Category: Air Force

Air Force and NASA history book – “Come Fly With Us” (University of Nebraska Press, 2019) – Mel Croft and John Youskauskas interview

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Mel Croft and John Youskauskas are both space program enthusiasts who have previously written a book on the NASA space program. They recetly wrote another book on space shuttle payload specialists and we discussed this new book.

1:414 – They talk about how they got into writing on this subject.

2:27 – They talk about how they organized the book.

3:18 – They explain what the pauload specialist program is.

6:51 – They discuss some of the interesting aspects of the program.

9:58 – They talk about writing on STS-51L.

12:26 – They talk about the reactions people had to being chose as payload specialists.

29:47 – They talk about what they might do with all the information they obtained that didn’t end up in the book.

35:44 – They talk about what the specialists thought when they saw they Earth from orbit.

45:28 – They talk about how the DoD affected the shuttle design and missions.

48:38 -They talk about how payload specialists handle being called astronauts.

54:06 – They talk about the X-37B.

57:33 – They’re both on collectspace.com. They’re also on cmflywithusbook.com.

 

Links of interest

https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9780803278929/

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: Mel Croft and John Youskauskas

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: NASA, space program, shuttle, STS, challenger, accident, payload specialist, hunstville, space center, astronaut, X-37B, air force

 

Cold War history book – “Spy Pilot” (Prometheus Books, 2019) – Francis Gary Powers, Jr. interview

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Francis Gary Powers, Jr. is son of the famed U-2 pilot who was downed during a mission. Gary has spent years researching his father’s life and developing the Cold War Museum. We spoke about his new book that covers his father’s and family’s life and career.

1:06 – Gary explained why he wrote the book on his father.

4:00 – Gary talks about he structured the book. He discusses who he interviewed for the book and FOIA requests.

5:53 – Gary talked about how he got the government to help him with his research.

10:18 – Gary talks about how the US government initially refused to believe that the Soviets had missiles that could have reached his father’s plane.

12:00 – Gary talks about how he got into this research.

15:50 – Gary talks about the various sections of the book.

17:01 – Gary talks about how his book adds to the history of this event.

18:40 – Gary talks about the Soviet pilot who was shot down chasing Gary Powers.

21:25 – Gary talks about how the Russians celebrated their pilots.

25:20 – Gary talks about his involvement with the movie “Bridge of Spies.”

28:56 – Gary talks about the Cold War Museum.

34:51 – Gary talks about some of the interesting spy and other items held at the Cold War Museum.

41:51 – Gary talks about the similarities between early NASA and the military.

44:00 – Gary talks about old audio recordings his father had made [that] years ago.

46:42 – Gary talks about the extensive physical and mental testing U-2 pilots went through.

53:58 – Gary has sites at coldwar.org for the museum. Gary has garypowers.com or spypilotbook.com.

Links of interest

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/576973/spy-pilot-by-francis-gary-powers-jr-and-keith-dunnavant/9781633884687/

http://garypowers.com/

http://coldwar.org/

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: Francis Gary Powers, Jr.

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, U-2, spy missions, cold war museum, Gary Powers, veterans, CIA, Air Force, medals, missiles, eisenhower, krushchev, latvian rugs, vladimir prison, bridge of spies, afghanistan

WWII history book – “Flying With The Fifteenth Air Force” (University of North Texas Press, 2018) – David Snead interview

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Dr. David Snead is a professor of history at Liberty University. He has edited or written a number of books on US history including WWII history. We discussed his latest project, an edited version of the memoirs of Tom Faulkner, a B-24 pilot in WWII.

1:03 – David talks about how he first got into history.

3:30 – David talks about how he went about editing this WWII memoir.

5:23 – David talks about Tom’s time piloting a B-24 for the 15th Air Force.

12:50 – David talks about Tom’s training and the attitudes of the B-24 versus the B-17.

19:15 – David talks briefly about the Tuskegee airmen.

20:27 – David talks about the facilities the pilots used.

25:06 – David talked about problems Tom might have dealt with because of how young a pilot he was compared to others.

28:36 – David talks about the documents he used to support the things discussed in Tom’s memoirs.

33:58 – David talks about the usefulness of oral histories for this book.

Links of interest

https://untpress.unt.edu/catalog/3816

http://www.liberty.edu/academics/arts-sciences/history/index.cfm?PID=7112

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: David Snead

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, WWII, world war 2, US Air Force, B-24, Europe, Switzerland, missions, Texas