Tomorrow Town, Tennessee

Marine Corps Veteran Grady Birdsong .fought in the Vietnam War.

We recently released our first episode of our special series on the Battle for Hue called The Battle that Changed Everything. Grady is part of our series.

A conversation with Grady about the months leading up to the Tet Offensive, leadership during this period of the war, leadership changes after the war, and much more.

Tomorrow Town, Tennessee is hosted, produced, edited and engineered by Josh Roe. This podcast is a production of NewsChannel 9, Fox Chattanooga, and Sinclair Broadcast Group Chattanooga.

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We are starting a brand new series about the Battle for Hue in the war in Vietnam called The Battle That Changed Everything.

In this episode we introduce you to some of the Marines you'll get to know through this journey, and we take you through the beginning hours of this historic battle.

This series is part of our podcast, Tomorrow Town, Tennessee.

SHOW NOTES:

You can find a list of the books and other materials that helped inform this reporting here: https://newschannel9.com/features/tomorrow-town-tennessee/the-battle-that-changed-everything-they-were-all-shot-up#

Tomorrow Town, Tennessee is a production of NewsChannel 9, Fox Chattanooga, and Sinclair Broadcast Group Chattanooga.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In two weeks we will begin a special series we've been working on all year.

The series is titled, The Battle That Changed Everything. The series is six main episodes looking at the Battle for Hue in the Vietnam War.

We will also have lots of bonus content including extended interviews and more.

The first episode will be released on July 31.

In this preview episode I travel to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to talk to Marine Corps veteran Bill Tant who fought with the Golf 2/5 Marines at Hue.

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Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Lindsay Rodman has had a fascinating career.

She has degrees from Duke and Harvard. She was a White House Fellow. She served as Deputy Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She deployed to Afghanistan and has had many other interesting stops and experiences along the way including being a USMC Ambassador for the Marine Corps' 250th Birthday.

On this episode, Josh Roe talks to Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Lindsay Rodman about her career and the 250th Birthday.

Tomorrow Town, Tennessee is hosted, produced, edited and engineered by Josh Roe. This podcast is a production of NewsChannel 9, Fox Chattanooga, and Sinclair Broadcast Group Chattanooga.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Cleveland Tennessee's Alvin Jackson fought in war in Vietnam.

We told his story the first time in 2020, and we've told more of that story in the years since.

Friends, loved ones, and non-profits learned that Alvin and his wife Zandra's home was in bad shape and over the last few years they built them a new one.

The Jackson family finally got the keys to that home in the summer of 2023, but just a few months later Alvin lost his wife Zandra. She passed away after battling illnesses for several years.

Then just a few days after that happened Alvin and Zandra's grand-daughter Air'ra Wilson was killed in a car crash.

She was just weeks away from her high school graduation.

On what would have been her 18th birthday, I went to talk to her friends and loved ones.

They wanted to celebrate what Air'ra Wilson meant to them.

On this episode of Tomorrow Town, Tennessee we hear from friends and loved ones sharing their memories of Air 'ra Wilson.

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In late 1965, Marine Corps Major Donald J. Reilly was the most decorated Marine in the war in Vietnam. Major Reilly flew rescue missions in a Huey Helicopter. On December 9th of that year Donald Reilly flew his final mission.

He killed and action and buried near his family in Memphis, Tennessee, but as the years and people's lives moved forward no one else was buried in that cemetery along side Major Reilly. So after her mother passed away, Major Reilly's Daughter, Allison Reilly Gorman, took up the task to try to move her father's remains to Arlington National Cemetery.

Tomorrow Town, Tennessee is a production of NewsChannel 9, Fox Chattanooga, and Sinclair Broadcast Group Chattanooga.

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There are many ways to learn about history. One of the best ways is to listen to the people who lived it.

On this episode we listen to Marine Corps Veteran Captain Ray Lewis. Captain Lewis joined the Marines in 1966. He flew missions as a pilot of A-4E Skyhawk in 1970 in the War in Vietnam.

Tomorrow Town, Tennessee is a production of NewsChannel 9, Fox Chattanooga and Sinclair Broadcast Group Chattanooga.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode, a conversation with Marine combat veteran, co-founder of the apparel company Grunt Style and another of those outstanding ambassadors for the Marine Corps' 250th birthday, Tim Jensen.

The Marines will celebrate 250 years on November 10, 2025.

Tomorrow Town, Tennessee is a production of NewsChannel 9, Fox Chattanooga, and Sinclair Broadcast Group Chattanooga.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode Josh Roe talks to retired Marine Corps Major Chuck Casey.

If you have listened our past episodes I've posted about our trip to Vietnam in the fall of last year you may remember Major Casey.

He was one of the organizers of that trip and I'll share a couple of personal observations and he has worked for years to bring Vietnam Veterans back to the battlefields of that war.

In this episode, you'll hear two separate conversations. The first conversation happened a few days before our trip to the site where Medal of Honor recipient, USMC Sgt. Rodney Maxwell Davis was killed in action. The second conversation happened the day after our visit to that battle site.

Tomorrow Town, Tennessee is a production of NewsChannel 9, Fox Chattanooga, and Sinclair Broadcast Group Chattanooga.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode a conversation with Marine Corps Veteran E.J. Goodroe.

E.J. is the Director of the Office of Military and Veteran Services at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and he is also ... a Marine Corps Ambassador for the 250th birthday. The Marines will turn 2 hundred and 50 years old November 10, 2025.

Tomorrow Town, Tennessee is a production of NewsChannel 9, Fox Chattanooga, and Sinclair Broadcast Group Chattanooga.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.