In 1944, Sgt. Donald D. Fida was tortured and gutted by Japanese solders and left to die in the Philippine jungle, when his childhood friend miraculously came upon him and saved his life.  Because of this experience, Donald survived and continued to fight til the war's end, living to finally tell his tale at age 99.

Twice a Purple Heart recipient, Donald shares his first-person account of his numerous adventures as an Army Scout in the wartime Pacific Theater, describing his combat in the Aleutian Islands, the Marshall Islands (Sitka, Attu), the Philippines (Leyte), and the brutal Battle of Okinawa.

This video is airing posthumously; we salute and honor the spirit of this remarkable yet humble man, and are proud to help his voice reach across time and inspire all of us.


Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Tony Lyons, President and Publisher at Skyhorse Publishing, shares a cautionary tale of encountering both subtle and overt censorship, as he worked to bring Robert Kennedy Jr.'s manuscript The Real Anthony Fauci  to market. Tony describes the systematic hurdles placed in his path to block the book's publication and then discredit it. The book went on to sell over 2 million copies. 

In his book, RFK Jr. - known for his legal advocacy work - challenges "Big Pharma" and Anthony Fauci's role in our modern healthcare system. Tony is joined by RFK Jr.'s research assistant, Sofia Karstens, who also assisted Skyhorse with editing the final manuscript, as they describe their shared experiences.



Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

A living legend of MACV-SOG and the Green Berets, John "Tilt" Stryker Meyer shares some of the most daring first-person stories of combat ever told! Inserted by Kingbee helicopter into the dense jungle along the Ho Chi Minh trail in  Laos and Cambodia during the height of the Vietnam War, Tilt and the US and indigenous members of Strike Force Idaho  deployed on  one impossible  top-secret  mission after another, spying on, harassing  and taking it to the North Vietnamese and Vietcong despite a  casualty rate of over 100%.

Top-secret, all-volunteer SOG teams soon became the bane of the NVA's and Vietcong's existence, and despite overwhelming odds and  sometimes  having to face battalion-size enemy detachments, Tilt describes how these small US-indigenous units bravely soldiered on achieving a combined kill ratio of 158 to 1 – the highest in US military history.

Bravery like that described by Tilt is not only inspiring, it changes the way we perceive the Vietnam War. 


Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

A living legend of MACV-SOG and the Green Berets, John "Tilt" Stryker Meyer shares some of the most daring first-person stories of combat ever told! Inserted by Kingbee helicopter into the dense jungle along the Ho Chi Minh trail in  Laos and Cambodia during the height of the Vietnam War, Tilt and the US and indigenous members of Strike Force Idaho  deployed on  one impossible  top-secret  mission after another, spying on, harassing  and taking it to the North Vietnamese and Vietcong despite a  casualty rate of over 100%.

Top-secret, all-volunteer SOG teams soon became the bane of the NVA's and Vietcong's existence, and despite overwhelming odds and  sometimes  having to face battalion-size enemy detachments, Tilt describes how these small US-indigenous units bravely soldiered on achieving a combined kill ratio of 158 to 1 – the highest in US military history.

Bravery like that described by Tilt is not only inspiring, it changes the way we perceive the Vietnam War.  




Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Kelsi Sheren grew up in rural Canada, joining the Canadian military at 18, where she was trained to fire the powerful M777 howitzer. 

Deployed  to Afghanistan in 2008, Kelsi was assigned to multi-national teams serving alongside British and American soldiers, responsible for searching Afghan women as the team entered villages, a task forbidden to her male comrades in that Muslim country.

On one mission, the dramatic death of a fellow soldier and friend to an IED triggered a very debilitating case of PTSD. Kelsi's harrowing journey of loss and recovery makes up the dramatic spine of her book, Brass & Unity.

In this podcast, Kelsi shares her brave journey and how creativity helped her reclaim her life.



Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Since fleeing Communist Poland and arriving in the USA in 1984, Drago Dzieran has daily pledged to become a better American in gratitude for his life here. He describes growing up in post-war Soviet-controlled Poland, where he and his family knew fear, hunger, and oppression. Jailed for being part of the Soviet-toppling Solidarity movement, he relates what it is like to speak out against censorship and totalitarian rule. He then jumped at the chance to emigrate to the U.S. and live in our free and open society, and in 1991 he both proudly became a citizen and joined the U.S. Navy. During his distinguished career as a SEAL on Teams 2 and 4, he was part of over 100 direct combat missions as a lead breacher in Iraq. This is his amazing story.




Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer: Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Orchestra & Score provided by www.ExtremeMusic.com

Former Head of Detectives of the Compton Police Department turned award-winning writer, Frederick Reynolds tells the story behind his gripping new non-fiction book Saint Bloodbath, about a series of brutal murders that took place in a homeless encampment in Long Beach, California in 2008. Joining Fred are Detective Mark McGuire (LBPD) and Captain Martin Rodriguez (LASD) who both played key roles in solving the unusual, complicated case involving the murky culture of the marginalized, the Nuthood Watts drug gang, multiple police jurisdictions, and a single human hand discovered by a woman riding her horse in the desert 100 miles from the scene of the crimes. 

Self-described working class writer and factory worker Frank Bill speaks candidly about the personal stories that inform his searing new novel Back to the Dirt, and the psychological and physical devastation that has ripped through his home turf of southern Indiana. Inspired in part by the story of his father, a Marine who served in Vietnam as an infantryman and mine sweeper, and pictures Frank, as a boy, found in father’s closet. Frank Bill provides us with visceral evidence of the problems afflicting our Heartland in a raw, compassionate and hard-hitting story that harkens back to 1960s Danang.


Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

On December 5, 2005, Air Force Senior Master Sergeant Israel “DT” Del Toro’s life changed in a flash of light when the Humvee he was riding in ran over an IED in southeastern Afghanistan. The resulting explosion and fire burned over 80% his body.  Doctors gave him only a 15% percent chance to survive. What they didn’t count on were the promises he had made to his wife, son and father, his courage and the remarkable strength of his heart, mind and soul.


Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Shot down over Formosa and facing a firing squad, Sgt. John Shott – radio operator and rear gunner of a B-25 Mitchell bomber – spent the remainder of World War II starving in a Japanese POW camp. Today we’re deeply honored as he tells his inspiring story.


Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com