Batting the Breeze

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29/30 April 1975 - Vietnam War: The fall of Saigon - 50 years ago today

How would you react if you had commandeered a Chinook helicopter and were flying over the South China Sea with little fuel, nowhere to land, your wife and children were on board and you're being hounded by North Vietnamese determined to bring you down?

That's the situation that confronted Ba Van Nguyen in the last 24 hours of the fall of Saigon on 29 April 1975. Ba's son Miki was in that Chinook and talks with great passion, humour and humility about that unforgettable day and his extraordinary father.

Show notes: https://www.battingthebreeze.com/ba-van-nguyen-the-last-flight-out

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What does an astronaut fear most? Believe it or not, it’s not dying. What tricks do you play on yourself to get to sleep the night before lift-off? What do you feel when you are standing in front of 180 feet of rocket which is about to propel you into space?  Why would you eat at least one meal on the ceiling of the space shuttle each mission?

Jim Wetherbee is one of NASA’s most distinguished servants. During his 20-year career at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Jim successfully completed six space shuttle missions. He is the only astronaut to have commanded five missions and to have piloted five space shuttle landings.

Today marks the 35th anniversary of Jim's first trip into space, 9th January 1990.  I was keen to talk about that first flight into space on the orbiter Columbia. I wanted to hear about the marvel of being launched into the ether with 7 million pounds of thrust under your seat, of seeing space, of experiencing weightlessness and all those other firsts that came with the trip.

 It's a poignant detail that the first space shuttle disaster in 1986,  Challenger,  occurred just after Jim had joined NASA, and that his sixth and last space shuttle flight was the one that preceded the second and final space shuttle disaster, Columbia, in 2003.  Jim talks candidly about his role in the aftermath of Columbia.

Show Notes: https://www.battingthebreeze.com/jim-wetherbee-beyond-gravity

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Your son has a life expectancy in the 20’s. What are you going to do about it?

Today’s guest is the embodiment of triumph over adversity, as are her family. Emma Hallam’s life is marked by extraordinary resilience in the face of overwhelming personal loss, culminating in the diagnosis of her son Alex with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.  Duchenne is a life-limiting, aggressive form of progressive muscle weakness. I’ll leave Emma to clarify exactly what that means for Alex and the family.

But, as alarming as the prognosis proves to be, this is not a story of hopelessness and self-pity. On the contrary, it’s a candid story of how to turn whatever life throws at you into a force for good. For Emma, that meant channelling her energy into creating the charity Alex's Wish, aimed at funding research and raising awareness for this muscle-wasting disease.

Show Notes: https://www.battingthebreeze.com/alexs-wish-for-duchenne/

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If I suggested that you spend nine months away from home and family and sail 32,000 miles around the world the hard way around (ie against prevailing winds and currents), what would you say? And suppose I then told you that eight of your crew had never sailed before and, by the way, Hurricane Michael would be waiting to greet you?

Well, that’s what happened to adventurer, author and - to some - mad person Manley Hopkinson.  As one of the skippers in the 2000-01 BT Global Challenge, the world’s toughest yacht race, Manley guided his 40-ton 72-foot steel cutter and a part-trained but very spirited Team Large through storms, doldrums and everything in between.  They took everything in their stride until they came face-to-face with Hurricane Michael, an event that would test Manley’s sailing expertise and leadership skills to the limit.

Show notes: https://www.battingthebreeze.com/hurricane-michael-and-the-compassionate-captain

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In 1993, Chris Moon MBE was taken prisoner while clearing landmines in Cambodia by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, the most feared and brutal regime in the country's history. No Western prisoner had ever survived.  Chris managed to keep his emotions in check and used his early-life farming experiences, army training and plenty of guile to attempt to take control of a situation that was stacked heavily against him and his team. After trekking through the stifling, malaria-infested Cambodian forest for two days, the outlook was not good; the Khmer Rouge commander was planning to shoot the prisoners and burn the vehicles. But then... Chris encountered Mr Clever.

Show notes: https://www.battingthebreeze.com/the-khmer-rouge-mr-clever-and-me/

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If you ever seriously considered a career as a TV Anchor, you had better listen to this episode first. Elizabeth Pearson Garr has been there.  After growing up at Stanford and studying at Harvard, she ventured out to the wilds of Billings, Montana to become a TV anchor for KULR-8, an NBC affiliate.  Within a few hours of her first day, the noon anchor went off sick and Elizabeth was reading the news - for the first time!  Spoiler alert: it didn’t all go to plan.  Listen in to a hilarious day in the life of a local TV Anchor - more clamour than glamour.

Show Notes: https://www.battingthebreeze.com/the-good-the-bad-and-the-tv-anchor

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 WARNING: Today’s episode contains adult themes, specifically sex trafficking and human trafficking, so please take that into account.
 
 Amanda Blackwood is a gem.  She’s fun. She’s full of life. She’s also a survivor of human trafficking. Amanda engages in a raw and intimate conversation about her experiences of forced drug prescriptions as a child, subsequent sexual abuse by strangers and relatives, and repeated trafficking by men she thought she could trust.
 
 Amanda talks about her multiple escapes and discusses how she successfully turned her life around to find happiness and dedicate her life to raising awareness about human trafficking and helping others recover.

Show notes:   https://www.battingthebreeze.com/inhuman-trafficking

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In 1958, Sir Patrick Hine was part of a team of elite RAF pilots, the Black Arrows, who broke the world record for an aerobatic display manoeuvre that has never been equalled - and might never be.  The Black Arrows performed a 22-plane loop twice in front of a euphoric Farnborough Air Show crowd.  Sir Patrick later became Air Chief Marshal of the RAF and Joint Command of the British Forces in the 1990 Gulf War, but looks back at that 1958 feat with great pride and considers it one of his proudest career moments.

Head over to https://www.battingthebreeze.com/twenty-two-black-arrows to see actual footage of the 1958 world record-breaking 22-plane loop by the Black Arrows!

All audio extracts of the Black Arrows Hawker Hunters in the episode are from a live recording captured in a wonderful film named "The Story of the Black Arrows" provided courtesy of Ian Stark at VIT Media.

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The America's Cup - the pinnacle of professional sailing and one of the oldest and most prestigious trophies in international sport. The 2003 America's Cup: 10 teams, 1 winner. What was it like to be a competitor in one of these elite teams? Simon Fry has experienced the thrills and spills, the highs, the lows, the fierce rivalries and the extreme physical demands of the sport first-hand.  Originating in1851, when the schooner "America" triumphed in a race around the Isle of Wight, the America's Cup has since become a symbol of sporting excellence and innovation.  Its enduring legacy lies in its ability to capture the imagination of sailors, spectators and investors. Simon talks with passion about the America's Cup's rich history and his part in it.

Show Notes: https://www.battingthebreeze.com/battling-the-breeze-in-the-2003-americas-cup

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Do you pride yourself on your infallible memory? Well think again. Memories about ourselves and the events of our lives are nurtured by our Autobiographic Memory and, shockingly, it turns out that it is unreliable by design. Our story centres on Brian Williams, America's one-time No. 1 news anchor.  He reported from the front line in 2003 at the start of the Iraq War when the Americans were hunting down weapons of mass destruction.  He braved Chinook helicopter missions within firing distance of enemy lines and returned to America a hero.

Twelve years later, it all came crashing down.  We find out why with some help from Dr Andrew Dunn, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Nottingham Trent University,  with specific research interests in perception, developmental psychology and memory.   We discover what really happened to Brian Williams and reveal the wonder of Autobiographic Memory, its fallibility and its role in helping us to flourish as social animals.

Show Notes: https://www.battingthebreeze.com/grounded-by-an-autobiographic-memory

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