Hitch Hiker Part 4: Conclusion
This episode concludes the John Sweren story. It's a departure from my father's tank battalion but is well worth a listen, as it covers many of the un...
War As My Fathers Tank Battalion Knew It
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About
Aaron Elson went to a reunion of the 712th Tank Battalion in 1987, seven years after his father passed away. Aaron was so moved by the stories the veterans shared that he returned two reunions later with a tape recorder. The rest is history. Oral history.
Hitch Hiker Part 3: Close Encounter With a Buzz Bomb
John Sweren of Mesa, Arizona, was a tail gunner on a B-26 in World War II, and a former prisoner of war. In 2005, he attended a ceremony in the Norman...
Hitch Hiker Part 2: Merry Christmas in July
John Sweren of Mesa, Arizona, was a tail gunner on a B-26 Marauder in World War II. On July 28, 1944, while on his 58th mission, his bomber took a dir...
Hitch Hiker: Part 1
When I launched War As My Father's Tank Battalion Knew It, I intended it to be mostly about tanks. But the title is misleading, and I'm the person ...
Thanksgiving in the Rain
Our nation spent Thanksgiving this year in the middle of a war that has claimed a quarter of a million lives. My father's tank battalion spent the Hol...
Episode 62: Cult of Personality
This episode of the War As My Father's Tank Battalion Knew It podcast is not about my father's 712th Tank Battalion. Rather, it is about Joseph Stalin...
Food and War
You've probably heard the phrase "An army travels on its stomach." In this collection of culinary anecdotes from Aaron Elson's archive of oral history...
You could die laughing: Stories of Humor and War
In one of Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe cartoons, a grizzled sergeant says to his squad, "I need a volunteer what don't owe me money." Many combat vet...
Cannon Fodder: Arnold Brown, Part 2
Arnold Brown enlisted in the Army as a private in 1936 and despite having only an eighth grade education became a rifle company commander in the 90th ...
Arnold Brown, Part 1
Arnold Brown enlisted in the Army in 1936. Despite having only an eighth grade education, he rose in the ranks to become a rifle company commander in ...