Warriors in their Own Words
Remarkable stories of war told by the men who fought for a proud nation. Their words. Their voices. Our first episodes tell riveting stories from World War II, then we move on to the Vietnam War and other dramatic conflicts.
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Captain Tom “Bear” Wilson served in Vietnam as an Electronic Warfare Officer (EWO). He sat in the back seat of aircraft, and was responsible for monitoring radar in order to warn his pilot of threats, like surface-to air-missiles (SAMs), anti-aircraft artillery, and enemy aircraft. He also protected his aircraft by jamming enemy radar.
As a Wild Weasel, it was Wilson’s job to protect friendly aircraft attacking enemy SAM sites, who have one of the most dangerous jobs in modern warfare. Wilson and his front seater drew SAMs away from bombers, and targeted the SAM sites themselves. This meant that Weasels spent sometimes more than 20 minutes over the target, as opposed to the one or two minutes bomber pilots spent.
One of our favorite interviews features another Wild Weasel and MOH recipient named Col. Leo Thorsness. Check it out here.
[Capt. Wilson is pictured on the right]
More About Warriors In Their Own Words and The HONOR Project
Warriors In Their Own Words brings to life the stories of those who have defended this nation. Using archival interviews going back to WWI, as well as current conversations about more recent conflicts, we hear remarkable accounts of service and sacrifice from those who lived them. These podcasts are a production of The HONOR Project: Heroes of Our Nation On Record.
Since 1991, award-winning documentarians Rob Kirk, Rob Lihani and Donna Lusitana have been recording and archiving the remarkable and very personal stories of veterans from World War I through modern conflicts. To provide an ongoing structure for the preservation of these stories, recounted by those who lived them, Kirk, Lihani and Lusitana joined with digital media pioneer, Marc Honorof, to create The HONOR Project.
“We are in the business of reporting history,” said Kirk, “Right now, these incredibly candid stories from a passing generation are what America wants to hear. We didn’t just sit these men down with a list of questions and ask them to reel off facts. We let them speak from the heart and captured all the emotion of their experiences.”
"By wrapping contextual narration around these astonishing stories and adding high quality production values,” said Lihani, “we have produced podcasts which are not only educational, but fascinating as well, along the lines of Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation, or HBO’s Band of Brothers. Many of these veterans are no longer with us, so their accounts need to be remembered and archived. There simply is no substitute for listening to these men tell us their own experiences, in their own words and voices."
If you enjoy hearing these stories directly from those who lived them, please give us a 5-star review on iTunes or wherever you found us. Thank you.
The Team
Ken Harbaugh
Declan Rohrs
Sean Rule Hoffman
