Ask A Vet Podcast

From Florida kid to Desert Storm MP, Jesse Clifton's story is one of quiet duty, unshakable instinct, and a lifetime spent protecting others. In this episode of Ask A Vet, Jesse walks us through joining the Army as a Military Policeman, deploying to the Philippines in 1986, keeping the peace after Hurricane Hugo, conducting secretive security operations in Honduras, and finally heading to Saudi Arabia for Desert Shield and Desert Storm — where he manned an M60 from a Humvee turret, managed dozens of Iraqi POWs solo, and came within inches of an international incident at a desert checkpoint.

After coming home, Jesse faced the quieter battles: a son who didn't recognize him, fellow veterans losing businesses and families, and the long shadow of invisible wounds. He eventually channeled every one of those experiences into a career in home health care — now spending his days listening to and advocating for aging veterans who need someone in their corner.

This is an honest, unfiltered conversation about service, sacrifice, and what it really means to "protect and serve."

EPISODE CHAPTERS:

01:45 – Growing Up in a Service Family & Deciding to Enlist

04:30 – Basic Training at Fort McClellan, Alabama

08:00 – MOS School & Becoming a Military Policeman

10:00 – Deployment to the Philippines (1986) | Guard Duty & Special Reactions Team

15:00 – Hurricane Hugo Disaster Relief | Charlotte, NC

17:30 – Border Operations in California | Watching, Not Acting

19:00 – Honduras | Security for Special Operations

20:30 – Desert Shield / Desert Storm | Arriving in Saudi Arabia

25:00 – MREs, Food in the Desert & Keeping Morale Up

28:00 – Crossing Into Combat | Convoy Escort & Manning the M60

30:00 – Managing Iraqi POWs | Compassion Under Pressure

33:00 – The Checkpoint Incident That Almost Became International

35:00 – Sandstorms, Scorpion Wars & Surviving the Monotony

37:30 – The Hardest Part: Coming Home

43:30 – Reflections on Service & Advice for Veterans

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

👉 If you’re a Veteran struggling with VA benefits, click this link to schedule 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.

What does it really cost to serve? In this episode of Ask A Vet, we sit down with Patrick Dillon — a Hell's Kitchen-born, Irish-immigrant-raised combat medic who volunteered for the U.S. Army the day after his draft number was called. What followed was a lifetime defined by war, service, survival, and an unrelenting drive to help others.

Patrick shares the raw, unfiltered story of serving as a 91B Combat Medic with the 498th Army Air Force: flying surgical C-130 missions to recover the wounded as the Vietnam Peace Treaty was being signed, performing emergency C-sections in the jungle, carrying out acts of mercy no one talks about, and coming home to rejection, shame, and silence. His story doesn't end in Vietnam. It continues through the Irish Troubles, the Peace Corps in Southeast Asia, the crack baby crisis in Harlem, Somalia, Kosovo, Ground Zero on 9/11, Iraq before the bombs fell, Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti earthquake, and COVID-19.

Patrick is also an artist, screenwriter, and filmmaker whose work has been shaped, and sometimes defined, by everything he witnessed. 

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.

👉 If you’re a Veteran struggling with VA benefits, click this link to schedule 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.

✈️ 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. To learn more or donate, visit utahonorflight.org or find your local hub at honorflight.org.

EPISODE CHAPTERS:

00:52 – Growing Up in Hell's Kitchen

09:00 – The Draft Lottery Night 

14:00 – Volunteering & Becoming a Combat Medic 

19:30 – Arriving in Okinawa: Stump Duty 

22:00 – Flying Surgical Missions Over Vietnam 

28:00 – Coming Home: San Francisco Airport 

35:00 – The Peace Corps & Saigon Falling 

43:00 – Somalia, Kosovo & Haiti 

01:08:00 – Hitting Rock Bottom & Getting Sober 

01:14:00 – The Babies of Harlem Hospital 

01:40:00 – PTSD, Art & Finding a Reason to Stay

Paul Colliton grew up on Long Island in a military family, named after a B-24 bomber pilot who never came home. He was drinking since age six, working on Wall Street at 18, and heading to Harlem for drugs by noon. Then the draft letter arrived.

In this episode of Ask A Vet, Paul shares what it was really like to become a Military Police officer in Vietnam in 1971. From being pulled out of basic training and told he had the highest IQ on base, to patrolling the city of Hue at 19 years old with zero instructions, to coming face to face with 15 enemy soldiers at twilight and choosing not to fire. He talks openly about heroin addiction in-country, racial tension on base, the 15-year-old Vietnamese girl he couldn't save, a gut-wrenching Dear John letter, and hitchhiking home from JFK in his dress greens after being spit on.

But Paul's story doesn't end in Vietnam. It winds through a near-jump from a 31st-floor balcony, 39 years of sobriety, a chance encounter with Muhammad Ali, and the adoption of his autistic son Billy. 

EPISODE CHAPTERS:

01:45 Paul's Background & Getting Drafted

09:00 Basic Training, MP School & Heading to Vietnam

19:00 The Flight Over: Engine Falls Off Over Alaska

21:00 Arriving In-Country: Cameron Bay, Da Nang & Hue

27:30 Life on Patrol: Drugs, Racial Tension & the Enemy Up Close

35:00 The Hardest Moment of the War

49:30 Refusing an Order, Getting Busted & Coming Home

1:01:00 The Welcome Home: JFK Airport & a Punch in the Face

1:05:00 Europe & Building a Photography Career

1:29:00 Rehab, AA & Starting Over at 36

1:37:00 Photographing Muhammad Ali & a Moment They Both Cried

1:47:00 Adopting Billy

2:18:30 Final Reflections: What Vietnam Made 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.

👉 If you’re a Veteran struggling with VA benefits, click this link to schedule 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.

✈️ 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. To learn more or donate, visit utahonorflight.org or find your local hub at honorflight.org.

In this episode of Ask A Vet, we sit down with Dwight Moss, a Marine veteran who joined at 19, served in Vietnam in 1966, and survived what most men didn't. From watching his buddy get shot in a rice paddy, to nearly drowning on a river crossing, to stepping on a Bouncing Betty landmine that cut him from ankle to chest — Dwight's story is as raw and honest as they come. He also shares a remarkable out-of-body experience during a near-fatal bout of malaria, and what that moment meant for his faith, his life, and how he sees death itself.

Now 80 years old, VFW Chaplain, Ironman-distance athlete, and soon-to-be published author, Dwight reflects on survival, forgiveness, and what he believes he owes to the men who didn't come home.

EPISODE CHAPTERS

2:00 — Dwight's Background: Born in Murphy, NC / Joining the Marines at 19

7:00 — Leaving for Vietnam

9:00 — Arriving in Da Nang, 1966

11:00 — Life on Outpost: Sea Rations, Tony Vargas & Surviving Together

24:00 — Near-Death #1: Almost Drowning in a River

27:00 — The DMZ Mission: Every Man Dead

31:00 — Breaking Down with Malaria (106.2 Fever)

35:00 — Near-Death #2 & #3: Losing Vision + Leaving His Body

39:00 — Stepping on the Bouncing Betty Landmine

43:00 —Staying Calm While Bleeding Out

46:00 — Officers Sent to His Mom's House Before They Knew He'd Survive

48:00 — Helicoptered to Da Nang / The Flight Home Through the Philippines & Alaska

51:00 — Recovery: Botched Skin Grafts, Nerve Damage & Learning to Walk Again

54:00 — Swimming Back to Life: Ironman Distances After a Landmine

59:00 — Heart Issues at 80 / "Do What You Can Do Today"

1:02:00 — Dealing With the Trauma of What He Saw

1:04:00 — Becoming VFW Chaplain / Unconditional Forgiveness

1:07:00 — The Honor Flight to Washington D.C.

1:10:00 — Take Away From VietnamAsk A Vet is dedicated to documenting and preserving veterans' stories — in their own words, on their own terms, before their stories are gone forever.

#AskAVet #VietnamVeteran #MarineCorps #LandmineSurvivor #VeteranStories #PTSD #HonorFlight #MilitaryPodcast #VietnamWar #BountyBetty

Butch Underwood was just 17 years old when he enlisted in the U.S. Army and volunteered to serve as a tank driver in Vietnam.In this unfiltered conversation, Butch shares what it was really like fighting in one of the most dangerous roles in the war—riding inside a 52-ton tank through jungles, minefields, and ambushes. From his very first firefight to being wounded in combat, his story reveals the harsh realities young soldiers faced daily.

But the war didn’t end when he came home. Butch opens up about PTSD, opioid addiction, and the long road to recovery—losing friends, family struggles, and ultimately finding peace later in life. His story is one of survival, accountability, and redemption.If you believe these stories matter, please like, subscribe, and share to help preserve the voices of those who served.

👉 If you’re a Veteran struggling with VA benefits, click this link in to schedule a free consultation: https://crm.zoho.com/bookings/YourFreeConsultationwithAskaVetMedGroup?rid=e9b38e78cb91065c1fe320a7ded78fbd8bba8f49d0461551777fc2994529c25a57fa5b8c5b5a0967c3c2b0d295b2b223gid8b25e599eed0bfe92c1438b980632c02b6ed9488ec5e11f8c6677be7ffc43cec

⏱️ CHAPTERS:

1:45 – Growing up in poverty & losing his father

4:30 – Enlisting at 17 & choosing tanks

6:00 – Training on the M60 tank

8:00 – Arriving in Vietnam & first impressions

10:30 – First firefight & free fire zone mistake

13:30 – Life on a tank: missions, ambushes, and survival

16:30 – Landmines & the dangers of being a driver

18:30 – Final mission & getting wounded

21:00 – Hospital experience & meeting General Abrams

23:00 – Opioid addiction begins

25:30 – Coming home & silence after the war

27:30 – PTSD, breakdown, and losing control

30:00 – 20+ years of opioid addiction

32:30 – Losing friends to overdoses & quitting cold turkey

34:30 – Divorce, family loss, and personal rock bottom

36:30 – Finding love again & rebuilding life

38:00 – Honor Flight & finally feeling welcomed home

40:00 – Advice for veterans struggling with PTSD & addiction

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 this episode of Ask A Vet, we sit down with Vietnam Veteran Ernest, whose two back-to-back tours as a Huey door gunner took him from avoiding the draft… to becoming the man everyone in his unit depended on.

Ernest shares unbelievable stories: being shot down four times, falling 100 feet from a helicopter into a rice paddy, saving his pilot’s life, living 50 yards from the South China Sea, water-skiing in a war zone, and fighting in some of the most chaotic conditions imaginable.

Ernest’s perspective on service, survival, friendship, and finally being honored decades later on an Honor Flight is something every American needs to hear. If this episode impacted you, please subscribe and help us continue documenting the stories of the heroes who served.

Chapters:

01:10 – Background & Avoiding the Draft

06:30 – Basic Training at Fort Jackson

10:05 – Arriving in Vietnam

12:00 – MOS Changed Overnight After Base Attack

13:35 – Becoming a Door Gunner

16:15 – Building a Hooch by the Sea

18:00 – Water-Skiing in a War Zone

20:25 – Shot Down Multiple Times

23:40 – Saving His Pilot’s Life

27:50 – Missions Across Vietnam

31:00 – Falling Out of a Helicopter

34:45 – First Combat Mission & Melting the Gun

38:00 – Daily Life

45:00 – Re-upping & Serving a Second Tour

48:30 – Coming Home to Hostility

50:20 – The Honor Flight That Finally Healed Something

54:40 – Life After the War & Reflections

In this episode of Ask A Vet, we sit down with Korean War Navy Veteran John Llewellyn, who shares what it was really like serving aboard a destroyer, or what sailors called a “tin can.”From joining the Navy at 18 on a whim… to working deep in the engine room under extreme heat… to surviving typhoons in the Pacific… John gives a raw, honest account of life at sea during the Korean War.

He talks about the moments that shaped him: watching combat from offshore, facing fear and opportunity, turning down life-changing decisions, and ultimately finding purpose after service. This is a story about growth, perspective, and what service truly gives back.If you want to understand what the Korean War was like from someone who lived it, not from a textbook, this is an episode you don’t want to miss.

🇺🇸 Thank you to all Veterans for your service.

Chapters:

02:15 – Growing up in Utah & Joining the Navy

05:30 – Boot Camp Experience (San Diego)

08:00 – Machinist Mate School & First Assignment

10:00 – Getting Assigned to the USS Stembel (“Tin Can”)

12:30 – Life Aboard a Destroyer

15:00 – Journey to the Pacific & First Deployment

18:30 – Escorting Aircraft Carriers (Task Force 77)

21:00 – Close Call: Carrier Plane Crash

23:30 – Patrolling North Korea & Combat Conditions

26:00 – Volunteering for Shore Duty (and Regret)

28:30 – The Day the War Ended

40:00 – Opportunities in the Navy (and Turning Them Down)

44:00 – Life in the Engine Room & Dangerous Conditions

48:00 – Typhoons at Sea + Injuries, Close Calls & Deaths on Board

56:00 – Returning Home & Transition to Civilian Life

59:00 – Career in Law Enforcement

01:02:00 – Final Reflections

In this episode of Ask A Vet, we sit down with Vietnam War Veteran Mike, who shares a raw, unfiltered account of his journey from childhood in Detroit to the front lines of Vietnam.

Mike opens up about volunteering for the draft, enduring brutal training conditions, and the shocking moment when war became real, just days after arriving in-country. As a Pathfinder, he was tasked with some of the most dangerous missions: rescuing downed pilots, navigating hostile terrain, and surviving situations where one mistake could cost lives.

 Chapters

1:15 – Growing up in Detroit & Volunteering for the draft
6:45 – Boot camp & early Army experiences
10:00 – What Vietnam was really like (expectations vs reality)
13:30 – Brutal training at Camp Crockett
18:45 – Becoming a Pathfinder
22:00 – Arrival in Vietnam
26:30 – Life at a Special Forces camp
30:00 – First mission & being left behind
34:30 – Combat realities & dangerous rescues
40:00 – The psychological toll of war
44:30 – Close calls, fear, and survival instincts
48:00 – Malaria, illness, and daily hardships
52:00 – R&R in Hong Kong & going AWOL
56:30 – A shocking incident within his own unit
1:00:00 – Reflections on war and responsibility

What was it really like to be a “Donut Dollie” in Vietnam?In this episode of Ask a Vet, we sit down with Vietnam Red Cross Donut Dollie Diane Thornal to hear her remarkable story serving on the front lines of the Vietnam War.Diane was one of just 627 women who volunteered with the American Red Cross Supplemental Recreation Activities Overseas (SRAO) program. Known affectionately by the troops as “Donut Dollies,” these women traveled by helicopter to remote firebases and combat outposts bringing games, conversation, and a brief reminder of home to soldiers in the middle of war. Diane shares how she volunteered to go to Vietnam at just 22 years old, flew by helicopter to visit units across the country, and even found herself pinned down overnight by an entire North Vietnamese battalion while visiting a firebase in the A Shau Valley. She also tells the unforgettable story of meeting her future husband, Army helicopter pilot Ben Thornal, at Camp Eagle — a wartime romance that began with a can of deodorant and a jar of olives.

For more of Diane and the Donut Dollies' story, watch the documentary:“The Donut Dollies: 627 Women Who Also Served in Vietnam.”

EPISODE CHAPTERS:

01:05 Red Cross Involvement & Discovering the Donut Dollie Program

08:55 Training with the Red Cross in Washington D.C.

11:40 Flying to Vietnam for the first time

16:40 Assigned to Da Nang and the center explosion

18:40 Traveling by helicopter to visit troops

20:10 The games that boosted soldier morale

22:15 Being pinned down by a North Vietnamese battalion

25:20 Visiting wounded soldiers on hospital ships

27:40 Life on bases and interactions with troops

29:45 Meeting helicopter pilot Ben Thornal

34:10 Rocket attacks at Camp Eagle

43:30 R&R trips to Hong Kong and Bangkok

45:30 A wartime proposal sealed with olives

47:40 Coming home early from Vietnam

49:40 Reflecting on the Donut Dollies’ impact

52:20 The Donut Dollies Documentary

54:40 Final reflections on service

If you or someone you know has a story that should be heard, reach out to us at [email protected]

In this episode of Ask a Vet, Dustoff pilot Tom Hall shares the reality of flying medical evacuation missions during the Vietnam War. Tom entered the Army’s helicopter flight program and eventually flew Dustoff missions in the UH-1 Huey, rescuing wounded soldiers under intense enemy fire. In this conversation, he recounts what training was really like, the shocking moment he realized he was headed to Vietnam, and the missions that nearly cost him his life.

From helicopter crashes and night rescue missions to the emotional toll of war, Tom reveals the parts of combat that history books rarely talk about. These are the untold stories of Dustoff pilots in Vietnam, the men who flew straight into danger to save others.

If you enjoy hearing firsthand accounts from veterans, consider subscribing and sharing this episode so these stories are never forgotten. And if you or someone you know has a story that deserves to be heard, reach out to us at [email protected].

Chapters

01:12 Drafted During the Vietnam War

05:10 Basic Training at Fort Polk

09:45 Learning to Fly Army Helicopters

28:30 Preparing to Deploy to Vietnam

33:50 First Days in Vietnam

37:45 First Medevac Mission Shock

45:10 Flying Into Heavy Combat

1:03:30 Night Medevac Hoist Mission Under Fire

1:18:00 Being Shot Down

1:25:30 The Reality of War

1:32:00 Reflections on Service