Did you miss it? One of the most popular episodes we ever released from Season One is back for an encore listen: Russian and Chinese-backed rebels were making deadly headway in Oman during its Civil War of the early 1970s. In support of the Western-allied Sultan, the British Army secretly deployed nine operators from its most elite unit, the SAS. HBH is honored to have our guest, Pete Winner, with a special appearance by Sekonaia ‘Tak’ Takevisi, two of the nine SAS heroes who took on over 400 Om...
Sep 09, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 41
Mark Paul’s outrageous adventure, “The Greatest Gambling Story Ever Told," is the hilarious story of two buddies who won't give up on their stroke of luck. While the horse is the real hero of the story—a filly who broke the odds when she won the Kentucky Derby out of sheer heart. Mark and his friend Dino determine to try, along with a third gambling buddy, to go collect their winnings of over a million dollars from a racetrack in Tijuana owned by a cartel... Heroes Behind Headlines Executive Pro...
Sep 02, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 40
David Crow had a childhood like no other—with a mentally troubled mother and a criminally sociopathic father who raised his kids on a Navajo reservation, despite not actually being Native-American. David describes how his father tried to train him to be his criminal accomplice, until as an adult David broke away and ultimately built a successful life as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. David's book, “ The Pale-Faced Li e,” describes the scrapes and adventures he experienced. Heroes Behind Headline...
Aug 26, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Season 3Ep. 39
Bobbie Myers served for years as a Florida policeman, de-stressing from his first responder experiences by living at the beach and surfing. Suddenly, after dramatically saving a drowning boy, his PTSD was triggered. He sought help and found a unique way to heal himself—repairing the headstones and tending the gravesites of fallen heroes, soldiers, and others whose resting places had fallen into disrepair and whose remarkable lives had been forgotten to the mists of time. Now he devotes a portion...
Aug 19, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 38
When he started playing video game “ Red Dead Redemption 2 ”, (which has sold over 64 million copies) Professor Tore Olsson from the University of Tennessee was inspired to use the game's setting in the American West to inspire his students and provoke a conversation about the real history of this romanticized era. And his curriculum has been a wild success. Tore explains how even though the game isn’t perfectly historically accurate, it does raise themes and ideas that are critical to a real un...
Aug 12, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 37
Previous HBH guests, private security contractors Dean and Alana Stott are back—this time reporting on their work last October, after the terrorist attacks in Israel. Charged with helping Americans and others get their loved ones home, Dean describes arriving in Israel for the first time ever, and how they navigated operating on the ground in a country in crisis—solving for airline cancellations and price-gouging, and making local friends quickly to identify possible land routes out of Israel fo...
Aug 09, 2024•52 min•Season 3Ep. 36
Three lives collide and transform in wartime: The Japanese fighter pilot, Mitsuo Fuchida, who led the attack on Pearl Harbor; the U.S. pilot Jake DeShazer, who bombed Tokyo in retaliation and became a Japanese POW; and Peggy Covell, an American woman who felt compelled to help the Japanese-Americans interned in the U.S., despite her missionary family having been murdered by the Japanese military. Though the two men never met Peggy, her generosity of spirit inspired both of them, and they ultimat...
Aug 05, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 35
Lynne Black Jr., as member of RT Alabama – a recon team of the legendary MACV-SOG (“Study and Observations Group”) – fought in one of the most amazing missions of the eight-year "secret war" during the Vietnam War. As their Kingbee helicopter spiraled downward toward the target west of the dangerous A Shau valley in Laos, Lynne and his team observed an NVA flag planted atop a nearby knoll surrounded by thick jungle. From his days in the 173rd Airborne Brigade, he knew that the presence of an NVA...
Jul 29, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Season 3Ep. 34
In 1911, experts believed that the psychology of different races was distinct, and so, like other states, the state of Maryland founded Crownsville, a mental asylum administered by an all-white doctor and nursing staff expressly and exclusively for African-Americans. From her book " Madness ," author/Peabody Award-winning journalist/on-air NBC correspondent Antonia Hylton describes how the physical building was built through the labor of actual patients; how many African-Americans over the years...
Jul 22, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 33
In 1968, SSgt. Richard Fitts Sr. was a member of the legendary MACV-SOG team based in Vietnam, fighting in the ‘secret war’ in Laos, when the helicopter he was flying in crashed in the jungle in a ball of flames. Richard was declared Missing in Action while his wife and 3-year-old son back home in Massachusetts were given no other information. For the next 21 years, Richard Fiits Jr. grew up without a father; not knowing if he would ever return. It wasn’t until 1990, when his father’s remains we...
Jul 15, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 32
In late April 1968, John K. Cordsen was a U.S. Marine on his second tour of duty when he became engaged in one of the most fiercely fought yet little-known battles of the Vietnam War. Over three days, a single battalion of 860 U.S. Marines fought against nearly 10,000 North Vietnamese soldiers over control of a river that was a critical supply line. Casualties were high and both sides claimed victory, but U.S. forces ultimately prevailed. Part of the storied 2nd infantry, 4th Marines known as th...
Jul 08, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 3Ep. 31
Howard Snyder Jr. was a B-17 pilot bombing Nazi targets during WWII—when in February 1944 he and his ten-man crew were shot down over Nazi-held Belgium, close to the French border. His son Steve Snyder details how eight of the men, including his dad, survived the crash before scattering into the countryside. Howard survived through the bravery and largess of local Belgians, who tried to help the stranded American soldiers. Howard ultimately worked for the Resistance in Belgium until he was able ...
Jul 01, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 30
During the Iraq War, U.S.M.C. Infantry Major Scott A. Huesing led Echo Company, 2nd battalion, 4th Marines through some of the worst combat in Ramadi, in Al Anbar Province in Iraq. He shares his account of the harsh realities of dense urban combat, and what helped his men persevere—especially their sense of camaraderie and 'family,’ that persists decades later as his soldiers and their families continue to build their lives stateside. Scott served in the Marines for 24 years. His book " Echo in ...
Jun 24, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 3Ep. 29
David Ambroz was one of three kids raised by a single mother with mental health issues. In his book, "A Place Called Home," he describes his Dickensian childhood surviving a flawed parent, life on the streets, and a social services system seemingly designed to deprive his family of the help they needed. When his mother grew too violent, David was initially relieved to be put in the foster system, despite being separated from his siblings. But things went from bad to worse, until finally he found...
Jun 17, 2024•59 min•Season 3Ep. 28
In his book, “Poisoner-in-Chief,” (Henry Holt & Co.) former New York Times reporter and prolific author, Stephen Kinzer describes the shadowy man responsible for setting up one of the most infamous U.S. government programs. In 1953 during the “Cold War,” MK Ultra was initiated to develop techniques to brainwash people to act as our ‘programmed’ agents, in response to the paranoid misconception that Communist regimes had already succeeded in this objective, as in the film “Manchurian Candidat...
Jun 10, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 27
" Damn the Valley " is the mantra of every soldier from 2 Fury who fought in this infamous Taliban stronghold and is also the title of guest Will Yeske's memoir. Operating as the gateway to Kandahar, this area saw months of the fiercest combat—yielding a 52% casualty rate as coalition forces attempted to pacify this hotspot in 2009 and 2010. At one point, the entire prosthetics unit of Walter Reade Hospital was filled with men who had patrolled that deadly area, and yet it garnered little attent...
Jun 03, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Season 3Ep. 26
Elmer Miller was born in upstate New York into a large farming family that was part of a strict Amish community. Standing under four feet tall as a grown man, Elmer talks about the reality of life inside this group; how he confronted his own limitations and rebellious spirit; and ultimately his decision to leave and pursue life in the wider world with the "English." Heroes Behind Headlines Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson Music provided by ExtremeMusic.c...
May 27, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 3Ep. 25
Ryburn Dobbs breaks down his work as a forensic anthropologist and scientist and separates fact from fiction, as in TV programs like "Bones," explaining how real forensic investigations work. He shares details from his cases, and how his examination of bones help revealed critical clues as the police worked to solve murder cases. Now retired, Ryburn continues to consult episodically on cases, and is also now the author of a series of mystery books based on his cases, including his latest book, "...
May 20, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 24
Moritz Fuchs was a private in the 1st infantry division, 26th regiment, when he was sent overseas after D-Da,y to help fight German forces in the Huertgen forest, which saw some of the worst fighting in the whole war and claimed over 30,000 U.S. casualties. After being wounded and recovering, he later served in the Harz mountains of Germany. After the war, he was appointed bodyguard to the Chief Prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials and was a witness to all the historic proceedings. Father Fuchs de...
May 13, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 3Ep. 23
As part of a military unit so secret that its team members are not permitted to speak about it--except now for the first time ever!--Adam Gamal (not his real name) is not who you might expect to find in such a unit. But he's exactly the person who's most effective. Born in Egypt, he emigrated to the U.S. to avoid Islamic extremists; worked two jobs while getting his degree; and then enlisted in the U.S. Army. He describes his deployments to the Middle East and Africa; being wounded; and the vari...
May 06, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 3Ep. 22
U.S. Army Major General Gregg F. Martin (ret.) was the epitome of a successful military officer—an inspirational leader brimming with energy, intelligence and creativity. He shot up the leadership ranks of the U.S. military. During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, he commanded the 130th Engineer Brigade as they cleared the way and rebuilt bridges to facilitate the takeover of the Euphrates River Valley, Baghdad and beyond. Working nonstop and seemingly indefatigable, he inspired the people he led a...
Apr 29, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 21
David Holdridge served as a platoon leader in the U.S. Infantry outside of Chu Lai, Vietnam suffered a catastrophic injury, and has since devoted his life to delivering humanitarian aid to people suffering from starvation, exploitation, and in war zones around the world in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. From Saigon to Gaza, he relates his journey. Inspired to write his book "The Water Above," David brings important wisdom as he shares his insights into working effectively within various cultu...
Apr 22, 2024•1 hr 39 min•Season 3Ep. 20
A different kind of war story and hero: Lt. Mary Balster was a charming Midwestern teenager (the apple of her father's eye) when she enlisted as a nurse at the outbreak of WWII. She proved invaluable on the front lines as a German-speaker, but was unprepared for the nonstop workload; the filth; the horrible injuries and desperation; the quickly formed friendships; having to care for enemy combatants; and being one of a handful of women surrounded by thousands of GIs. Patton insisted on keeping h...
Apr 15, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Season 3Ep. 19
Award-winning journalist Sam Quinones lays out the facts behind the meth and fentanyl drug crisis in the U.S.: He expertly describes how mass manufacturing has made these drug ubiquitous, cheap, and infinitely more potent, and thus unlike any other drugs--legal or illegal--ever consumed by human beings. Sam explains how today’s meth has triggered an abrupt rise in homelessness, and why these drugs and so destructive to users, their families, and ultimately all of us. Heroes Behind Headlines Exec...
Apr 08, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Season 3Ep. 18
Janina Melberg was a brilliant mathematician posing as a Polish Countess Janina Suchodolska to hide her Jewish identity during the Nazi occupation in WWII Poland. She simultaneously joined the both the Polish Welfare Council (RGO)--and secretly the Polish Underground--and bravely organized food and relief supplies for Poles incarcerated in the infamous Majdanek Concentration Camp. Co-authors Elizabeth B. White and Joanna Sliwa trace the long-hidden history of this remarkable and previously unkno...
Apr 01, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 17
Jim “Wild Carrot” Shorten-Jones served as a team leader (One-Zero) in MACV-SOG during the height of Vietnam War, and ultimately in the Army, Navy and Air Force. In another exciting chapter in America's "secret war" in Laos and Cambodia, Jim shares his adrenaline-fueled war stories as team leader of RT-Delaware, and also recounts the non-stop life of adventure he has led since--including his work as a U.S. Air Force Pararescueman (PJ) saving people stranded far out at sea. Heroes Behind Headlines...
Mar 27, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Jim “Wild Carrot” Shorten-Jones served as a team leader (One-Zero) in MACV-SOG during the height of Vietnam War, and ultimately in the Army, Navy and Air Force. In another exciting chapter in America's "secret war" in Laos and Cambodia, Jim shares his adrenaline-fueled war stories as team leader of RT-Delaware, and also recounts the non-stop life of adventure he has led since--including his work as a U.S. Air Force Pararescueman (PJ) saving people stranded far out at sea. Heroes Behind Headlines...
Mar 25, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 15
When FBI Special Agent Nikki Badolato arranged a live meetup with a man looking to 'rent' her infant daughter as part of a sting, she was shocked to see how presentable and 'normal' this 30-something man was. Now, after a two-decade career, Nikki and Rolling Stone journalist Alex Morris lay out the state of domestic human trafficking, how pedophile rings work, and what we should all know about the fight to save hundreds of thousands of children trafficked in the U.S. every year. Heroes Behind He...
Mar 18, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 14
U.S. Coast Guard Veteran Martha La Guardia-Kotite shares inspiring stories of bravery from her book, “So Others May Live—Coast Guard’s Rescue Swimmers: Saving Lives, Defying Death.” These brave men and women put their lives at risk to rescue people in the greatest peril. Among the stories is that of a baby rescued from a boat in the middle of a hurricane. Heroes Behind Headlines Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com...
Mar 11, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 13
One dark night in Austin, Texas, onlookers watched in horror as musician Gary Wimmer was struck head-on by a speeding car, ramming his head into the front grill and hurtling him into the air until he landed on the pavement. When he stood up minutes later, seemingly unharmed, people were confused and unbelieving at his lack of injury. So were the emergency room doctors. While unconscious, Gary experienced a near-death experience, or NDE. What Gary experienced in that minute or two changed his lif...
Mar 04, 2024•54 min•Season 3Ep. 12
