During World War II, while weapons, ammunition, ships, planes, tanks, etc, were always a big focus, theatre commanders also understood the value of troop morale and went to great lengths to secure things like Coca-Cola, or ice cream, or beer, movies, or music for their troops – even in the most far flung areas of the war. Music was a particularly satisfying treat – and military bands were a big part of this. Many of these bands played shows for the troops very close to the front lines. The 746th FEAF Band was one such band and an album they recorded in 1945 is up for a 2021 Grammy.  To discuss the 746th FEAF Band, we sat down with Jason Burt, a historian and history teacher, and the man behind the effort to see a group of World War II veterans honored with one of music’s biggest awards. 

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Douglas MacArthur biographer D. Clayton James, credited General MacArthur’s mother, Mary “Pinky” Hardy, with instilling in her son “an almost mystical” sense of heritage, duty, and a burning desire to carry on and surpass the achievements of his predecessors. Every MacArthur biographer has analyzed their relationship to try to better understand or explain the general. But who was she?? 

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During World War II, Army personnel nicknamed US Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, and Major General James A. Ulio the “heavenly trinity.” Why? Because the names of these three men appeared on all Army orders from Washington. Marshall and Stimson are well known today, but Ulio’s role in World War II is less known. To explore Ulio's many contributions, we sat down with Alan E. Mesches, author of the book Major General James A. Ulio: How the Adjutant General of the U.S. Army Enabled Allied Victory.

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President Truman and General MacArthur had serious disagreements over Korean War policy. MacArthur is often characterized as wanting to use nuclear weapons during that war. Did MacArthur want to use these weapons??? Join Jim Zobel and Amanda Williams as they discuss the archival evidence.

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Dr. William H. Bartsch is one of the great historians of the Pacific War. He holds a PhD in Economics and Middle Eastern Studies, and he worked for the UN for a number of years, all over the world. As he worked, he also indulged his passion for Pacific War history and spent years gathering source materials that form the basis of several seminal works including: Doomed from the Start: American Pursuit Pilots in the Philippines, 1941-1942, Every Day a Nightmare: American Pursuit Pilots in the Defense of Java, 1941-1942, Victory Fever on Guadalcanal: Japan's First Land Defeat of World War II, and Dec. 8, 1941: MacArthur’s Pearl Harbor. In late 2019, Jim Zobel of the MacArthur Memorial sat down with Dr. Bartsch to discuss his work as a historian and the process by which he amassed an incredible collection of source material.

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It’s been called the textbook operation of World War II. It was the greatest prison rescue ever; over 2000 prisoners of war liberated and not one them or their liberators killed. Unbelievably, the liberation of Los Baños prison camp by the 511th Parachute Regiment and Hunter’s Philippine Guerrillas went largely unheralded. To share the story of this amazing operation, the MacArthur Memorial hosted Jeremy Holm, author of When Angels Fall: From Toccoa to Tokyo, the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment in World War II.

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Jim Zobel and Amanda Williams discuss MacArthur’s romantic side – from his early courtships and heartbreak, to the deep bond he shared with his second wife, Jean Faircloth MacArthur.

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From 1919 to 1941, Clark Field in the Philippines was home to American air power in the western part of the Pacific. Attacked by the Japanese at the start of the war and then abandoned in the retreat to Bataan, the airfield was taken over by Japanese troops before being recaptured in 1945. To explore the development and history of Clark Field, we sat down with Dr. Richard Meixsel, author of Clark Field and the U.S. Army Air Corps in the Philippines, 1919-1942.

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On February 13, 2020, the MacArthur Memorial hosted bestselling author Hampton Sides for a discussion of his book On Desperate Ground: The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean Wars’ Greatest Battle. On Desperate Ground explores the Korean War and a controversial chapter of MacArthur’s career.

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Victory Mail - more commonly referred to as V-Mail - was a mail process used by the United States during World War II. It was designed to reduce the weight and fuel costs of mail, while helping citizens correspond with service members stationed overseas. To learn more about V-Mail, we sat down with Lynn Heidelbaugh, curator at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum.

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