Robert Williams grew up in Colville, Utah, and followed three generations of his family into the military: commissioning through Army ROTC at the University of Utah before serving as an artillery officer in Vietnam. In this episode of Ask A Vet, Robert takes us from basic training at Fort Lewis through his time as a battery commander on a remote firebase in the Vietnamese highlands — the boredom, the terror, the firefights, a helicopter crash, and the split-second decision that came closest to costing a life. He also opens up about the reception he received coming home, the PTSD he didn't recognize until decades later, and what finally started to heal on an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. with his son.This is Episode 50 of Ask A Vet — thank you for fifty episodes of listening to these stories.CHAPTERS:00:28 – Meet Robert: growing up in Colville, Utah, and a family history of service 02:53 – ROTC, a failed physical, and fighting to stay in 04:59 – Basic training at Fort Lewis 07:28 – Fort Sill: learning the guns and the M101 howitzer 09:33 – Night training and a scare on aggressor detail 11:55 – Firepower demonstrations and "time on target" 14:20 – Orders to Vietnam: leaving a pregnant wife behind 16:49 – Landing in-country on New Year's Day 19:13 – Camp Red Horse and life in the rear 21:38 – Taking command on LZ Linda / Hill 270 26:30 – Under fire: flechette rounds and a 20-minute firefight 28:47 – The drug problem on the hill 31:09 – Urinalysis, discipline, and hard calls as a young officer 33:35 – Inside the Fire Direction Center 36:00 – Contaminated water takes down the whole battery 38:26 – Getting sick, and leading men barely out of high school 40:23 – Keeping men sane: cockroach races and homemade games 44:49 – Going down in a helicopter 47:10 – The rocket attack they weren't allowed to stop 49:33 – B-52 strikes and danger-close air support 51:58 – Witnessing a midair collision 53:58 – Reassigned to Quinyon as base defense officer 56:02 – The closest he came to killing someone — and becoming the "whore control officer" 58:30 – Discipline duty during off-base entertainment nights 1:00:41 – A Montagnard farewell dinner: a crossbow, poison, and pigeon heads 1:02:38 – A body on the shore and the final weeks in-country 1:05:05 – Riding with a Korean convoy 1:07:19 – Two of the hardest things he saw in Vietnam 1:09:45 – A close call with incoming mortars 1:11:55 – Notes for the colonel and the province chief 1:13:44 – Learning his daughter was born — and had emergency surgery 1:15:18 – R&R in Hawaii, and the hardest part: going back 1:17:29 – Wheels up for home 1:19:51 – Coming home to a hostile crowd in San Francisco 1:21:49 – Assignments in Germany and Minnesota, finishing a master's degree 1:24:14 – Leaving the Army and his takeaway from Vietnam 1:25:38 – Recognizing PTSD — decades later 1:28:44 – What lingers: sights, sounds, and smells that don't go away 1:30:26 – Agent Orange, burn pits, and the health costs that show up later 1:32:00 – The Honor Flight with his son 1:33:24 – A welcome home, decades overdue 1:34:06 – Final thoughts & ReflectionsIf you or a Veteran you know has a story that should be heard, we'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. 🎖️ Curious Humanography is proud to partner with Utah Honor Flight, helping veterans visit memorials built in their honor. To learn more or support their mission, visit UtahHonorFlight.org and honorflight.org.If this story moved you, please consider liking, commenting, and subscribing — it helps us continue sharing stories that deserve to be heard.

Larry Winters served as a Marine helicopter mechanic and door gunner in Vietnam, stationed at Phu Bai and Marble Mountain outside Da Nang in 1969. He grew up in a house with no electricity or running water in upstate New York, ran away from an abusive father at 16, and joined the Marines at 19 trying to "become a man." What he found in boot camp and Vietnam set him on a 56-year journey to understand what war actually does to the people who fight it.In this conversation, Larry talks about the brutal turning points of boot camp at Parris Island, his attempted AWOL into Mexico, the day he refused an order to fire on Vietnamese fishermen, and the concept that's defined his life's work as a therapist: moral injury. His take on why veterans are dying by suicide will challenge everything you've been told about PTSD.Larry is the author of "The Making and Unmaking of a Marine" and is currently finishing his second book.⚠️ Content warning: This episode contains discussion of war, combat, violence against civilians, suicide, and moral injury. If you or a veteran you know is in crisis, call the Veterans Crisis Line at 988 and press 1, or text 838255.CHAPTERS00:30 Growing up in Newpaltz, NY02:30 Signing up for the Marines at 1905:00 Parris Island — the yellow footprints09:30 Boot camp turning points: the hot sauce and the rifle bolt13:30 Coming home, ITR training, and shoe polish in the barracks22:30 Metalsmith school and shipping out to Vietnam29:30 Landing at Phu Bai — 126 degrees and Marston matting32:30 Tet, the move to Marble Mountain, and a sergeant's chilling words35:30 Locals on the base, peace symbols under shirts37:00 Becoming a door gunner — and getting in trouble first39:30 Three months on perimeter guard, the starlight scope42:30 The sandpan incident: "I'm not firing this"47:30 Flying missions, napalm, and the bulldozer that wouldn't lift52:00 The Freedom Bird home and protesters in San Diego58:30 College, poetry, and the long road to becoming a therapist1:10:00 Moral injury vs. PTSD — what's really killing veterans1:16:00 Presence as the best treatment1:20:00 Creativity, spontaneity, and finding his voice1:24:00 Final Reflections📕 Larry's first book "The Making and Unmaking of a Marine" — https://www.amazon.com/Making-Making-Marine-Larry-Winters/dp/0979229340📕 Larry's upcoming book: https://www.koehlerbooks.com/book/the-tug-of-war-a-reckoning-with-moral-injury-and-telling-the-truth/Larry's Substack: https://larrywinters.substack.com/

Stephen Davy was drafted out of a Toys R Us toy gun department in 1967, joined the Air Force to avoid the Army, and ended up loading napalm, two-thousand-pound bombs, and 2.75 rockets at the Pleiku Air Base bomb dump in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. But the part of his story you've never heard is what happened on the weekends: Stephen and his buddy Tom Glenn formed a rock band that played Camp Holloway, Engineer Hill, Fifth Special Forces, and just about every Army camp within reach of Pleiku, often going AWOL to do it, and sometimes catching helicopter rides back to base from pilots who wanted to do loops with the band gear in the cargo hold.In this episode, Stephen shares the close calls (rocket attacks, a tunneled-in VC sapper team, a leopard outside the rehearsal door), the absurdity (a pet macaque named Colonel Spiker who got drunk in the Airmen's Club), and the quieter moments that stayed with him most — visiting the orphanage outside Pleiku with clothes his parents shipped from the States. He also talks honestly about coming home to Andrews Air Force Base, the PTSD no one was naming yet, getting robbed at gunpoint multiple times working nights at a 7-Eleven, and how a Washington Post want ad eventually led him to a 50-year career as a master violin maker in Laguna Beach.CHAPTERS00:30 Growing up — Navy dad, Boonville to Florida to DC 07:00 The draft notice08:30 Basic training at Lackland — getting punched, losing a spleen 12:00 Munitions school in Denver and meeting Tom Glenn 14:00 Learning to load bombs, fuse rockets, and mix napalm 20:00 Arriving in Pleiku — Central Highlands, Fifth Special Forces, MIKE Force 26:00 First rocket attack and the bunker in the tall grass 38:00 Forming the New Generations Band 50:00 Pleiku City, the Montagnards, and the orphanage 58:00 Going AWOL to play Camp Holloway and Engineer Hill 1:08:00 Flat tire on the way back from a gig 1:11:00 The colonel who saved the band from being broken up 1:20:00 Two GIs straight out of the field singing "Hold On, I'm Comin'" 1:25:00 Helicopter loops with the band gear 1:28:00 Leaving Pleiku under ground fire 1:32:00 Coming home — Andrews AFB, security details, and a bank robbery 1:47:00 Apprenticing under violin masters Tom Nerado and Albert Mollier 1:51:00 Vietnam, Agent Orange, and looking back 1:55:00 Colonel Spiker the monkeySubscribe for more interviews with the men and women who served.If you or a Veteran you know has a story that should be heard, we'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. 🎖️ Curious Humanography is proud to partner with Utah Honor Flight, helping veterans visit memorials built in their honor. To learn more or support their mission, visit UtahHonorFlight.org and honorflight.org.If this story moved you, please consider liking, commenting, and subscribing — it helps us continue sharing stories that deserve to be heard.#AskAVet #VietnamVeteran #VietnamWar #USAirForce #Pleiku #OralHistory

Gary Howard grew up in Atlanta and joined the Navy in 1968 to stay one step ahead of the draft. A few months later he landed at Tan Son Nhut on the night of Tet '69 – the whole countryside on fire, Intel telling everyone this year would be worse than last. It wasn't. What followed was a year as a Naval advisor with the Vietnamese Marines in the Mekong Delta: helicopter landings, MEDCAPs in remote villages, climbing telephone poles to lay phone lines, sleeping topside under a mosquito net with his M16 next to his head, and yes, waterskiing on the Mekong behind a mail-order Johnson 75 outboard.In this episode Gary walks us through OCS at Newport, gunnery school, the bus ride into Saigon, the rocket that missed because his hat fell off, the mortar attack that interrupted a winning poker hand on his birthday, the overturned boat that gave him lifelong claustrophobia, and the moment a young woman spit on him at SFO when he finally made it home. After Vietnam he ran a nuclear weapons rework plant in Yorktown, went to law school in Texas, and tried jury cases in Arizona for forty years.CHAPTERS 00:48 — Drafted, so I joined the Navy 02:06 — OCS at Newport (and getting caught asleep) 03:30 — Gunnery school in Virginia Beach 07:09 — Amphibious and small arms training 08:25 — Landing in Vietnam on Tet '69 13:16 — Bus ride into Saigon 16:25 — Aboard the USS Mercer 19:36 — A 40-foot boat and 13 crew 22:51 — MEDCAPs, DENTCAPs, and winning hearts and minds 23:57 — Waterskiing on the Mekong 26:36 — The rocket that missed 27:58 — The telephone pole story 30:24 — Mortars on my birthday 35:42 — Food, heat, and the mosquitoes 36:12 — R&R in Hawaii 36:46 — Emergency leave home 40:11 — The girl at SFO who spit on me 43:22 — Two and a half years at a nuclear weapons plant 45:43 — Law school and forty years of trials 49:46 — What Vietnam taught me 51:05 — The overturned boat and lifelong claustrophobia 57:23 — Adjusting to "thank you for your service"Subscribe for more interviews with the men and women who served.👉 If you’re a Veteran struggling with VA benefits, click this link to schedule a free consultation: https://ameconsultation.com/ref/AVPP1211J20A26YXODisclosure: This is a referral partnership with American Medical Experts. We may receive compensation if you book through our link.If you or a Veteran you know has a story that should be heard, we'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. 🎖️ Curious Humanography is proud to partner with Utah Honor Flight, helping veterans visit memorials built in their honor. To learn more or support their mission, visit UtahHonorFlight.org and honorflight.org.If this story moved you, please consider liking, commenting, and subscribing — it helps us continue sharing stories that deserve to be heard.#VietnamWar #VietnamVeteran #USNavy #AskAVet #BrownWaterNavy #MekongDelta #Tet69 #OralHistory

In 1963, a kid from Las Vegas with no money and a father enlisted in the Air Force earned appointments to all three service academies. A retired Army colonel teaching high school math gave him one piece of advice: "if you want choices, go to Annapolis" and it set Tim Martin on a path into the most secretive community in the U.S. military: the Silent Service.In Episode 46 of Ask A Vet, Tim takes us deep inside the Cold War nuclear Navy. Hand-picked for Admiral Rickover's legendary nuclear power program, Tim served aboard the USS John Adams (SSBN-620), a Polaris missile boat carrying 160 nuclear warheads — more destructive power than every bomb dropped in World War II — and later aboard the fast attack USS Permit (SSN-594), the "Steely-Eyed Killer of the Deep."He tells the stories submariners rarely tell: trailing a brand-new Soviet missile submarine for 38 straight days without being detected. Surviving the exact same casualty that sank the USS Thresher, a seawater flange blowout at 1,300 feet. Snagging a fishing net with his periscope at 2:30 in the morning. Watching Apollo 13 launch through the periscope. A swim call in the middle of the Panama Canal. And the day his captain made him the boat's official Shark Control Officer.Tim went on to a career in nuclear power and today serves on the USS Utah (SSN-801) Commissioning Committee — and he's the first submariner ever featured on this show.If you enjoy these stories, subscribing is free and it genuinely helps us preserve more of them.CHAPTERS00:30 — A Las Vegas Kid Gets Appointments to All Three Academies07:15 — Plebe Year, the Chronometer Answer & Falling for Submarines12:45 — Rickover's Nuclear Program: Sawed-Off Chairs, Nuke School & the Idaho Prototype19:00 — USS John Adams (SSBN-620): 16 Polaris Missiles, 160 Atom Bombs22:30 — Earning His Dolphins: Thrown Over the Side in Guam28:43 — THE DRAGNET STORY: 2:30 AM, Periscope Up Under Two Spotlights35:45 — Life at 300 Feet: Six On, Twelve Off, Movie Night & Fixing Everything40:30 — USS Permit, "Steely-Eyed Killer of the Deep": Trailing a Soviet Sub for 38 Days49:00 — Nuclear Torpedoes & the 1974 Anti-Nuclear Protest in Japan59:00 — The Thresher, the Scorpion & Surviving a Flange Blowout at 1,300 Feet1:06:49 — Creaking Hulls, Angles & Dangles, and How You Evade a Torpedo1:19:40 — Ice Cream Over Sonar, the Army-Navy Game Heist & Apollo 13 Through the Periscope1:30:30 — THE SHARK STORY: "You're the Shark Control Officer"1:35:30 — Rickover's Legacy, the USS Utah & Life After the Silent Service👉 If you’re a Veteran struggling with VA benefits, click this link to schedule a free consultation: https://ameconsultation.com/ref/AVPP1211J20A26YXODisclosure: This is a referral partnership with American Medical Experts. We may receive compensation if you book through our link.If you or a Veteran you know has a story that should be heard, we'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. 

In Episode 45 of Ask A Vet, we sit down with Aaron Hinds, a Georgia kid who turned down a Navy SEAL contract and a nuclear program to do the one thing he'd wanted since he was fourteen: be an infantryman.Aaron takes us from Sand Hill at Fort Benning to the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, through brutal pre-deployment "tryouts" where only two dozen men made the cut, and into Afghanistan's fighting season at FOB Shank, better known as Rocket City. He shares what it's really like the first time rounds snap over your head, the frustrating reality of rules of engagement, the 45-minute firefight that made it into Ricky Schroder's docuseries "The Fighting Season," and the unforgettable Special Forces soldier in a Captain America t-shirt.But the heart of this episode is what came after. Aaron opens up about losing more friends at home than he did overseas, finding a therapist through the nonprofit HickStrong, getting his service dog Ace through Healing for Heroes, and learning that the same mind that survived a war can be pointed at helping people. As Aaron puts it: "I can do great things and I can do terrible things…and I have to decide which one I'm gonna let control my actions."If you're a veteran who's struggling, you are not alone. Reach out to the resources below or dial 988 and press 1 for the Veterans Crisis Line.🎖️ Resources mentioned in this episode: • HickStrong (free therapy for veterans & first responders): https://www.hicksstrong.org/• Healing for Heroes (service dogs for veterans): https://www.healing4heroes.org/• Veterans Crisis Line: Dial 988, then press 1“The Fighting Season” (2015): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4006826📺 Subscribe for a new veteran's story every episode. 🎧 Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and everywhere you listen.CHAPTERS 00:33 – Growing up in Stapleton, Georgia 03:11 – Turning down a SEAL contract to join the infantry 06:05 – Fort Benning: Drill sergeants, weather machines & "Chuck Norris" 15:10 – Fort Drum & the 10th Mountain Division 19:18 – Training to fight: glass houses & complex simplicity 21:30 – Tryouts: competing for a slot to deploy 27:03 – Shipping out: Ireland, Romania & landing at Bagram 29:23 – FOB Shank, a.k.a. Rocket City 36:46 – Rules of Engagement39:22 – Fighting Season 51:00 – The 45-minute firefight & the B-1 show of force 1:02:04 – The A-10 pilot with the angelic voice 1:04:37 – Pitch Perfect, surf & turf Fridays and badminton diplomacy 1:12:01 – The frustration of ROE 1:14:34 – Coming home 1:31:51 – Therapy, HickStrong & a service dog named Ace 1:43:17 – Final Thoughts & Reflections #AskAVet #Veterans #Afghanistan #10thMountain #Infantry #VeteranStories #MilitaryPodcast

Stephan Wolfert enlisted as a medic in 1986, became an infantry officer, trained for elite special operations, and was on a fast track to a full military career…until two devastating losses in the same year broke something in him. A chance encounter with Shakespeare's Richard III in a small Montana theater changed the course of his life forever.Today, Stephan is a licensed psychotherapist, Shakespeare actor, and founder of De-Cruit, a groundbreaking program using Shakespeare's verse to help military veterans heal from PTSD and trauma. With over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles backing his work, what started as one veteran's personal catharsis has helped thousands find language for the unspeakable.In this episode, Stephan talks candidly about growing up on the rough north side of La Crosse, Wisconsin, fleeing to the Army as his only way out, the rapid rise through elite military training, the grief that broke him, and why he believes we recruit soldiers but never truly "decruit" them — and what that costs all of us.🔗 Learn more about De-Cruit: www.decruit.orgCHAPTERS:3:02 – Why He Joined the Army5:45 – Becoming a Combat Medic7:06 – Basic Training & What Surprised Him12:40 – Advanced Training & Becoming an Officer18:05 – Iran-Contra, Central America & Shifting Beliefs22:55 – Getting His History Degree & Turning Down Regular Army28:47 – JRTC & National Training Center: Elite Field Training34:33 – Ranger School & What Almost Ended It37:42 – The Arctic Training Story (A Favorite Army Memory)42:53 – The Losses That Broke Him: Deaths in Training & a Soldier's Suicide49:49 – Going AWOL: A PTSD Episode on an Amtrak Train54:14 – Whitefish, Montana & a Shakespeare Play That Changed Everything58:31 – Turning Down the Military for Good1:02:12 – Ranger School: The Concussion That Cost Him the Tab1:13:19 – Graduate School & the Birth of Cry Havoc1:16:36 – Creating DeCruit: Shakespeare as Medicine for Veterans1:29:02 – The Research: What the Data Actually Shows1:37:43 – Veterans, Childhood Trauma & ACE Scores1:46:44 – How to Find DeCruit & What's Coming Next1:48:35 – The Real Cost of War & What We Choose Not to Fix1:55:34 – Final Thoughts & Reflections If you or a Veteran you know has a story that should be heard, we'd love to hear from you at [email protected].

In EP 43 of Ask a Vet, Ron Holdaway shares a remarkable journey from growing up in Wyoming to serving as a senior Army lawyer involved in historic cases during Vietnam and beyond. Discover his perspectives on military justice, the Vietnam War, and the lessons learned from a lifetime of service.CHAPTERS: 01:00 - Growing up in Wyoming & becoming a lawyer02:37 - ROTC, JAG Corps & early military career07:21 - First assignments & court-martial work12:04 - Postings in Hawaii, Germany & Vietnam14:39 - First war crime case & combat refusals16:10 - Deployment to Vietnam21:36 - Arrival & life in Vietnam27:15 - Living under fire & shrapnel injuries31:00 - Soldier shoots fellow soldier on drugs33:01 - The 1st Cavalry Division36:20 - War crimes, mutilation & drug enforcement43:53 - The Mealy incident45:07 - Lieutenant Calley's court-martial & media fallout48:18 - Leaving Vietnam & anti-war sentiment back home51:33 - Pentagon, Europe & promotion to Colonel59:38 - Chief Judge & career reflections63:43 - Final thoughts on Vietnam & life lessons🎖️ Ask A Vet is dedicated to documenting and preserving veterans' stories in their own words, on their own terms, before their stories are gone forever. If you believe these stories matter, please subscribe, like, comment, and share. Your support helps us preserve the voices of those who served.✈️ Ask A Vet is proud to partner with Utah Honor Flight — giving veterans a free trip to Washington D.C. to visit the memorials built in their honor. Every flight is free to veterans and made possible by generous donors. Learn more or support the mission at utahonorflight.org or find your local hub at honorflight.org.

In Episode 42 of Ask a Vet, we sit down with Navy veteran Tom Hopkins: a man who spent 20 years chasing submarines across the Pacific, Atlantic, and Mediterranean, surviving fire control lock-ons off the coast of China, harrowing carrier landings, cold catapult shots, and engine failures that nearly put him in the water. And somehow, he never stopped loving every minute of it.Tom grew up in Salida, Kansas, the son of an Air Force bomber pilot who flew unarmed DC-3s over the Himalayas in WWII — and who died in a B-47 crash when Tom was just 12. That loss shaped everything that came after: the draft, the Navy, the jets, the submarines, and the psychological reckoning in his final year of service that taught him PTSD is very, very real.From the flight line at Kingsville, Texas to carrier operations on the USS Ticonderoga and USS Kennedy, from S-2 Trackers to computerized S-3 Vikings, from a night aboard the USS Sabalo diesel submarine to Civil Air Patrol missions near Hill Air Force Base — this is a story of service, sacrifice, and a lifelong love of flight.

In Episode 41 of Ask a Vet, we sit down with Walter Cox, Vietnam-era Army warrant officer, helicopter pilot, and Price, Utah native.Walter flew both Cobra gunships and Huey slicks with the 7th/17th Air Cavalry and Alpha 2/27 at Camp Holloway in Pleiku, South Vietnam. He walks us through what it was like to learn to fly in the tiny TH-55 trainer, transition to the sleek and lethal AH-1 Cobra, and ultimately find his calling in the Huey — hauling troops, supplies, and ARVN advisors across the Central Highlands. He recalls his first time being fired upon, the B-40 rockets that barely missed his crew, a bullet hole discovered in his rotor head days after a mission, and the devastating loss of fellow pilots that still stays with him.Walter is also open about the silence he kept for decades after coming home — the airport with no welcome, the PTSD he still navigates, and the memories he's had to push down just to get through. This episode is a remarkable window into the everyday heroism of a generation of veterans who served quietly and came home to even quieter streets.🎙️ Ask a Vet is a podcast dedicated to honoring and preserving the stories of veterans.