America's Forgotten Heroes

We are the children of heroes. These are the stories of seven men whose courage, determination and skill are so remarkable that it is nearly impossible to credit them as true. But the stories are true. These men were real. These things actually happened. Writer and series host Bill Whittle peels away the history, the colorless and drab recitation of dates and events, to reveal the actual human beings beneath the legend. Many of these men were national celebrities in their day, although a few of them never got the recognition that they deserved in their own time. The one thing that all seven have in common is the tragic fact that almost no one today can even recognize their names, let alone tell you anything about the actions that made those names worth remembering.

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Episodes

Dick Rutan Breaks a Promise

By the mid 1980s, all of the aviation records that had so challenged the imaginations of pilots and the public alike had been achieved… except for one. Lindbergh had crossed the Atlantic. Aircraft had flown to both poles. Even the vast Pacific had been conquered. American jet bombers had flown around the world, but only after multiple refueling events. The only thing left to do that had not been done was to fly around the world, non-stop, on a single tank of gas. Dick Rutan had been a fighter pi...

Jul 07, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 7

Frank Luke Draws His Sidearm

Frank Luke was America’s second highest scoring ace in World War One. Over the course of twelve furious days, he shot down 17 enemy aircraft, many of them observation balloons, by far the most important, the most difficult and the most heavily defended targets of the war. He had been a fullback on his undefeated state champion high school football team in Phoenix, Arizona, before taking a job in the copper mines. An altercation with a professional fighter got him into the bare-knuckle boxing cir...

Jul 06, 2021•52 min•Season 1Ep. 6

Ernest Evans Orders Left Full Rudder

As a young officer on an obsolete destroyer in the opening days of World War Two, Ernest Evans had watched a combined American, British and Australian fleet get decimated by the seemingly unstoppable Imperial Japanese Navy. Forced to cover the humiliating retreat, he swore if given a fighting ship of his own he would never run from enemy forces again. Made captain of a brand-new Navy destroyer, the USS Johnston, this full-blooded Cherokee drilled his crew endlessly, turning his command into a fi...

Jul 05, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 5

Booker T. Washington Catches the Late Train

Born into slavery on a Virginia plantation, Booker T. Washington ’s relentless pursuit of an education would eventually bring him such renown that he would become the first Black American ever invited to a private dinner at the White House. Surrounded by bigotry, his advancement looked by what seemed overwhelming obstacles at every turn, his superhuman discipline, relentless persistence and willingness to work not only earned himself a first-rate education; his attitude had been so impressive, a...

Jul 04, 2021•57 min•Season 1Ep. 4

John Paul Jones Sails Back from the War

John Paul was the son of a Scottish gardener, denied a career as an officer in the Royal Navy due to his humble origins. Falsely accused of murder —twice — he abandoned a career as a successful merchant captain and ran to Fredericksburg, Virginia where he added the most common name he could find in order to hide from the authorities. When the American Revolution began, this experienced seaman now known as John Paul Jones volunteered his services to the new republic. Using third rate ships and of...

Jul 03, 2021•56 min•Season 1Ep. 3

Jimmy Doolittle Releases the Brakes

On the morning of December 8th, 1941, the vaunted US Pacific fleet lay deep in the mud at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. Americans were stunned, but this was just the beginning, as the Japanese rampaged throughout the Pacific, seemingly unstoppable. The six aircraft carriers used on the attack at Pearl Harbor had been training for years, and their pilots were the best in the world flying bible Zero’s that flew circles around the lumbering US fighters, knocking them down in droves. America needed a ...

Jul 02, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 2

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Calls for the Bayonet

On July 3, 1863, Union forces easily took up a defensive line along a small rise call Cemetery Ridge in the peaceful Pennsylvania crossroad village called Gettysburg. But the extreme far left of the Union line was, in the parlance of the time, “in the air” — meaning it was not anchored to a river or forest or other natural barrier. Defense of the extreme let of the Federal line fell to the 20th Maine Infantry regiment, commanded by a Professor of Rhetoric named Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain . Stan...

Jul 01, 2021•54 min•Season 1Ep. 1

America's Forgotten Heroes Launch Trailer

We are the children of heroes. These are the stories of seven men whose courage, determination skill are so remarkable that it is nearly impossible to credit them as true. But the stories are true. These men were real. These things actually happened. Writer and series host Bill Whittle peels away the history, the colorless and drab recitation of dates and events, to reveal the actual human beings beneath the legend. Many of these men were national celebrities in their day, although a few of them...

Oct 27, 2020•1 min0

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