The Know Their Story Podcast

Father Mike Olsen, Colonel(R)

Father Mike Olsen served as a medevac pilot in Vietnam in 1970, until he had to be medevaced out himself when his helicopter had an unfortunate encounter with an enemy quad 50 machine gun. While the army wanted to give him a medical retirement, Father Mike worked his way back into shape, demanded a medical board and was able to return to Vietnam,,, where he was promptly shot down again two months later.

While the was was done with him, Father Mike stayed in the Army, eventually retiring as a Colonel. Post military, he enjoyed a career as a contractor with NASA, and now serves a different calling as a priest in New Mexico. 

Father Mike talks with us about the mental aspect of returning to war after injury, realizing the affect his military service had on his family, reconciling his faith in God after witnessing the horrors of war, and what we can do as a community to help our veterans. 

We hope you enjoy

Specialist 5 Jack Schmitt

Jack Schmitt served as an artillery observer with the US Army in the Vietnam War. Jack talks about beating the cloud of PTSD that he carried with him, and we do mean it was a real cloud that he could see, the not so welcome home he received, reconnecting with friends later in life, and using the skills he learned in the army to transition into a successful civil engineering career after his service.

He is also the author of the book, Potato People, about his time in the Army. It can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Potato-People-Tales-Trenches-Army-1967-ebook/dp/B07QMQCSZY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=GNRHM72MI1FS&keywords=potato%20people%20jack%20schmitt&qid=1654725680&sprefix=potato%20people%20jack%20schmitt%2Caps%2C125&sr=8-1&fbclid=IwAR1L5BuHeMpjVQ986AmL9qvn81N_BmbfO5Ar0ptwt1sIJDH0M2m3HyzPgnw

Rear Admiral(R) Bill Center

Admiral Center's naval career spanned multiple conflicts over his 35 years of service. Starting with a summer "internship" in Vietnam while at the Naval Academy, through Desert Storm, as well as as an arms negotiator with the Joint Chiefs of Staff that saw him in the middle of the nuclear negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. 

Admiral Center talks about the long lasting malaise he felt after being on duty during the Fall of Saigon, his surprise to find out that the movies are actually pretty spot on when it comes to the sound of bullets coming at you, the plusses and minuses we have seen with the transition to an all volunteer military and advice for finding your career in the civilian world. It's an insightful conversation and we hope you enjoy.

CW3 Joe Wankelman

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Joe Wankelman joined the US Army in 2000 and served as a Forward Observer with the 43rd ACR for six years before moving to the 1st of the 229th to be an apache helicopter pilot. During his time in the army, he served 3 tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. 

CW3 Wankelman talks about what it feels to like to fly such an incredibly powerful weapon at a relatively young age, what it's like to hit rock bottom after you return home and how to pull yourself up from your lowest moments., as well as the best way we can "thank a veteran".

Joe is also proud to now work with veteran owned and operated Bonefrog Coffee and Bonefrog Cellars. Learn more about them here as you enjoy this week's episode.

Coffee: www.bonefrog-coffee.com

Wine: https://bonefrogcellars.com/

Sergeant Keith Smithson

Sergeant Smithson served with the Army from 1987-2012 and was deployed to both Operation Just Cause in Panama as well as Operation Desert Shield in Iraq. Keith was a Logistics Quartermaster with 3rd Battalion 82nd Artillery and as an Army Recruiter. We talk about subjects like what it takes to deploy an army half way around the world, how just because Panama was seen by the media and many civilians as a walk in the park versus a small country, it doesn't make the bullets any less deadly when coming inbound, and and encouraging other veterans that it is okay to talk about your experiences.

Please enjoy this week's episode and make sure to give us a like, follow, or review.

Jim Betthauser

Jim served as a combat medic in Vietnam with the 93rd and 24th Evacuation Hospital units. He also holds the very distinct "honor" of being drafted in the very first draft lottery of the Vietnam War. We talk about the horrors faced on an everyday basis by doctors and nurses at war, the support he had when leaving the army (spoiler alert... not much), and talking about your experiences. 

We hope you enjoy this week's episode.

Mike Schindler

Mike Schindler is a Navy veteran, CEO of Operation Military Family, and surprise (even to him) filmmaker. Mike talks with us about what it's like to find your true self and your purpose in a civilian world after having a job like monitoring nuclear weapons. 

His film, It's VUCA, explores how lessons learned in the military can help deal with an increasingly unknown world. More information on the film can be found at https://itsvuca.com/

Captain Toby Pugh

Captain Pugh served with the US Air Force, including four 6 month tours of duty during the Vietnam War as a navigator and counter electronics officer on B-52 bombers. In that time, he flew 180 arc light missions as well as four missions over Hanoi during Operation Linebacker 2. Captain Pugh talks about the power of working in a team environment and how that carries over to the public sector, as well as the power of being around others who have shared your experience. 

Please enjoy today's episode and remember to give us follow and review on wherever you get your podcast content.

Lt Colonel Chris Lozano(R) and Sergeant Jim Braun

This is the second time back for Chris and Jim after they both appeared in their own episodes last season. We have a wide ranging show today as we talk about the special bond they share with each other as veterans, even though they fought in different conflicts, as as the role music has played in their friendship, their time in country, and healing after the war. 

More importantly, we talk with them about the Afghanistan withdrawal through their eyes as a Vietnam veteran and an Afghanistan veteran. The anger, the frustration, the dredged memories and feelings of 50 years past, it's all on the table here. Hear what they have to say about their own points of view as well as their advice for other Afghanistan and Vietnam veterans who have been through a roller coaster of emotions over the last two weeks.

Captain(R) Jim Messinger

Captain Messinger served two tours in Vietnam flying Huey helicopters, gunships, and the Skycrane. Captain Messinger is a witness to history... literally. His gunship was in a certain area of the country at a certain time that led to him sitting in front of the Peers Commission on the My Lai Massacre. The fact that he did not see anything did not stop him from being, as he described it, interrogated in the bowels of Pentagon.

After retiring from the Army, Captain Messinger became a college professor and serves as the treasurer for the National Vietnam War Museum in Texas. We talk with Captain Messinger about his time in the Army, finding his way in the world after separating from the military, starting a museum from scratch, and the importance of getting other veterans talking about their experiences. We hope you enjoy today's episode.

Find out more about the National Vietnam War Museum: https://www.nationalvnwarmuseum.org/

Tiffany and Laura

On today's episode, we welcome Tiffany and Laura.* They had the distinct pleasure of serving in the Navy at Guantanamo Bay at the time it was transitioned into its role housing detainees of the War on Terror. We talk about what that transition was like in a pivotal time in our nation's history as well as what it is like to be a female in the military and how funny it was Dustin got knocked out of the episode by a lightning strike on the power supply in Taos.  

 

*For personal reasons it has been asked that we not use last names this week.

Sergeant Kregg Jorgenson

Sergeant Jorgenson served in Vietnam from 1969-1970 as both a LRRP Ranger and as a member of the Apache Troop Blues. Sergeant Jorgenson has the type of distinguished resumes where we need to pick and choose what we print of this intro will get exceedingly long. Sergeant Jorgenson was a firefighter, a Customs K9 Inspector, military journalist, member of the Kung Fu Hall of Fame, best selling author, and star of a CBS News YouTube video where 12 million people have watched him get shot while on patrol in Vietnam. We are pleased to report that Kregg made it out of that day alive (but not get the one way ticket home the news mentioned volunteered to go back to his unit).

Sergeant Jorgenson talks with us about that day among several other memorable missions in Vietnam. He talks about returning home to protests, "fan" mail he received after the CBS segment aired, and why he hates the nickname "Hero" when the other men he served with are the true heroes in his mind.

Corporal Luis Sanchez

Corporal Sanchez served with the US Marines in Vietnam from 1972-1973 as a heavy machine gunner. After returning home, Corporal Sanchez got right to work, joining the Bureau of Mint within a month of separating from the military. From there, he moved on to the Customs Patrol for the start of a long career that saw him retire as a Supervisory Officer with US Customs and Border Protection. He is enjoying his retirement in Florida by now only working 28 hours a week.

Corporal Sanchez talks with us about the important role talking with other veterans served in his own journey after the war and how he encourages each and every veteran to do the same. 

The Importance of War Reenactment Societies

Joining us on the program was Mr. Darrell Price. Darrell and his lovely wife, Juli, run the Apache Troop Reenacted event every year at the Tigerland Training Grounds in Louisiana. We talk with Darrell about the important role reenactments play in keeping our history alive and honoring our troops and veterans. In his time as a reenactor, Darrell has worked with the Trail of Honor, the World War II Museum in New Orleans, and the US Army at Fort Polk.

 

Joining us to speak about the topic is a Vietnam veteran who has attended the Tigerland event and speaks to its importance is our very own Richard "Doc" Del Valle. Rich is a veteran of Apache Troop 1/9 and talks about his experience spending a weekend with Apache Troop Vietnam War reenactors.

 

Click here to learn more about Apache Troop Reenacted

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1657674731123450

 

And here to learn about the Tigerland Weekend

https://www.facebook.com/groups/801879546541676

Sergeant Mike Lentino

Sergeant Lentino served in the Vietnam War from 1969-1970 as a Scout Door Gunner with Apache Troop 1/9. Scouts was a notoriously dangerous assignment, which he proved by handing his tour ended abruptly after taking multiple enemy rounds through his arm and hand.

 

Sergeant Lentino talks with us about helping other veterans, the amazing effect his dog has had on helping him with PTS, and the healing power talking to high school students about his experiences has had for him.

Tech Sergeant Tony Davis

Sergeant Davis served as K9 handler with the US Air Force and was deployed twice to Saudi Arabia as well as two tours in Iraq. Sergeant Davis talks about the nerve racking process of clearing vehicles at the main gate in a war zone as well as the impact PTS had on his K9 partner after continual engagements outside the wire.

Tiffany Jama

Tiffany is both the daughter of a Vietnam veteran as well as the wife of an Afghanistan veteran (Staff Sergeant Dustin Tucker who joined us in episode 113).

 

Tiffany talks about growing up with a combat veteran as a father and her realization later in life just how the Vietnam War has affected her life as well. We also talk about her trip to Vietnam with her own son to retrace her father's footsteps and visit the building he was stationed in.

 

We also talk about the differences in talking with her father about Vietnam compared with talking with her husband about Afghanistan and how what she has learned and practiced can help other family members talk with the veterans in their lives.

Specialist Ryan Timmermans

We sat down with Army Specialist Ryan Timmermans. Specialist Timmermans spent three tours in Afghanistan working as both an Intel Specialist and Psy Ops. Specialist Timmermans talks with us about the ways he had changed when he returned home from his first tour, how he had problems reconnecting with society, and why he felt more at home returning to Afghanistan than staying in The States.

 

Since leaving the Army, Specialist Timmermans founded the non-profit Veterans Off-grid based in Carson, New Mexico with the purpose of helping veterans reintegrate back into society.

Staff Sergeant Dustin Tucker

Sergeant Tucker served with the Air Force in Afghanistan and Central America aboard an AWAC, helping to keep our skies clear, directing close air support and search and rescue.

 

After being medically discharged for severe injuries suffered in the line of duty, Sergeant Tucker speaks openly and honestly about what it is like to cast aside by the military before you are ready, the emotional hurdles to overcome from those feelings, and the power that telling his story had on helping to where he is now.

Major(R) Ronald Glass

 In 1967, Major Glass joined the Army as an enlisted man, serving  with the 175th Radio Research as an intelligence analyst in Vietnam  during the 1968 Tet Offensive.  After his enlisted tour, in 1969 he enrolled in Army Flight School and returned to Vietnam In 1970 as a Warrant Officer flying UH-1D Huey lift ships with the Apache Troop 1/9 Cav Squadron “HeadHunters”.  His time there would see him take part in the Cambodia incursion, to include being  shot down in hostile territory.  Among various awards received for heroism in aerial flight, he is the recipient of two Distinguished Flying Crosses (DFCs) and Purple Heart. After Vietnam, Glass attended OCS and became an Armor/Aviation Officer, eventually retiring in 1990 as a Major. In his 23 year career, he served as a Huey pilot in Panama, Cav unit commander in Germany, and as a Military Attaché to Honduras during the Central American conflict.

After retiring in 1990, Major Glass, embarked on a second career with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). With USAID, he worked as a diplomat and Senior Democratic Governance and Conflict Management and Mitigation Advisor  managing international development programs in areas  of democratic governance strengthening, rule-of-law/anti-corruption, human rights, and countering violent extremism and anti-insurgency. With USAID, he served in Honduras, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Nepal, Afghanistan, Russia, and Azerbaijan. 

It was our very great pleasure to speak with Major Glass and hope you enjoy the episode.