Service: Veteran Stories of Hunger and War

It’s called “the deadliest conflict in human history” for a reason. World War II engulfed the lives of soldiers and civilians in a way those in the United States have not experienced in a near capacity since. 

In the final episode of our season exploring the experience of service during World War II, authors Myke Cole and Anastacia Marx de Salcedo join to help us make sense of it all: What changed the most when it comes to combat and cuisine? What part did our veterans play in moving the world forward? And where can we most find ourselves in this history?

This episode includes clips from all of the veterans who have shared their stories on Service this season, and direct interviews with Cole and Marx de Salcedo. You can find more about them and links to their work and individual episodes at www.ServicePodcast.org. There, you can also leave messages for all of the veterans you hear on Service. And we’re always sharing extra audio and nerdy food history on social media - we’re @servicepodcast on Instagram and Facebook. 

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World War II transformed women’s service both in the U.S. Armed Forces and in their stateside communities -- millions would serve at home and abroad as nurses, clerics, drivers, front-line food peddlers, and even pilots. The work wasn’t easy. To survive the shifting job market, they had to work twice as hard for half the pay. They had to suffer how society could look up or down on them at any given moment. They had to adapt, grow, and endure.

Army Nurse Victoria Louise Kambic found when tempting wounded soldiers and fussing children, a bag of sweets in her pocket helped, too.

Victoria became Sister Melanie Kambic, and she shares her World War II war and food story with us from the Sisters of Divine Providence convent in Allison Park, Pennsylvania.

Learn more about Sister Melanie and women’s contributions to World War II at her page at ServicePodcast.org. There, you can also share your Service stories and leave messages for all of the veterans you hear on Service. And we’re always sharing extra audio and nerdy food history on social media - we’re @servicepodcast on Instagram and Facebook.

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100-year-old World War II Marine veteran Norman Rubin remembers the Great Depression. He remembers eating as much as could be put on a plate in front of him as a hungry kid. He remembers his father leaving at 10 years old and his brothers working to help his mother. He remembers reading about how the Marines traveled all over the world, and his mother helping him lie about his age so that he could enlist at 17. He remembers how the Marines clothed and fed him and gave him a job and so that’s why he’d signed up--not because anyone suspected that a World War lay ahead.

Four years later, and he couldn’t get out.

Follow along in this hearty story of Service as Norm ate well on the USS Pennsylvania, was the orderly for President Roosevelt, defended British soldiers on Iceland, and stormed islands in the Pacific.

You can hear more about Norm’s lifelong love story in our episode - All’s Fair in War and Lasting Love - and read more at www.ServicePodcast.org, where you can also share your Service stories and leave messages for all of the veterans you hear on Service. And we’re always sharing extra audio and nerdy food history on social media - we’re @servicepodcast on Instagram and Facebook.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every veteran we’ve sat with this season has gushed about the “love of their life” -- the woman who worked hard at the hospital or factory or office or homestead and dutifully penned letters while they were away in the Service. They’ve wowed us with not only their love’s origin story, but the lifetime commitment they kept. And we’ve sat with them as they’ve missed and mourned that loved one -- coincidentally, the majority of our veterans this season are widowers.

And so in this episode, Frank Devita, John Bistrica, Ray Stanley Boutwell, Norman Rubin, and Pat D’Ambrosio return to tell a little about the women who made their life so complete. We share their stories simply, in a tribute to those who so supported them during the war, and long after.

Find photos of these couples - as well as those not shared in this episode - at www.ServicePodcast.org, where you can also share your Service stories and leave messages for all of the veterans you hear on Service.

And we’re always sharing extra audio and nerdy food history on social media - we’re @servicepodcast on Instagram and Facebook.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wait, but how did the food get made in World War II?

In this episode of Service, Navy veteran Ray Boutwell shares how he cooked at a training camp in New Jersey toward the latter part of the war: what equipment they had in the kitchen, what dishes they made regularly, and the difference between ingredients the government supplied and those officers of means could get the cooks to purchase on their own. With government experiments coming into the kitchen, we learn a little about innovation of military cuisine, too!

Ray worked in food service throughout his life, and opened a bakery at ninety-three. This episode is extra fun for cooks and bakers, who might hear themselves in this veteran’s story.

Find photos from this episode of Service and lots of nerdy details behind everything shared in this episode at Robert’s page at www.ServicePodcast.org, where you can also share your Service stories and leave messages for all of the veterans you hear on Service. And we’re always sharing extra audio and nerdy food history on social media - we’re @servicepodcast on Instagram and Facebook. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The majority of the veterans we’ve heard from this season recall growing up in Great Depression poverty. Such is not the case with Robert Hanson, a Navy Lieutenant whose father found himself in an intriguing position of economic strength that helped Robert settle into Ivy League academia by the start of World War 2. But that doesn’t mean he was guaranteed safety or good eats when assigned to run PT 182 off of Morotai island - one of the motorized torpedo boats that would take on Japanese barges in some of the most dangerous fighting in the Pacific.

Did income and education make a difference in the end? Listen along as Robert guides us through Navy combat and island cuisine in this story of service and sacrifice. Find photos from this episode of Service and lots of nerdy details behind everything shared in this episode at Robert’s page at www.ServicePodcast.org, where you can also share your Service stories and leave messages for all of the veterans you hear on Service.

And we’re always sharing extra audio and nerdy food history on social media - we’re @servicepodcast on Instagram and Facebook.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Think success in farming has nothing to do with sacrifice on the front line? 

At the start of World War II, Japanese American farmers controlled 40% of California farm production, dominating crops like tomatoes, celery, and snap beans made newly available nationwide with the success of refrigerated railway cars. 45% of Japanese Americans held agricultural jobs on the west coast as a result. 

In this episode, we follow Japanese American veteran Lawson Ichiro Sakai’s Service story, from his family farm in Montebello, California through the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the internment of Japanese immigrants, and the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team’s sacrifice as they proved their patriotism in the European theatre. 

Find photos from this episode of Service, an episode transcription, and more at www.ServicePodcast.org, where you can also share your Service stories and leave messages for all of the veterans you hear on Service.

And we’re always sharing extra audio and nerdy food history on social media - we’re @servicepodcast on Instagram and Facebook.

Thank you to the Japanese American Veterans Association for connecting us with Lawson for this episode.

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Why do some of our veterans not speak about their service experience, and how can civilians help? On the second half of this two-part episode, we explore the some racial healing 70-years post war, and how food brings veterans out of their shells. We first explore how one community event brought two Navy veterans from different worlds together. Then, Sarah Sicard of Military Times and Cindy Stephens of the Freedom Pantry for Veterans help us understand how they use conversation to get veterans out of their shell and into the light.

Find photos from this episode of Service, an episode transcription, and more at www.ServicePodcast.org, where you can also share your Service stories and leave messages for all of the veterans you hear on Service. And we’re always sharing extra audio and nerdy food history on social media - we’re @servicepodcast on Instagram and Facebook. Thank you to Military Times, the Freedom Pantry for Veterans, and the Veteran’s Network Committee for connecting with us for this episode.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many of the World War II combat veterans we’re hearing from this season didn’t talk about their service experiences for most of their lives. On the first of this two-part episode, we explore the history behind why they might not have opened up, how things have changed with time, and what’s helped them start talking.

Then we head to Livingston County, New York, where a community-made war memorial recently brought veterans and their families together in a stunning show of outreach and support.

Find photos from this episode of Service, an episode transcription, and more at www.ServicePodcast.org and on Instagram and Facebook, where you can also share your Service stories and leave messages for all of the veterans you hear on Service.

Thank you to those involved in the Livingston County Veterans’ Monument for joining us on this episode. You can see more on Faceboook, Twitter, and Instagram. And to support other organizations we’ve worked with thus far this season, visit The Greatest Generations Foundation, Honor Flight Columbus, and Tuskegee Airmen Inc

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6 million men left farm life between 1940 and 1945. Some, like Air Corp Staff Sergeant Harold Bud Long, left to join the Service. 

Setting out and maintaining 47 air strips across Europe, Bud took part in legendary campaigns like Omaha Beach on D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, and Patton’s drive through Central Europe into the Rhineland. Spending significant time with French civilians and tearing down the gates of a German concentration camp, he shares how soldiers and civilians found ways to feed each other, and which foods from home they never found abroad.

Find photos from this episode, an episode transcription, and more at www.ServicePodcast.org and on Instagram and Facebook, where you can also share your stories and leave messages for all of the veterans you hear on Service.

Thank you to Jason Skinner and those involved in the Livingston County Veterans’ Monument for connecting us with Bud for this episode. They’ve recently unveiled their beautiful community monument and we suggest you check it out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We’ll be sharing more of their story in our next episode.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.