Category: War Stories
ep 82: Talk To Me Goose!
By now, just about everyone has seen Tom Cruise’s blockbuster movie, “Top Gun: Maverick”...so why are we talking about it? Well, for one thing, it’s “us,” and another is it’s a damn good movie! So if you’re one of the few who have not seen this movie and you’re worried about spoilers in this podcast,…
ep 80: The Red Knight of Germany
We all know The Red Baron as Snoopy's unseen arch-enemy who shot his Sopwith Camel doghouse out of the sky untold times in the Peanuts cartoons. But the actual man was much more than the caricature painted by Charles Schultz! Although Baron Manfred von Richthofen was only involved in World War I's air war for…
ep 78: My Road to Mandalay with David Townsend
Major Donald Townsend experienced some of the most extraordinary events in British history. In My Road to Mandalay, author David Townsend recounts his father's adventures fighting with the "Forgotten Army" in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II. David expertly choreographs this story through a collection of more than 500 letters his father wrote to…
ep 76: The Kee Bird, Revisited
The Digression Podcast Guys are taking some much-needed time off, so climb aboard the Wayback Machine as we revisit one of our favorite episodes from the early days: Recovering the Kee Bird (episode #8 from 8/25/2019). In addition to a cleaned-up replay of the original episode, we share some additional news and insight about the…
ep 74: Bloody Peleliu
In the autumn of 1944, the U.S. landed on Peleliu, one of the Palau Islands of the western Pacific. Some 28,000 Marines and soldiers hit the tiny island and immediately faced stiff resistance from the Japanese. The brutal, difficult battle lasted more than two months. The island garrison put up a particularly tough defense along…
ep 73: “No One Told Me”
IN THE NEWS: Early thoughts on Ukraine; Feel-good story of the day; Seems we did leave a helicopter behind; DoD claims data glitch in vax reporting; 6-million man-hours gone woke; Kabul commander whines; The REAL Space Force is live; The other Space Force wants to pick-up garbage; Lucifer's Chariot laid to rest; Army points finger…
ep 72: Voice of the Dogface
Bill Mauldin once said that the infantryman “gives more and gets less than anybody else.” He knew this from his experience on the front lines during the invasion of Sicily and the Allied campaign up the boot of Italy. The talented cartoonist succeeded in ruffling the feathers of the “brass” all the way up to…
ep 71: Covid Misinformation
IN THE NEWS: Covid misinformation; Pentagon spox refutes woke military claims by explaining how woke they are; Leaked docs prove Biden's Afghanistan failure; Special Forces take out new ISIS leader; Vax injuries skyrocket after military vax mandate; The REAL Space Force is back!; Congress turns down Space National Guard...again!; If that's not bad enough, there…
ep 70: Rommel’s Last Day
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, Germany’s widely praised “Desert Fox”, met his end not on the battlefield, but at the hands of henchmen sent by his own commander in chief. After more than 75 years, Rommel’s death remains a testament to the depravity of a regime and a leader who, by the summer of 1944, he…
ep 68: The Christmas Truce
By December 1914 the reality of trench warfare quickly settled in. Heavy rain soaked both the trenches and the “No Man’s Land” that separated them. For those on the Western Front, daily life was miserable, but it was a misery that was shared by enemies who were, in some places, separated by only 50 yards.…
ep 67: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
When it comes to the military lexicon, there is a certain language that has many civilians thinking they're listening to a foreign tongue. Well, they are. Not "foreign" as in another nation's language, but foreign as in another culture. Although many military words and expressions do indeed have foreign language roots (the history and etymology…
ep 66. Operation Pastorius
After declaring war on the United States in 1941, Adolf Hitler was determined to bring the violence of World War II to the United States. His goal was to show that Americans weren't safe within their homeland. His goal was simple: To strike fear in the eyes of American citizens in order to reduce their…
ep 65: Porky’s Marine
IN THE NEWS: Winsome Sears is the American dream; Accountability Marine held accountable, but still comes out a winner; 1000s of Americans still in Afghanistan; Service members' sue DoD over vaccine mandate; Vaccine in use missing one thing: FDA approval; Let’s have some compassion; Brits kick USMC ass; China’s hypersonic missile and General Milley’s concern;…
ep 63: Balance the B.S.
Shocker! The military doesn’t nation-build and we've been saying it all along; News sources we like; Artificial Intelligence Assassin; Mossad does the coolest sh*t; Woulda, coulda, shoulda in Afghanistan; Great deals on U.S. guns in Afghan stores; Continuous background checks are coming; New Space Force uniforms and well-deserved mockery; USAF owes for Texas shooting and…
ep 62: Operation Rype
One could say this episode is a "part 2", of sorts, as it focuses on one of the Jedburgh commandos and an Office of Strategic Services operations supported by The Carpetbaggers, the clandestine flyers we talked about in episode 60. This is the story of Major William Colby and Operation Rype. “Rype” was the codename…
ep 61: Afghanistan. Let’s Talk About It.
The Digression Podcast Guys September 17, 2021 0 Comments on ep 61: Afghanistan. Let’s Talk About It.
Where were you 20-years ago when the U.S. war in Afghanistan began? It was September 11, 2001 and al Qaeda terrorists hijacked and crashed two American Airlines passenger jets into the Twin Towers, another into the Pentagon, and a fourth, a United Airlines jet bound for the Capitol Building or the White House, was crashed…
ep 60: The Carpetbaggers
One of the best-kept secrets of World War II was the CARPETBAGGERS, the code name for a joint OSS-8th Air Force covert ops unit. Assisting French underground groups in the European theater of operations, American Airmen flew agents and supplies to those resistance forces. They flew specially modified, black-painted Consolidated B-24 Liberators, Douglas C-47 Skytrains,…
ep 58: Sprayed and Betrayed
This is the story of a dangerous toxin released on our enemy and our own, all the while being lied to by the government. No, we’re not talking about Covid, we’re talking about Agent Orange. Much of South Vietnam is covered with very thick, dense jungle vegetation. This dense vegetation was used as cover by…
ep 54: Third Time’s The Charm
This is the story of a young Korean man, Yang Kyongjong, who was pressed into military service for the Japanese army to fight the Russians in Manchuria. Captured by the Russians, he had spent a year in a labor camp when the German invasion of Russia saw him pressed into a Russian army uniform facing…
ep 53: Whistleblower
IN THE NEWS: Social distancing on Mount Everest; Netanyahu says 'no' to Biden; Space Force whistleblower with a book; Vandy is newest Space Force Base; Justice Thomas rags on Feres Doctrine; Pentagon trolling social media; CENTCOM begins Afghanistan drawdown and worries about the vacuum; UFOs are everywhere; U2 talks to F22 and F35; Contractors sell…
ep 49: Finding Faces with Ryan Kern
Ryan Kern is a former news anchor and reporter for a Nevada NBC affiliate. Now, as an independent journalist, he is the host/reporter/producer of the Finding Faces podcast. You may remember Chris and Jody talking about Ryan and Finding Faces in Episode 37. “Finding Faces: The Search for the Missing Pictures of Fallen Vietnam Heroes”…
ep 46: Florida Fiasco
In 1812, the United States government tried to annex Spanish East Florida by a combination of covert action and direct invasion. Then the plan went horribly wrong. The “Patriots' War'” in Spanish East Florida during 1812-13 was an early example of a military disaster caused by a secret, flawed political policy. The characteristics of this…
ep 45: TRUMP!
IN THE NEWS: Mike saves Tiger; Space takes a back seat; Trump; Paski mocks Space Force; Floaty Bois; IG probes Space Force relo; Trump; Capitol fence ain't going away any time soon; The National Guard may not either; Biden's Three Stooges Syria Solution; 'American is Back' like it was before; Trump; We ain't leaving Afghanistan;…
ep 44: Too L8, They’re Gone
To the mysteries of the sky add the case of the U.S. Navy blimp, L-8. Since the dawn of aviation, aircraft have flown into the clouds never to be seen again. The L-8 disappeared into the clouds all right, but when she reappeared and eventually came back down to earth, she was missing her crew!…
ep 38: Broken Arrow
Seven and a half hours into their training mission, Major Howard Richardson and his Boeing B-47B Stratojet flight crew finally began to relax after an evening of deploying electronic counter-measures and chaff to evade prowling North American F-86 fighters. The sky was clear and the moon was full. Heading south at 35,000 feet and 495…