Ask A Vet Podcast

In Episode 45 of Ask A Vet, we sit down with Aaron Hinds, a Georgia kid who turned down a Navy SEAL contract and a nuclear program to do the one thing he'd wanted since he was fourteen: be an infantryman.

Aaron takes us from Sand Hill at Fort Benning to the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, through brutal pre-deployment "tryouts" where only two dozen men made the cut, and into Afghanistan's fighting season at FOB Shank, better known as Rocket City. He shares what it's really like the first time rounds snap over your head, the frustrating reality of rules of engagement, the 45-minute firefight that made it into Ricky Schroder's docuseries "The Fighting Season," and the unforgettable Special Forces soldier in a Captain America t-shirt.

But the heart of this episode is what came after. Aaron opens up about losing more friends at home than he did overseas, finding a therapist through the nonprofit HickStrong, getting his service dog Ace through Healing for Heroes, and learning that the same mind that survived a war can be pointed at helping people. As Aaron puts it: "I can do great things and I can do terrible things…and I have to decide which one I'm gonna let control my actions."

If you're a veteran who's struggling, you are not alone. Reach out to the resources below or dial 988 and press 1 for the Veterans Crisis Line.

🎖️ Resources mentioned in this episode: 

• HickStrong (free therapy for veterans & first responders): https://www.hicksstrong.org/

• Healing for Heroes (service dogs for veterans): https://www.healing4heroes.org/

• Veterans Crisis Line: Dial 988, then press 1

“The Fighting Season” (2015): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4006826

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🎧 Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and everywhere you listen.

CHAPTERS 

00:33 – Growing up in Stapleton, Georgia 

03:11 – Turning down a SEAL contract to join the infantry 

06:05 – Fort Benning: Drill sergeants, weather machines & "Chuck Norris" 

15:10 – Fort Drum & the 10th Mountain Division 

19:18 – Training to fight: glass houses & complex simplicity 

21:30 – Tryouts: competing for a slot to deploy 

27:03 – Shipping out: Ireland, Romania & landing at Bagram 

29:23 – FOB Shank, a.k.a. Rocket City 

36:46 – Rules of Engagement

39:22 – Fighting Season 

51:00 – The 45-minute firefight & the B-1 show of force 

1:02:04 – The A-10 pilot with the angelic voice 

1:04:37 – Pitch Perfect, surf & turf Fridays and badminton diplomacy 

1:12:01 – The frustration of ROE 

1:14:34 – Coming home 

1:31:51 – Therapy, HickStrong & a service dog named Ace 

1:43:17 – Final Thoughts & Reflections 

#AskAVet #Veterans #Afghanistan #10thMountain #Infantry #VeteranStories #MilitaryPodcast

Stephan Wolfert enlisted as a medic in 1986, became an infantry officer, trained for elite special operations, and was on a fast track to a full military career…until two devastating losses in the same year broke something in him. A chance encounter with Shakespeare's Richard III in a small Montana theater changed the course of his life forever.

Today, Stephan is a licensed psychotherapist, Shakespeare actor, and founder of De-Cruit, a groundbreaking program using Shakespeare's verse to help military veterans heal from PTSD and trauma. With over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles backing his work, what started as one veteran's personal catharsis has helped thousands find language for the unspeakable.In this episode, Stephan talks candidly about growing up on the rough north side of La Crosse, Wisconsin, fleeing to the Army as his only way out, the rapid rise through elite military training, the grief that broke him, and why he believes we recruit soldiers but never truly "decruit" them — and what that costs all of us.

🔗 Learn more about De-Cruit: www.decruit.org

CHAPTERS:

3:02 – Why He Joined the Army

5:45 – Becoming a Combat Medic

7:06 – Basic Training & What Surprised Him

12:40 – Advanced Training & Becoming an Officer

18:05 – Iran-Contra, Central America & Shifting Beliefs

22:55 – Getting His History Degree & Turning Down Regular Army

28:47 – JRTC & National Training Center: Elite Field Training

34:33 – Ranger School & What Almost Ended It

37:42 – The Arctic Training Story (A Favorite Army Memory)

42:53 – The Losses That Broke Him: Deaths in Training & a Soldier's Suicide

49:49 – Going AWOL: A PTSD Episode on an Amtrak Train

54:14 – Whitefish, Montana & a Shakespeare Play That Changed Everything

58:31 – Turning Down the Military for Good

1:02:12 – Ranger School: The Concussion That Cost Him the Tab

1:13:19 – Graduate School & the Birth of Cry Havoc

1:16:36 – Creating DeCruit: Shakespeare as Medicine for Veterans

1:29:02 – The Research: What the Data Actually Shows

1:37:43 – Veterans, Childhood Trauma & ACE Scores

1:46:44 – How to Find DeCruit & What's Coming Next

1:48:35 – The Real Cost of War & What We Choose Not to Fix

1:55:34 – Final Thoughts & Reflections

If you or a Veteran you know has a story that should be heard, we'd love to hear from you at [email protected].

In EP 43 of Ask a Vet, Ron Holdaway shares a remarkable journey from growing up in Wyoming to serving as a senior Army lawyer involved in historic cases during Vietnam and beyond. Discover his perspectives on military justice, the Vietnam War, and the lessons learned from a lifetime of service.

CHAPTERS:

01:00 - Growing up in Wyoming & becoming a lawyer

02:37 - ROTC, JAG Corps & early military career

07:21 - First assignments & court-martial work

12:04 - Postings in Hawaii, Germany & Vietnam

14:39 - First war crime case & combat refusals

16:10 - Deployment to Vietnam

21:36 - Arrival & life in Vietnam

27:15 - Living under fire & shrapnel injuries

31:00 - Soldier shoots fellow soldier on drugs

33:01 - The 1st Cavalry Division

36:20 - War crimes, mutilation & drug enforcement

43:53 - The Mealy incident

45:07 - Lieutenant Calley's court-martial & media fallout

48:18 - Leaving Vietnam & anti-war sentiment back home

51:33 - Pentagon, Europe & promotion to Colonel

59:38 - Chief Judge & career reflections

63:43 - Final thoughts on Vietnam & life lessons

🎖️ Ask A Vet is dedicated to documenting and preserving veterans' stories in their own words, on their own terms, before their stories are gone forever. If you believe these stories matter, please subscribe, like, comment, and share. Your support helps us preserve the voices of those who served.

✈️ Ask A Vet is proud to partner with Utah Honor Flight — giving veterans a free trip to Washington D.C. to visit the memorials built in their honor. Every flight is free to veterans and made possible by generous donors. Learn more or support the mission at utahonorflight.org or find your local hub at honorflight.org.

In Episode 42 of Ask a Vet, we sit down with Navy veteran Tom Hopkins: a man who spent 20 years chasing submarines across the Pacific, Atlantic, and Mediterranean, surviving fire control lock-ons off the coast of China, harrowing carrier landings, cold catapult shots, and engine failures that nearly put him in the water. And somehow, he never stopped loving every minute of it.

Tom grew up in Salida, Kansas, the son of an Air Force bomber pilot who flew unarmed DC-3s over the Himalayas in WWII — and who died in a B-47 crash when Tom was just 12. That loss shaped everything that came after: the draft, the Navy, the jets, the submarines, and the psychological reckoning in his final year of service that taught him PTSD is very, very real.

From the flight line at Kingsville, Texas to carrier operations on the USS Ticonderoga and USS Kennedy, from S-2 Trackers to computerized S-3 Vikings, from a night aboard the USS Sabalo diesel submarine to Civil Air Patrol missions near Hill Air Force Base — this is a story of service, sacrifice, and a lifelong love of flight.

In Episode 41 of Ask a Vet, we sit down with Walter Cox, Vietnam-era Army warrant officer, helicopter pilot, and Price, Utah native.

Walter flew both Cobra gunships and Huey slicks with the 7th/17th Air Cavalry and Alpha 2/27 at Camp Holloway in Pleiku, South Vietnam. He walks us through what it was like to learn to fly in the tiny TH-55 trainer, transition to the sleek and lethal AH-1 Cobra, and ultimately find his calling in the Huey — hauling troops, supplies, and ARVN advisors across the Central Highlands. He recalls his first time being fired upon, the B-40 rockets that barely missed his crew, a bullet hole discovered in his rotor head days after a mission, and the devastating loss of fellow pilots that still stays with him.

Walter is also open about the silence he kept for decades after coming home — the airport with no welcome, the PTSD he still navigates, and the memories he's had to push down just to get through. This episode is a remarkable window into the everyday heroism of a generation of veterans who served quietly and came home to even quieter streets.

🎙️ Ask a Vet is a podcast dedicated to honoring and preserving the stories of veterans.

What does it take to fly the Army's heaviest helicopter, a 72-foot rotor-span Skycrane, into one of the most dangerous combat missions of the Vietnam War? Jim Oliphant knows firsthand.

Jim grew up in San Diego, got drafted four times while studying architecture, and ended up becoming one of the Army's elite CH-54 Flying Crane pilots. In this episode, he takes us from boot camp at Fort Bliss to flight school in Texas, all the way to a classified mission on a mountain pinnacle overlooking the Ho Chi Minh Trail- a mission they never even told him the real purpose of until it was over.

Jim shares the near-disasters, the ingenuity under pressure, and the surprising moments of humor and humanity that made his year in Vietnam unforgettable, including a hamburger stand on a Vietnamese island, barbecue with steak and lobster, and what it felt like to command the Joint Chiefs of Staff during a NATO exercise on his last day in the Army.

🎙️ Ask A Vet is a podcast dedicated to honoring the stories of Veterans — told in their own words.

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Like and share if this story moved you.

She was 21 years old, a Johns Hopkins-trained nurse, and she had no idea what was about to walk off that plane. In Episode 39 of Ask A Vet, we sit down with Deanna Halterman Savage — Air Force flight nurse, Vietnam-era veteran, and one of the most remarkable women you'll ever hear from. Deanna flew medevac missions out of Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, transporting wounded soldiers from the battlefields of Vietnam back to the United States. Two nurses. Two corpsmen. No doctors. Dozens of critically wounded men, many of them teenagers.

She talks about the moment 35 young amputees stepped off a plane and changed everything she thought she knew about nursing. About flying through the night with burn patients whose dressings dried at altitude. About bringing boys home to a country that didn't want to acknowledge them. And about carrying all of it quietly for decades…until she couldn't anymore.

This is a story about service, sacrifice, and what it really costs to care.

🎙️ Subscribe so you never miss an episode of Ask A Vet.

Richard Colborn was 18 years old when the Air Force made him a shift supervisor in a classified military communications center in the middle of the Korean War.

Born in 1933 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, Richard joined the Air Force in 1951 with no expectation of ending up in a war zone. He ended up at Kimpo Air Base, just 20 miles outside a bombed-out Seoul, running teletype operations that sent classified messages across the globe, six hours on and twelve hours off, seven days a week. In this episode, he opens up about what Korea actually looked, sounded, and felt like from the inside — the distant flash of artillery visible from the base, the North Korean planes dropping grenades from above like a nuisance rather than a threat, hitchhiking through a live war zone on his time off to visit a cousin, and the Korean houseboy named Lee whose family living in a lean-to against a bombed-out factory wall quietly showed Richard what the war was really doing to an entire people.

After Korea, Richard's story keeps going: Andrews Air Force Base, a transfer to French Morocco that his base doctor essentially prescribed, R&R in Rome and Madrid, and a post-military career with Westinghouse Electric that took him to Istanbul, Cairo, Chicago, and beyond.

CHAPTERS

01:45  Growing Up in Rural Pennsylvania and the Decision to Enlist

03:30  Joining the Air Force in 1951 

04:45  Boot Camp & Leadership

06:00  Shipping Out: California to Seattle to Yokohama by Boat

08:30  Landing in Korea — A Bombed-Out Seoul at Night

10:00  Life at Kimpo Air Base: Huts, Pot-Bellied Stoves, and F-86s

11:30  Running a Classified Comm Center at 18 Years Old

13:30  The "Bombing" That Wasn't — North Korean Piper Cubs and Grenade Runs

15:00  The Korean Houseboy Named Lee — The Human Side of the War

17:30  Hitchhiking Through a War Zone to Visit His Cousin

19:30  R&R in Tokyo: Elevated Trains and Chicken

21:00  Watching the Armistice Negotiations from the Base

22:30  Coming Home Under the Bay Bridge Into San Francisco

24:00  Andrews Air Force Base and Two Promotions

26:00  A Doctor's Prescription: "You Need a Change of Venue"

27:30  French Morocco: Bombers, Tangier, and R&R in Rome and Madrid

30:30  Discharge in New York and Back to Civilian Life

31:30  Indiana Tech, Electrical Engineering, and Westinghouse Electric

34:00  A Career That Took Him to Turkey, Cairo, Chicago, and Beyond

38:00  Cairo, His Wife, and the Telegram That Changed Everything

39:30  What Korea Taught Him ─────────────────────────────────────────

🎖️ Ask A Vet is dedicated to documenting and preserving veterans' stories in their own words, on their own terms, before their stories are gone forever. If you believe these stories matter, please subscribe, like, comment, and share. Your support helps us preserve the voices of those who served.

✈️ Ask A Vet is proud to partner with Utah Honor Flight — giving veterans a free trip to Washington D.C. to visit the memorials built in their honor. Every flight is free to veterans and made possible by generous donors. Learn more or support the mission at utahonorflight.org or find your local hub at honorflight.org.

💼 If you or someone you know isn't getting the VA benefits you've earned, click the link in our description. We've teamed up with a group of experts that help veterans build stronger VA claims and get the benefits they deserve. Click the link for a free consultation: https://crm.zoho.com/bookings/YourFreeConsultationwithAskaVetMedGroup?rid=e9b38e78cb91065c1fe320a7ded78fbd8bba8f49d0461551777fc2994529c25a57fa5b8c5b5a0967c3c2b0d295b2b223gid8b25e599eed0bfe92c1438b980632c02b6ed9488ec5e11f8c6677be7ffc43cec

Disclosure: This is a referral partnership with American Medical Experts. We may receive compensation if you book through our link.

Paul Huber grew up in Mesa, Arizona, the son of an Army Air Corps officer, and went on to fly 220 combat missions in an F-4 Phantom during the Vietnam War. In this episode of Ask A Vet, Paul takes us inside the cockpit — from jungle survival school in the Philippines, to night bombing runs over the DMZ, to the morning in March 1968 when his aircraft was hit over Laos and he had to eject into the jungle.

Paul shares what it was really like to fly one of the most iconic aircraft of the Vietnam era, what he was thinking as he floated down through the jungle canopy, and how he called his wife from a command post phone just hours after being shot down. He also reflects on his post-Vietnam career as an instructor pilot, his time flying F-111s in England during the Cold War, and what 23 years of service ultimately taught him about America.Subscribe so you never miss an episode.

⏱️ EPISODE CHAPTERS

1:30 – Growing up in Arizona & deciding to fly

4:00 – ROTC, Arizona State & getting commissioned

6:30 – F-4 Phantom training

11:00 – Jungle survival school in the Philippines

14:00 – Arriving at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam

17:30 – Night bombing missions over the DMZ

22:00 – What it was like to drop napalm and fly close air support

27:00 – Getting shot down over Laos

33:00 – The ejection, the jungle, and the rescue

39:00 – Calling his wife hours after being shot down

42:00 – R&R in Hawaii with his family

46:00 – Returning to fly after being shot down

48:30 – Distinguished Flying Cross & 220 combat missions

52:00 – Life as an instructor pilot in Texas

58:00 – Flying F-111s in England during the Cold War

1:13:00 – The meaconing incident: nearly lured into East Germany

1:16:00 – Final years, ROTC command at Utah State & retirement

1:26:00 – Reflections on Vietnam and what service meant

If you or a Veteran you know has a story that should be heard, we'd love to hear from you at [email protected].

🎖️ Curious Humanography is proud to partner with Utah Honor Flight, helping veterans visit memorials built in their honor. To learn more or support their mission, visit UtahHonorFlight.org and honorflight.org.If this story moved you, please consider liking, commenting, and subscribing — it helps us continue sharing stories that deserve to be heard.

Dick Van Allen dreamed of flying from the moment a B-24 roared over his small Ohio town when he was seven years old. What followed was a lifetime of aviation:  from propeller trainers in Georgia to jet fighters in Alabama, from combat rescue helicopters over Vietnam to a dam disaster in Idaho. In this episode, Dick takes us through it all: the engine failures in training, arriving in Vietnam to discover he was the only pilot on his base, flying 300+ days of combat, nearly being hit by falling flare parachutes while hovering over a crash in the dark, and the civilian rescues that gave him just as much satisfaction as the military ones.

Dick served in the United States Air Force, flying multiple tours in Vietnam with the 20th Special Operations Squadron — the Green Hornets — and later as a combat rescue pilot flying on three-minute alert. He logged over 6,500 hours in the Huey alone and performed roughly 75 civilian rescues after his military career, including responding to the collapse of Teton Dam.

If this episode moved you, please subscribe, leave a comment, and share it with someone who should hear this story.

CHAPTERS:

0:01:30 – Growing Up in Willard, Ohio: A Seven-Year-Old Decides to Fly

0:11:00 – Propeller Training, the T-28, and Engine Failures Over the Okefenokee

0:17:00 – First Jet Flight — Five Minutes of Pure Chaos

0:22:00 – Formation Flying, G-Force Blackouts, and Close Calls

0:29:00 – Choosing Helicopters Over the B-47 Back Seat

0:36:00 – Helicopter School: Igor Sikorsky Said We Were Crazy

0:41:00 – The Huey, SAC, and Moving Seven Times in Seven Years

0:44:00 – Volunteering for Vietnam: The 20th SOS Green Hornets (1966)

0:47:00 – Jungle Survival School and Arriving at Cam Ranh Bay

0:53:00 – General Ryan and the Island Assignment

0:57:00 – First Mission: Finding a Downed F-4 by a Dead Tree

1:03:00 – Arriving at Takhli: The Only Pilot on the Base

1:08:00 – Drying the Softball Field and Other Unusual Missions

1:12:00 – Supporting President Johnson in Bangkok

1:17:00 – Back to Shepherd: Training the F Troop Gunship Crews

1:20:00 – Second Tour: Return to Thailand, Evacuation Planning That Never Started

1:24:00 – The Scariest Night: C-141 Crash, Hovering in Jet Fuel and Falling Flares

1:29:00 – Flying Asleep: Eight Scrambles in One Night

1:35:00 – Combat Rescues, Hot LZs, and Fake Beacons

1:41:00 – MAST Unit at Hill AFB and the Teton Dam Disaster

1:50:00 – 19 Years of Helicopter Flying: What It All Meant

1:53:00 – Closing Thoughts & Reflections 

────────────────────────────

🎙️ Ask A Vet is dedicated to documenting and preserving veterans' stories in their own words, on their own terms, before their stories are gone forever.

🤝 Ask A Vet is proud to partner with Utah Honor Flight — part of the National Honor Flight Network — giving veterans a free trip to Washington D.C. to visit the memorials built in their honor. Learn more or donate: utahonorflight.org

📋 Not getting the VA benefits you've earned? Click the link below — we've partnered with experts who help veterans build stronger claims and get the benefits they deserve. Free consultation: https://crm.zoho.com/bookings/YourFreeConsultationwithAskaVetMedGroup?rid=e9b38e78cb91065c1fe320a7ded78fbd8bba8f49d0461551777fc2994529c25a57fa5b8c5b5a0967c3c2b0d295b2b223gid8b25e599eed0bfe92c1438b980632c02b6ed9488ec5e11f8c6677be7ffc43cec

Disclosure: This is a referral partnership with American Medical Experts. We may receive compensation if you book through our link.

📲 Subscribe | Like | Comment | Share — Your support helps us preserve the voices of those who served.

#AskAVet #VietnamVeteran #MilitaryPodcast #CombatRescue #HelicopterPilot #VietnamWar #VeteranStories #HonorFlight #UtahHonorFlight