Operation Insight

Zach and Salina Mann share their experiences in the Army, both as a couple and individually. They discuss serving in combat and how they readjusted to civilian life once they returned home. Salina and Zach met in 2008 and have been married since March 2012. They have two daughters. Salina served as a Psychological Operations Specialist with the 307th reserve unit out of Jefferson Barracks. She com...

SSG Chris Lenington signed an early entry for the Army in 1998. Chris would serve twenty years and was deployed in Kosovo, one tour in Iraq, and three tours in Afghanistan, including one stop at Camp Seray, an outpost high in the mountains, which was attacked by Taliban fighters almost daily. Chris finished his Army career at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with the 101st Airborne. Tonight, Chris joins u...

Colonel Robert Leeker started his military career as a one-striper in the Air Force in 1971 and went to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base. After working as a mechanic on planes, Bob decided he wanted to fly them. He earned his associate's degree at Meramec Community College and took flying lessons on his own dime to ready himself to become an Air Force pilot. Bob trained on the T37 and T38...

Service dogs enrich and improve the lives of their veterans every day. At Dogs For Our Brave, their mission is to provide professionally trained service dogs at no cost to veterans who have suffered debilitating injury or illness while in service to our country. Their goal is to use rescue dogs at every opportunity, thus saving two lives at once. To fully realize our mission without adding a finan...

Beginning in 1973, America went to an all-volunteer military service. An All-volunteer military isn't without challenges. Today, the branches of service are struggling to find able-bodied recruits. According to the CDC, an estimated 70% of young Americans are unfit for military service. Historically, family life has not always worked for military families, and roughly 20% of the military are women...

Beginning in 1973, America went to an all-volunteer military service. An all-volunteer military isn't without challenges. Today, the branches of services are struggling to find able-bodied recruits. According to the CDC, an estimated 70% of young Americans are unfit for military service. Historically, family life has not always worked for military families, and roughly 20% of the military are wome...

The City of St. Louis and the nearby counties of St. Louis and St. Charles became known as the "Gateway to the West" because it was an ideal spot for tradesmen, adventurers, and traders to transact because it’s connected to the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers. The story of O'Fallon, MO features many of the same storylines. American Revolutionary War veterans were the early settlers, and man...

Sailing on a U.S. nuclear submarine is a trip into a cramped, timeless, and windowless undersea world. Today's submarines will often spend up to ninety percent of their time underwater, making night and day indistinguishable. While on patrol, the crew is largely cut off from the outside world, including their families, for long periods of time. There are regular launch drills that challenge the ph...

The many missions of Chief Petty Officer James "Jim" Feltz aboard the Gleaves-class destroyer, USS Plunkett, culminated in a heated battle for the crew and a fight for their lives when a Junkers Ju-88 released its payload and all hell broke loose. Jim's quick thinking and disobedience of orders saved his life and the lives of others. Jim is a legend and a true hero!

Tonight, we bring you the heroic story of B-24 Crewman SGT Robert Garvey. After flying 29 missions with his regular crew, he was "volunteered" to be a substitute gunner with another crew. During this mission, Robert was forced to bail out when his plane was damaged and was going to crash after being jumped by German planes. Once on the ground, Robert was hit multiple times by enemy fire, then capt...

Misty Blum's husband, Michael, served his country as a Marine for twenty years, including four tours of duty in Iraq. While U.S. servicemen and women were deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq, veterans were fighting their own war at home. Every day, twenty-two veterans lose their battle to post-traumatic stress on American soil. That is one veteran every sixty-five minutes. For most combat veterans, t...

After earning a degree in criminal justice, serving as an O'Fallon Police Officer and a deputy in Lincoln County, Sierra Koester is now a private practice counselor who specializes in counseling survivors of trauma. She is EMDR trained, which is a proven approach to help survivors of trauma. Men and women in service positions are still at risk when they are not in harm's way. Even when the uniform...

On the Wall of Honor at the St. Charles County Veterans Museum, there are 116 dog tags representing servicemembers from our county killed in action since World War I through the present day. The museum features their stories. Tonight, we are going to share some of those stories. By keeping their stories alive, we honor them and are reminded that freedom isn't free. All of their stories are also fe...

Wright Construction Services, Inc. celebrated its sixteenth year in business in February 2021. Wright Construction is licensed in twenty-two states and is the largest general contractor in St. Charles County.  What makes Wright Construction special is its quality work and community involvement. In 2019, Wright Construction hosted its inaugural 22 Strong Walk. The number 22 is significant to Wright...

LTC Steve Brown served in the Air Force from 1968 to 1991, twenty-three years as a pilot. Steve had a very distinguished career in the Air Force. As a new pilot, he paid his dues flying a Caribou carrying everything from ammunition, supplies, troops, to livestock in Vietnam. He graduated to the B-52’s flying bombing missions during Operation Linebacker II. Negotiations for peace talks had bogged d...

This episode features Jim David from the St. Charles County Veterans Assistance Office. The office is located in O'Fallon's City Hall and is staffed by volunteers Monday-Thursday, from 9 AM to 4 PM. The volunteers are ready to assist you with your Veterans Assistance needs. Jim outlines what assistance the office can provide and how to utilize them. He shares how the office came together in St. Ch...

Women have been serving in the military in one form or another for more than 200 years. They have had to overcome decades of obstacles in order to be allowed to serve their country, and are now deployed in ever-increasing numbers, in combat roles and in leadership positions all around the world. Today, women make up 16% of the military, and nearly 10% of veterans are women. The SCCVM showcases the...

Combat medics play a unique role in the military. Not only must they be experts in battlefield medicine, but they must also remain proficient in combat tactical skills. They frequently witness injuries and death and are often exposed to the personal threat of trauma. Medics run towards the danger to render aid to those injured while exposing themselves to enemy fire. While under attack, medics mus...

The United States entered World War II soon after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Despite the late entry into the war, Merchant Mariners were dying months before America joined the Allied Forces! During the war, 733 American cargo ships were lost. There were 243,000 mariners who served, and 9,521 perished while serving.  Roughly four percent of those who served were killed. This was a higher cas...

Angela Peacock joined the Army immediately after high school in 1998. Angie was strong, tough, and a born leader. She was ready, willing, and able to do anything a man could do. After a stint in Korea where she was assaulted, SGT Peacock was deployed to Iraq in May 2003. She began driving supply convoys in an area known as the Triangle of Death. The routes in the Triangle were very dangerous, and...

We are honored to host Terry C. Bryant, Commander of the State Korean War Association, and GySgt Harry Hope, who fought at the Chosin Reservoir. The Korean War was fought from 1950 until 1953 and pitted the United States, South Korea, and their U.N. allies against North Korea and the Chinese Communists. The invading North Korean troops captured Seoul within three days. That marked the first of fou...

Nearly 200,000 U.S. Troops are deployed around the world, many in harm’s way. For every troop deployed, there are multiple family members, including mothers, stepmothers, grandmothers, and foster mothers, trying their best to support and comfort the troops. Blue Star Mothers concentrates on providing emotional support to its members. Even when we are not at war, military families often deal with s...

On June 2nd, 1969, the Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans was cruising through the calm, moonlit waters of the South China Sea. Just days before, the Evans was on the gun line, throwing countless shells at targets in South Vietnam supporting ground troops. The Evans had just earned its second Vietnam Service Medal for combat operations in 1969. On this night, the Frank E. Evans joined forces with S...

Ella Mateja was eight years old when she began selling lemonade as a way to raise funds for our brave veterans and first responders. She was inspired by her grandpa Ken and his brothers, all of whom served in the military. Ella has dedicated herself to running the lemonade stand every year until she graduates. In the last seven years, Ella's little lemonade stand has helped raise funds for the Mis...

Bill had a belief that serving your country was important. After briefly considering joining the Marines and amidst strong opposition from family, Bill settled on the Air Force. Bill was stationed at Pease AFB for five months after joining. While there, Bill volunteered for Sentry Dog School. Bill became good friends with a guy at the base who accompanied him to Sentry Dog School. Bill said, “We k...