Preston and Sayre are joined today with Doug Stanton. Doug is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, lecturer, screenwriter. His books include The Odyssey of Echo Company, In Harm’s Way, and Horse Soldiers.

The Odyssey of Echo Company entails the story of a 101st Airborne Division recon platoon who found themselves thrust into savage combat during the Vietnam War's Tet Offensive.

In Harm’s Way is the definitive account of the sinking, rescue, and valor of the USS Indianapolis crew during the end of the Second World War, and became required reading on the U.S. Navy's reading list for officers.

Horse Soldiers is the dramatic account of a small band of Green Berets who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. It is required reading by US Army Special Forces at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School and is the inspiration behind the movie 12 Strong.

Doug's books were all obtained from first-hand accounts and by personally observing the battlefields. We discuss many of the personal stories, themes, and history he's preserved through his writings.

In Harm's Way is being re-released over 20 years later on May 17, 2022, including a new chapter of stories untold. We hope you enjoy.

If we had set goals for the podcast when we first started, this most certainly would have been one: 500k downloads!  Thank you all so much for your support and making this so fun to continue to do.  As a thank you, we pulled five questions that were submitted to talk about today and will send those folks a War Stories mug.  In this episode we tackled:

- What's something in the military that civilians could most benefit from?

- Is the five star rank still on the books?

- A Chaplain's role in the military.

- What shocked us most about the war in Ukraine.

- What different career paths or choices would we have made in the miltary?

Preston and Sayre are joined today with John Spencer–one of the world’s leading scholars and experts in the field of urban warfare. He has studied, taught, and written about urban warfare for over a decade.

John is the creator of The Mini-Manual for the Urban Defender and currently serves as the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies with the Madison Policy Forum. He recently served as the Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, Co-Director of the Urban Warfare Project, and host of the Urban Warfare Project podcast.

This was a great conversation coming from a scholar and warrior with first hand experiences on both fronts as Spencer has one of the most infantry resumes possible. Serving over twenty-five years in the active Army as an infantry soldier, Spencer has held ranks from Private to Sergeant First Class and Second Lieutenant to Major. His assignments as an Army officer included two combat deployments to Iraq as both an Infantry Platoon Leader and Company Commander, a Ranger Instructor with the Army’s Ranger School, a Joint Chief of Staff and Army Staff intern, fellow with the Chief of Staff of the Army’s Strategic Studies Group, and Co-Founder, Strategic Planner, and Deputy Director of the Modern War Institute at West Point.

We hope you enjoy.

Today Preston and Sayre are joined by Zach S. Morris. Zach is currently the editor in chief of LST Scuttlebutt, the quarterly magazine newsletter of the U.S. Landing Ship Tank (LST) Association. He is also the former editor in chief of Elsie Item, the quarterly magazine newsletter of the USS Landing Craft Infantry (LCI) National Association. Zach joins us to discuss the new book he wrote about his grandfather, Stephen Ganzberger, who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.  The book, When the Beaches Trembled: The Incredible True Story of Stephen Ganzberger and the LCIs in World War II, explores Ganzberger's journey aboard the USS LCI(L)-329 and LCI(G)-65 and the story of the creation of the Amphibious Forces at the beginning of WWII. We discuss how Zach spent a decade collecting first hand accounts from the sailors responsible for operating these pivotal troop transports.  Landing Craft Infantry ships (LCIs) had the perilous job of delivering troops directly onto enemy-held beaches in some of the fiercest combat of the war, and were critical to Allied victory. We talk about what life was like aboard those tiny ships, and the dangers the little LCIs faced fighting the Japanese in the Pacific Theater.

Zach can be reached at on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @Zach_Editor as well as his website https://www.zachsmorris.com.

Preston and Sayre are today joined with Henry Hooper. Henry is one of those guys who has lived a thousand different lives. Henry served in the Marines, Army Special Forces, and retired from federal service as a Secret Service agent having served under four presidents. We talk about Henry’s experiences growing up as a young African American in the south, and how he enlisted into the Marines at 17 years old in the 1950s.

A lifelong boxer, Henry made the USMC boxing team where he fought Cassius Clay (Mohammad Ali) for the spot on USA’s 1960 Olympic boxing team. We then discuss Henry’s next pivot after his time in the Marines into becoming a Special Forces medic in the very early years of its inception. We discuss Henry’s experience working with and among Vietnamese local nationals in the early 1960s, before Vietnam was considered a “war,” and the impact he had as a medic on the communities there—in addition to conducting guerilla warfare operations as he was specially-trained to do as a Green Beret. Henry has lived a life of adventure and it was a pleasure to get to speak with him.

VFW Article: http://digitaledition.qwinc.com/publication/?m=3914&i=732112&p=32&ver=html5

Sebastian Junger joins Preston and Sayre today on the podcast.  Sebastian Junger is the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of THE PERFECT STORM, FIRE, A DEATH IN BELMONT, WAR, TRIBE and FREEDOM. Junger is also a documentary filmmaker whose debut film RESTREPO, a feature-length documentary (co-directed with Tim Hetherington), was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

It was a privilege for us to speak with Sebastian as we are both personal fans, having watched and read his work over the years.  We discussed our commonalities and perspectives from experiencing combat in Afghanistan, and how it relates to how American society seems to feel today. We also discuss the challenges faced by young men in our ever-progressing society. Finally, we discuss the important work Sebastian spearheads as the founder and director of Vets Town Hall. Vets Town Hall works to facilitate events in local communities where veterans of any era who served in any capacity have the right to stand before their community and speak for up to ten minutes about what it was like to serve their country. These community events aim to establish greater understanding between local veterans and the friends and neighbors they served.

Finally we’d like to mention the name Sayre couldn’t recall is Eugene Goodman–the former Strike Soldier who safeguarded the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Preston and Sayre are joined today with Henry Sledge. Henry is the son of esteemed WWII Marine and author, Eugene “E.B.” Sledge, who wrote the seminal WWII memoir, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa.  As the son of a Pacific Theater Marine infantryman and nephew to a Battle of the Bulge tanker, Henry has had a lifelong respect and admiration of not only the Pacific Theater of operations, but WWII in its entirety.

We discuss the events which gave rise to the strategy and execution of the Pacific Theater, and the distinction of what those who fought in the Pacific faced compared to those deployed to the various other battlegrounds fought during a time of global war. Having personally visited the islands—homesite to some of the most brutal battles fought in WWII—we discuss the terrain and environment, and what it was like encountering the very bunker his father knocked out over a half-century prior.

Henry is the co-host of WWII History podcast, What’s the Scuttlebutt and the author of several published articles; has served as a historical consultant on WWII Pacific artwork for Valor Studios, and has been interviewed on camera many times, discussing his father.

We've got a milestone coming up for the War Stories podcast.  To celebrate we're going to be giving away a few items.  Head to our website below to submit your question for an upcoming episode and if yours is chosen we'll send you a little something as a thank you.

https://www.warstories.co/

Today Preston and Sayre are joined by Ben Meredith. Ben has a doctorate of education from Pepperdine University and from 1983-1994, served as an active duty infantry officer, including command of an infantry company during Desert Shield/Storm.

Our focus of conversation with Ben entails the 1943 Allied Invasion of Sicily, codenamed "Operation Husky."  Operation Husky was a large amphibious and airborne operation, followed by a six-week land campaign, and initiated the Italian Campaign.  We discuss the role the United States played in this complex operation, including the 82nd Airborne Division's pivotal role in establishing America's newly-created paratroopers. The lessons learned from Husky helped set the stage for the main land invasion of Europe on D-Day less than a year later. 

Today, Preston and Sayre were fortunate to be joined by Major General (Retired) John Harrel to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine.  MG Harrel spent over 50 years as a military officer—beginning as an Infantry Marine Second Lieutenant to becoming the Commanding General of the California National Guard. He has a master’s degree in history from California State University-Northridge and a law degree from SW University School of Law.

We discuss how over the last 30 years since the collapse of the USSR, the California National Guard has trained the Ukrainian military in American/NATO military doctrine resulting in decades long relationships forged between American military leaders such as MG Harrel and Ukrainian military officers and soldiers. We discuss the in-depth amount of training the Ukrainians have received over the years from its American and NATO allies, and how that compares to Russia’s preparation and disposition over the same time frame.  We discuss how the American/NATO military philosophies of utilizing non-commissioned officers to take initiative and “get the job done” has been ingrained into the Ukrainian military, and how that compares to how little the Russian doctrine has changed—if at all—since the fall of the Soviet Union. We discuss how this lack of what we would call “fundamental training” related to small unit tactics has resulted in the current Russian ineffectiveness we are seeing—from their faulty intelligence received prior to the invasion, to their widespread corruption causing much of the logistical issues currently facing the Russian military. It was a pleasure to speak with MG Harrel as he provided much insight and context to the current conflict from the perspective of a General Officer.