The Warrior Next Door Podcast

 Welcome to the final episode in the 5 part Harold Dunn series featuring guest co-host and author Marilyn Walton. In this final episode Mr Dunn will detail the evacuation of Stalag Luft III as the Russian Army approaches from the east, the POW's hardship marching in the bitter cold to Stalag 7A at Moosburg and their eventual liberation.  Support the show

 Welcome to episode 4 in the 5 part Harold Dunn series featuring guest co-host and author Marilyn Walton. In this episode, we will feature some great stories about what it was like in the camp immediately after the great escape took place, some notable characters who were in Stalag Luft III, allied clandestine projects underway within the wire of the camp in addition to insight into how the men ph...

Welcome to episode 3 in the 5 part Harold Dunn series featuring guest co-host and author Marilyn Walton.  In this episode Mr. Dunn details his bail out from his flaming B-17 over Germany, his attempt at evasion and eventual capture, his interrogation and internment into Stalag Luft 3 as well as how he helped with the infamous "Great Escape".  Support the show

Welcome to Episode 2 of the 5 part Harold Dunn series on the Warrior Next Door Podcast.  In this episode, we’re going to hear about Mr. Dunn's transition from the Army National Guard to the US Army Air Corps, his pilot training in B-17s as well as his assignment to the 306th Bomb Group stationed at RAF Thurleigh. We also hear about his early missions over Germany. Support the show

Welcome to Episode 1 of the 5 part series featuring B-17 Co-Pilot and Prisoner Of War Harold Dunn. In this episode, Mr. Dunn describes his life before entering the Army National Guard BEFORE WWII began as well as his training and upward movement through the ranks. We also introduce our first guest co-host, author Marilyn Walton who is a subject matter expert on the experience of the downed airman...

Welcome to the final episode in the Gerald Gentis series. In this episode, Mr. Gentis details his first mission, describes the first B-17 his crew was assigned, "Mr. Lucky", his experience surviving 2 crash landings, the harrowing nature of formation flying, witnessing his old B-17 Mr. Lucky breaking in two in a mid air collision and an accompanying very extraordinary story of survival....

Welcome to EPISODE 2 of the 3 part Gerald Gentis series! In this episode we will hear Mr Gentis describe his brief transfer to a B-29 crew, his family's heritage in early aviation, his role as a tail gunner and togglier on a B-17, shooting down an ME-109 fighter and two "quirks" of fate that have deeply impacted him since WWII. Support the show

Welcome to Series 10! In this series we follow the experiences of Staff Sgt Gerald Gentis, who flew 30 missions as a Tail Gunner and Togglier in B-17g's of the 548th Bomb Squadron 385th Bomb Group of the Mighty Eight Air Force while stationed in Great Ashfield, England. In this episode Mr Gentis recalls how he enlisted in the military, his whirlwind training and being assigned to a B-17 crew...

BONUS EPISODE! Join us for our first bonus episode we call our AIR RAID edition featuring combat engineer Patrick Flynn who deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Mr. Flynn worked in route clearance and survived a traumatic brain and spine injury from an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). Upon returning home after his tour, he started a successful grilling spice com...

In this final episode of the Bill Parker series, after linking up with the Russian Army at the River Elbe, T/Sgt Parker makes it to Victory in Europe day but his trip home is delayed after a jeep accident. He also tells us a great story about an orphaned boy who sought help from Bill and his unit, how Bill took care of him and how that young boy was smuggled back to the US on a troop ship. Bill al...

In this episode 5 of the Bill Parker series, Bill tells us about the fog of war fighting from town to town, not knowing where you were and the horrible waste of life he witnessed as a squad and platoon leader. He also tells us about being on the outskirts of the Battle of the Bulge fighting, being wounded twice which nearly resulted in losing his foot as well as other stories from his 650 mile mar...

IN episode 4 of 6, Sgt Parker talks about becoming a squad leader, facing the fearsome German 88mm artillery in battle, the fight in the hedgerows immediately after the D-Day landings, culminating in the battle at St. Lo France. Support the show

In episode 3 of this series, Bill takes us into his traumatic D-Day experience landing with Company E of the 116th Regiment, 29th Division in the first wave at Omaha Beach.  Being first off of his landing craft onto Omaha Beach, he and 5 guys raced across the beach under fire with the job of cutting the barbed wire for the men behind them. A group of displaced soldiers began to follow Bill and his...

In episode 2 of this 6 part series, Mr. Parker tells more stories of his teen years, riding horseback in weekend rodeo's and courting the girl who would later become his wife. He also discusses how he ultimately was drafted into the US Army in WWII and trained to be an infantryman using the greatest battle weapon ever devised, according to Gen. Patton: the M1 Garand rifle. Support the show

Welcome to Episode 1 of the 6 part series featuring Tech Sgt Bill Parker who landed in the first wave on Omaha Beach on D-Day with Co. E of the 116th Reg 29th Div. In this episode Bill talks about his great life growing up in SE Oklahoma during the Great Depression and how he spent his youth as a cowboy breaking horses, roping calves and getting into a little trouble also. Support the show

In this final episode in the Edward Patterson series, Col. Patterson discusses the end of the war and rather than going home back over the hump, which he knew to be extremely dangerous, he chose to go home eastward through Shanghai. He also discusses an amusing story in which he and a buddy single handedly evicted a Japanese garrison out of a Shanghai hotel after the war's end. Support the sh...

In Episode 4, Col. Patterson discusses the event that got him awarded the Soldiers Medal, his near death experience getting thrown from a plane door during a crash landing, the first incendiary raids on Japan and rumors of a new bomb that could end the war. Support the show

In Episode 3, Mr. Patterson discusses his role in overseeing the movement of supplies over "The Hump", he discusses the 20th Air Force attacking Japan from the west for the first time since the Doolittle Raid, Operation Matterhorn, the logistics of supplying the B-29 raids as well as the seeds of the tense present day geo-political relationship between China and Taiwan. Support the show

In Episode 2, Edward Patterson describes the end of the fighting in North Africa and the Mediterranean battleground. Instead of being sent north toward the war in Italy, he is sent east to the China-Burma-India theater where he is assigned to the 10th Air Force to begin the airlift of supplies over the Himalayas to China. Support the show

Welcome to the first episode of the Edward Patterson series. In this episode Mr. Patterson describes how he got involved in the military, details his travel to the North Africa theater in 1942 and being strafed by an ME-109. He would go on to serve in logistical troop support in the battle against the German Army and Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. Support the show

In this final episode in this series, Ira talks about attacking Chi Chi Jima and the resulting atrocities perpetrated on the captured US airmen as well as transitioning back to the US to train new crews. Support the show

Join us now for episode 3 of 4 where we hear about Ira Bewley's squadron attacking Guam, Ira’s impressions of a new weapon called Napalm as well as preparatory bombing of Iwo Jima in June/July/August 1944, the Philippines and New Guinea.” Support the show

Welcome to Episode 2 of the 4 part Ira Bewley series. Buckle up as we continue with Ira’s experience in the first battle of the Philippine sea and we hear about the chaotic night landing that accompanied the late-in-the-day US attack on the Japanese fleet.  Support the show

In this series of episodes we follow the experiences of Ira Bewley, a TBF Avenger turret gunner in VT-31 stationed aboard the USS Cabot in the Pacific Theater. In episode 1 we hear about his first battle experiences in the Marianas Islands attacking Truk Harbor, Guam, Saipan and Tinian. Support the show

In this final episode of the three part Captain John Graham series, Captain Graham continues to discuss his WWII duty, being inspected by Admiral Hyman Rickover and serving in the Korean War under Chester W. Nimitz, Jr aboard the USS O'Brien. Support the show