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Military History Episodes

20TH Century Black History Military History Vietnam War

Racial Conflict in the U.S. Army During the Vietnam War Era

June 5, 2023

In September 1969, African American journalist Wallace Terry reported on “another war being fought in Vietnam — between black and white Americans.” After the 1948 integration of the military, the U.S. Army had tried to be co…

Guest: Beth Bailey
19TH Century Black History Civil War Military History

Black Soldiers & their Families in the Civil War

May 29, 2023

As soon as the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter, free Black men in the North rushed to enlist, but they were turned away, as President Lincoln worried that arming Black soldiers would lead to secession …

20TH Century Military History Women's History World War II

The Women who Programmed the ENIAC

Aug. 8, 2022

During World War II, the United States Army contracted with a group of engineers at the University of Pennsylvania Moore School of Electrical Engineering to build the ENIAC, the world’s first programmable general-purpose ele…

Guest: Kathy Kleiman
20TH Century Black History Military History Women's History World War II

The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion

Feb. 14, 2022

On February 14, 1945, after crossing the Atlantic Ocean and surviving a run-in with a Nazi U-Boat, the women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion disembarked the Île-de-France in Glasgow, Scotland. The task await…

Guest: Kaia Alderson
20TH Century Military History Women's History World War II

The Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II

Dec. 20, 2021

From September 1942 to December 1944, over 1000 American women served in the war effort as Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), flying 80% of all ferrying missions and delivering 12,652 aircraft of 78 types. They also trans…

19TH Century Military History Native American History

The Yakama War

Nov. 29, 2021

In October 1805, the Yakama encountered the Lewis and Clark Expedition near the confluence of the Yakima and Columbia rivers. By fifty years later, so many European and American trappers, traders, and eventually, settlers, h…

20TH Century Military History Native American History World War II

Alaska Territorial Guard in World War II

Nov. 8, 2021

Prior to World War II, most of the US military deemed the territory of Alaska as militarily unimportant, to the point where the Alaska National Guard units were stationed instead in Washington state in August of 1941. That c…

Guest: Holly Guise
20TH Century Military History Women's History

Women in the U.S. Military during the Cold War

Oct. 4, 2021

Nearly 350,000 American women served in the US military during World War II. Although the women in the military didn’t engage in combat their presence was vital to the American effort, in clerical work as well as in driving …

Guest: Tanya Roth
20TH Century Military History Women's History World War I

Knitting Brigades of World War I

June 7, 2021

Between America’s entry into World War I and the end of the war less than two years later, Americans knit 23 million articles of clothing and bandages for soldiers overseas, directed by the American Red Cross. How was this k…

Guest: Holly Korda