Royce was a member of a task force that sailed north to attack “juicy” targets close to [...]

“To The End of the Earth” is the last installment in Professor John McManus’ trilogy about the US Army in the Pacific during World War II. This book chronicles the events beginning with the retaking of the Philippines and takes readers through the final capitulation of the Japanese empire. McManus is Curator’s Distinguished Professor of military history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He is a prolific writer, with 15 published works and is often called upon by [...]

Buchenwald concentration camp was the worst sight Tim Kiniry has ever seen. That is saying a lot considering he spent World War II as part of the 45th Evacuation Hospital, witnessing the horrors of war up close and personal. Tim says he normally fainted at the sight of blood so working in a hospital would not have been his first choice, but “That is what I was ordered to do so I tried to do the best job I could.” [...]

The P-51 Mustang changed the course of the air war in Europe, but it almost didn’t make it off the assembly line.  The story of the Mustang’s evolution and the pilots that flew it in combat is the subject of a great new book by David & Margaret White titled “ Wings of War; The World War II Fighter Plane That Saved the Allies and the Believers Who Made It Fly.” The genesis of the book is Margaret’s 103 year [...]

“Black Snow; Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo and the Road to the Atomic Bomb” is author James M. Scott’s latest release. In some ways it is a sequel to his previous book “Rampage” about the battle for Manila. I consider James to be one of the greatest historical writers of our generation. There are many fascinating historical characters presented in this book but principally focuses on Curtis LeMay – one of the Army Air Corps, later Air Force’s most [...]

“Frogmen” was the nickname given to the members of the newly formed Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) during World War II. Their fellow service members called them “Half Fish, Half Nuts”. They were the predecessors of today’s Navy SEAL teams. George Morgan The history of the formation of these special units is the subject of a new book by award winning journalist & author Andrew Dubbins. It is called “Into Enemy Waters; a World War II Story of the [...]

Hometown Heroes Radio creator and host Paul Loeffler has done some amazing work assuring that the stories of World War II and Korean era Veterans are not lost to history. Since 2005 Paul has interviewed an average of one World War II Veteran per week. Much of Paul’s inspiration came from an early moment in his life when he accidentally came across a framed newspaper article hidden away in his grandfather’s closet. It described how Dr. Robert Loeffler pulled 26 [...]

Landing craft and the men who sailed them were often unheralded. But they were a critical part of our victory in World War II. They were especially important to the island hopping campaign in the Pacific theater. Like many of his generation, Steven Ganzberger enlisted as soon as he turned 18 following the attack on Pearl Harbor.  His grandson Zach Morris has always been an avid World War II historian. He was visiting town on May 18, 2011 and decided [...]

“Shot Down” tells the story of the crew of the “Susan Ruth”, a WWII B-17 shot down on Feb. 8, 1944 over the French/Belgium Border. The name was given to the aircraft by Pilot Howard Snyder in honor of his young daughter. Steve Snyder, Howard’s son, has written a meticulously researched and detailed book that describes the lives of the crew members and their harrowing months in hiding from German forces. The book also tells the stories of the brave [...]