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John Wukovits has been studying, teaching, and writing history for over thirty years. His focus is WWII and we spoke about his latest book on Notre Dame chaplains who served in WWII.
1:17 – John talks about how he got into writing this book. He’s been writing books on WWII for 25 years. These chaplains were on many fronts and one even parachuted into Normandy. He tells the story of 35 Notre Dame missionaries and chaplains.
4:00 – John focused on 4 or 5 main [characters] chaplains but he also touches on the rest of the chaplains.
6:30 – John talks about the civilian capacities of these chaplains before they entered the war.
9:00 – The chaplains had to do the same basic training as all the younger soldiers they’d be serving.
14:30 – Father Joe Barry is one of the main persons discussed in the book. He went through many battles and ended up in prison. He received lots of praise from his fellow soldiers.
25:55 – The chaplains’ letters were often not very censored when sent back to the US. John found that many of these letters hadn’t been read by other historians.
27:00 – John talks about a parachute rescue of some missionaries in the Philippines. A couple of chaplains were on the Bataan Death march.
31:15 – John talks about a chaplain who jumped into France with the 101st and what he encountered. The chaplain met one of the Niland brothers and found the grave of another brother.
47:30 – John tells a story about Father Barry hearing a soldier talk the night before a big battle. The next day Father Barry held the same dying soldier in his arms.
58:17 – John has a website, johnwukovits.com. He’ll also sign books bought from his website.
Links of interest
For more “Military History Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at warscholar, on twitter at Warscholar, on youtube at warscholar1945 and on Instagram @crisalvarezswarscholar
Guests: John Wukovits
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, WWII, World War II, Notre Dame, chaplains, diocese, Los Banos, Philippines