Home Podcasts Ask A Vet Podcast
Ask A Vet Podcast

Ask A Vet Podcast

Curious Humanography 50 Episodes Oct 13, 2026

Ask A Vet Podcast is a long-form conversation where veterans share their service experiences in their own words, with respect and control over what they choose to talk about.

Episodes

What They Never Told You About Firefights in Vietnam as a Marine Grunt
What They Never Told You About Firefights in Vietnam as a Marine Grunt Oct 13, 2026 01:04:59 Seven grenades with the pins pulled. A Marine he'd never met shaking beside him in the hole. Forty minutes of fire, a lull, then forty more. Then the word came down the line: "Fix bayonets."Amadeo Robert "Stef" Stefanelli grew up in South Brooklyn in a family of Marines. He enlisted at 17, started boot camp at Parris Island in April 1966, and survived a plane that nearly we
What They Never Told You About Search and Destroy in Vietnam
What They Never Told You About Search and Destroy in Vietnam Oct 7, 2026 01:45:48 Thanksgiving Day, 1967. Lieutenant Douglas Greenlaw's platoon was supposed to land, pop green smoke, and mark a safe zone for the rest of the company. Instead, the helicopters set them down a thousand yards too far, at the edge of a North Vietnamese battalion. Forty-five Americans against roughly four hundred. They fought for five hours.Doug grew up in a steel-mill family on Lake Michigan, sur
"The Devil Walked the Streets of Beirut" — A Marine Sniper Survives the 1983 Barracks Bombing
"The Devil Walked the Streets of Beirut" — A Marine Sniper Survives the 1983 Barracks Bombing Oct 3, 2026 01:30:19 On October 23, 1983, at 6:22 in the morning, a truck bomb destroyed the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. Marine Scout Sniper Frank Roberts was 400 yards away, sleeping in the dirt near Charlie Company. The blast threw him into a wall. When he came to, the four-story building was gone.Frank was 20 years old. He had come up through amphibious recon school and Scout Sniper School, where he learned
What I Never Knew About My Father Killed in Vietnam
What I Never Knew About My Father Killed in Vietnam Sep 29, 2026 01:23:35 This episode is a little different. Amy Rodman Little isn't a veteran, but the daughter of one who never came home.Army Captain David "Dave" Rodman was an artillery officer, former Big 33 football star, and devoted husband and father. He was killed in Vietnam on May 8, 1968, while helping pull wounded soldiers onto a rescue helicopter. Amy was four years old.For most of her life, Dav
EP 61: What They Don't Tell You About 22 Years in the Air Force Supply Chain
EP 61: What They Don't Tell You About 22 Years in the Air Force Supply Chain Sep 21, 2026 01:19:12 When Saigon fell in 1975, retired Air Force Senior Master Sergeant Scotty Acton was stationed on Guam — and watched over 50,000 Vietnamese refugees pour onto an island 8 miles wide. In this episode, Scotty takes us through 22 years in Air Force logistics: keeping fighter jets flying with "mission capable" parts, riding out a Category 5 typhoon with no water for 13 days, midnight runs acr
What You Never Heard About Vietnam’s Combat Radiomen
What You Never Heard About Vietnam’s Combat Radiomen Sep 14, 2026 01:17:07 Larry grew up in and out of foster homes across the West and landed in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury during the Summer of Love — homeless, drifting, and certain he was headed nowhere good. He enlisted in the Army looking for structure. He got Vietnam instead.Assigned as a radio operator (RTO) with the 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry, S2 Intelligence, Larry humped a 20-pound PRC-25 through the jun
What They Don't Tell You About Being a Blackwater Contractor
What They Don't Tell You About Being a Blackwater Contractor Sep 8, 2026 01:30:15 Morgan Lerette joined the Air National Guard in 1999 for one reason: his grandfather told him the Air Force had the best food. Two years later, September 11th changed everything. Morgan deployed to Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, and Iraq during the ground offensive — then walked away from active duty and into one of the most controversial jobs in modern warfare: private military contractor for Blackwater.I
What They Don't Tell You About Life on a Nuclear Submarine
What They Don't Tell You About Life on a Nuclear Submarine Sep 1, 2026 02:02:06 He served on Cold War fast-attack submarines, surfaced through Arctic ice, and spent up to 85 days underwater breathing recycled air — all without his family knowing if he was alive. Retired Navy Commander Henry Rausch joins the show to talk about his time as a submarine officer, the true story behind his bestselling memoir Submerged, and why the submarine force may be America's most important — a
What They Didn’t Tell You About Being a 19-Year-Old Vietnam Combat Pilot
What They Didn’t Tell You About Being a 19-Year-Old Vietnam Combat Pilot Aug 26, 2026 02:02:44 Herman "Butch" Peace enlisted in the Army at 19 and became a Huey pilot in Vietnam — flying troop insertions, taking fire, and watching men he served with die, all before he could legally rent a car back home. At 77, he finally put that year into words in his memoir, One Year: Or the Rest of Your Life. In this episode, Butch walks us through flight school, his first solo flight, arriving in-countr
What They Didn't Tell You About the First Black Sniper in Iraq
What They Didn't Tell You About the First Black Sniper in Iraq Aug 20, 2026 01:55:54 Roderick "Roger" Pugh grew up hunting and fishing in rural Alabama — and ended up living through 9/11 in basic training, the initial invasion of Iraq, an IED explosion that nearly killed him, and a front-row seat to the execution of Saddam Hussein. Along the way, he became — by his own research — the first African American sniper in the Iraq campaign and U.S. Army history.In this episode
What They Don't Tell You About Guarding Nuclear Weapons in Cold War Germany
What They Don't Tell You About Guarding Nuclear Weapons in Cold War Germany Aug 13, 2026 01:12:23 From civil engineer to Cold War nuclear weapons officer to Vietnam advisor — Bob Echols' journey through the Army is anything but a straight line. In this episode of Ask A Vet, Bob shares what it was like growing up as the son of a WWII transport pilot who rarely spoke about the war, getting turned away from West Point over his eyesight, standing guard over atomic demolition munitions in Cold
What They Don't Tell You About the Hospital That Treated 45,000 Vietnam Casualties
What They Don't Tell You About the Hospital That Treated 45,000 Vietnam Casualties Aug 7, 2026 02:07:28 For three years, Michael Reeder treated the wounded of the Vietnam War without ever setting foot in Vietnam.Drafted in 1966 and trained as a combat medic, Michael expected to deploy in-country. Instead, because his younger brother was already serving in Vietnam, the Army sent him to the 106th General Hospital at Kishine Barracks in Japan — one of the primary evacuation hospitals for the most sever

Recommended