Author: WarScholar

Vietnam War history book – “Uncommon Valor” (Naval Institute Press, 2018) – Stephen L. Moore interview

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Stephen Moore is a marketing executive and journalist. He’s written numerous books and given lectures on Texas history and WWII. He’s written a new book on heroes of the Vietnam War and I spoke to him about this book.

1:34 – Stephen talks about how he got into this project through a family connection.

2:45 – Stephen talks about the book and how he interviewed the men the book is about. He attended their reunions to meet them. he interviewed Green Berets and also the pilots who flew them around in Vietnam.

4:51 – The book starts in Spring 1966 in Vietnam and goes into 1970. The area covers an area near Laos and Cambodia in North Vietnam.

8:40 – Stephen talks about their training and their rotations.

10:45 – Stephen talks about the Green Beret work with the Montagnards and how they earned their awards.

15:55 – Stephen also attended a 57th Helicopter Assault Company reunion too.

18:45 – Stephen talks about the helicopters would get the teams into the mission target area.

22:09 – Stephen talks about what information he gathered and used to do his research.

26:07 – Stephen talks how he reconciled differing stories.

28:46 – Stephen’s favorite part of the research was talking to the guys. He talks about prisoner snatch missions.

40:00 – Stephen was able to track down who was flying a plane that crashed during a Vietnam War mission. This information was unknown for 40 years.

42:50 – Stephen talks about some funny things that happened during the missions.

47:00 – Stephen talks about some of the stuff the Green Berets learned from the Montagnards.

53:10 – His website is StephenLMoore.com.

Links of interest

http://stephenlmoore.com/

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: Stephen L. Moore

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, vietnam war, green berets, special forces, Navy SEALs, Helicopter assault, air force commandos, MACV-SOG, vietcong, medal of honor, purple heart, sacrifice, veterans, WWII

Cold War and modern naval history book – “U.S. Submarines Since 1945, Revised Edition” (Naval Institute Press, 2018) – Norman Friedman interview

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

This is my second interview with naval historian Norman Friedman. He’s written extensively on US and British naval forces and in this episode I spoke to him about his latest book, a revised edition of his book on US submarines since 1945.

2:05 – Norman first talks about why he wrote on submarines.

3:45 – Since the end of the Cold War, the US has dealt more with rogue states and subs aren’t engaged much in that. However, subs are good at collecting intelligence and moving special forces.

6:33 – Submarines have installed much stronger computers to process information.

9:30 – We discuss computer systems aboard submarines.

11:51 – We talk about how German experiences in WWII affected how the US approached subs.

13:30 – The Navy had heavy bombing aircraft originally to bomb enemy sub bases.

16:37 – The US was trying many different engines before designing nuclear propulsion.

20:05 – Norman talks about the Scorpion accident. He also talks about the Thresher accident.

25:00 – Some sub related documents disappear because of the sheer amount of documents out there.

30:45 – Norman talks about sub deep-sea operations.

41:36 – In the book, Norman also talks about why things were used or changed on the subs.

51:15 – The conference in the 1950s to build a new kind of sub was unique.

 

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: Norman Friedman

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, US, Navy, submarines, British Navy, Scorpion, Thresher, attack subs, WWII, world war two