The Warrior Next Door Podcast

Welcome to Episode 2 of the 3 part Wish Lemons series. In this episode, you hear about Wish's experience at sea as the Captain's Talker aboard the USS San Francisco during the early days of WWII just after Pear Harbor. Support the show

Welcome to Episode 1 of the 3 part Wish Lemons series. This is a remarkable story of a young man who joins the Navy and thru a SNAFU, gets transferred to the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco just a few days after the Pearl Harbor attack with NO BOOT CAMP OR TRAINING. His experience is as amazing as it is terrifying.  In this episode we meet Wish Lemons and hear how he got into the Navy. Support the...

Hello Warrior Next Door listeners! This is a unique 1 episode "series" in which we are honored to be hosting the author and former NBS Sports/ESPN Sports Center director Peter Lion. We will get to know Peter and discuss his books written about two very unique true stories from WWII. His first book "The American St. Nick" chronicles the true story of a handful of soldiers from 2...

Welcome to the final episode of the Jim Thomas series. In this episode Jim discusses his decisions that he made during missions late in his tour to help everyone get home safely and his eventual rotation out as well as his post war career. Support the show

Welcome to Episode 4 of the Jim Thomas series.  In this episode, Jim discusses his transition from the scout helicopter to the Cobra, he discusses its capabilities and also the use of B-52's in the war. Support the show

Welcome to Episode 3 of the 5 part Jim Thomas series. In this episode Jim discusses his experiences getting shot down twice in three days only two weeks after arriving in Vietnam. Support the show

Welcome to episode 2 of the 5 part Jim Thomas series, a Cobra helicopter pilot in Vietnam. In this episode Jim discusses his military training in the US as well his "on the job" training in action in Vietnam. Support the show

Welcome to Episode 1 of the 5 part Jim Thomas series. Jim was a Warrant Officer and Cobra helicopter pilot who served in the 1st Cavalry from February 1970 - February 1971 in Vietnam. In this first episode we discuss the background history on how the Vietnam war started and also discuss Jim's decision to join directly from college. Support the show

Welcome to Episode 2 of the two part Dale Kooyenga series.  In this episode we will hear more about Kooyenga's experiences navigating the wartime action in Iraq, his perception of Iraq today and his arrival back home from Iraq where he would enjoy a political career as a State Representative and Senator for Wisconsin. Lt Col. Kooyenga also discusses his company "Hero Cards" which is...

Welcome to the Dale Kooyenga series. Join us as we speak with Lt Col. Dale Kooyenga who in this first episode of two, discusses how 9/11 impacted him, his decision to join the US Army, his experiences in boot camp and his arrival in Iraq at the beginning of the "surge". Support the show

Welcome to the final episode of the Marta Warner story. In this episode Marta discusses seeing the first American troops marching into her town, how she was able to get C rations and how her mother had to be denazified. Marta also tells us how she ended up in the USA, how the war affected her perception of government and her observations on charismatic leaders. Support the show

Welcome to Episode 4 of the 5 part Marta Warner series.  In this episode Marta continues with the odyssey of survival for her family as they flee on a open air train in the winter of 44-45, one of the coldest winters on record in Europe. Starvation, malnutrition and misery becomes all the more intense as her family is caught in the pressure cooker of a country being squeezed from all sides. Suppor...

Welcome to Episode 3 of the 5 part Marta Warner series, a Hitler Youth and survivor of WWII. In this episode Marta tells of her experience surviving a bombing that hit her school and being nearly trampled.  She describes the sights and sounds and sheer fear of allied bombings. Her family was sent to Silesia in eastern Germany where her father was separated from her family and her mother, brother a...

Welcome to Episode 2 of the 5 part Marta Warner series, a Hitler Youth student and survivor of WWII. In this episode Marta describes her experience witnessing the chilling effect of Nazi control and the effect it had on her family and neighbors.  She also describes the indoctrination that came with being a member of the Hitler Youth which was automatic for 10 years olds. She also discusses the cre...

Welcome to the Marta Warner series. In this first episode Marta describes the abrupt changes in education that came with the influence of the Nazi government in society. She also describes pushing back on the revisionist history being taught. In 5th grade she was selected to attend a state sponsored school due to her IQ but unless her family could pay for it, the government would fund it and her f...

Welcome to the final episode of the Ken Thomas series. In this episode we hear about the living conditions for him in the theater as well as the politics behind General Stillwell's forming of a group called Merrill's Marauders. Support the show

Welcome to Episode 3 of the four part Ken Thomas series! In this episode, Ken talks about his Odyssey traveling to the China Burma India theater and what typical missions were like for him during the war. Support the show

Welcome to Episode 2 of the four part Ken Thomas series. In this episode Mr. Thomas discusses his training and what it was like to fly the P-47 Thunderbolt. We also get some colorful anecdotes from our guest co-hosts TSgt Nick Lasher and Major John Nowakowski of the Oklahoma Air National Guard 138th Tactical Fighter Wing. Support the show

Welcome to Episode 1 of the four part Ken Thomas Series. 2nd Lt Thomas was a fighter pilot flying the fabled fighter-bomber P-47 Thunderbolt in the China Burma India Theater against Japanese targets as part of the 88 Fighter Squadron of the 80th Fighter Group. In this episode Ken talks about his efforts to get into the fighter training program and we also introduce our guest co-hosts from the Okla...

 Welcome to the final episode in the Back to Normandy Series featuring WWII 116th Infantry Regiment veteran TSgt Bill Parker, who landed in the first wave on Omaha Beach on D-Day. In this final episode, we attend a memorial service for an atrocity committed against the 82nd Airborne on D-Day and then we return to Omaha Beach for a second time on the trip with Bill.  Support the show

Welcome to Episode 4 in the Back to Normandy Series featuring TSgt Bill Parker of the 116th Infantry Regiment, who landed in the first wave on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944. In this episode, we follow our group of WWII veterans to the American cemetery at Colleville, stand at the scenic overlook - looking down on Omaha Beach and visit the grave of Bill's commanding officer on D-Day, Capt...

Welcome to Episode 3 of the Back to Omaha Beach with TSGT Bill Parker of the 116th Infantry Regiment Series. In  this episode Mr. Parker attends mass at Angoville au Plain, a small church with extraordinary D-Day history.  Later he is welcomed to a small ceremony at La Maison de la Liberation, the first house liberated on Omaha Beach. And finally, Bill sets foot on Omaha Beach for the first time i...

Welcome to Episode 2 of the Back to Normandy series with TSGT Bill Parker who landed on the first wave of Omaha Beach in Company E of the 116th Infantry Regiment. In this episode, we cover June 2nd and 3rd, 2022 where Bill attends a private meeting with the mayor of Valogne, France and hears of the gratitude the french people have toward their liberators. Later he goes to Saint Mere Eglise and mee...

Welcome to a NEW series featuring TSGT Bill Parker of the 116th Infantry Regiment chronicling his trip back to Normandy for the first time in 78 years. In this episode, you will hear how the trip came to be, how Bill decided to go and learn about his first day back on French soil where he would meet the French family that would host him during his 6 day stay. Support the show

In honor of the 78th anniversary of D-Day, we are replaying an encore episode of the Bill Parker series. This episode is Episode 3 of his series and aired 3/21/2022. T/SGT Parker landed as Private Parker at H-Hour, the first man off of his landing craft on Omaha Beach on D-Day June 6, 1944 with the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division . He was a wire cutter who was the first man o...