Tag: Vietnam War

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650- Podcasting and the National Vietnam War Veterans Day 2023

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter show, we deliver some perspectives into the remembrance and celebrations of the National Vietnam War Veterans Day of 2023. This national day of recognition is always on the 29th of March.

And, yes, I was a part of the war, as a UPI reporter and cameraman captured a photo while we were on patrol as we were crossing a rapidly-flowing river in the mountains and jungle. And, yes, that is myself that the reporter captured on film some 52 years ago.

US troops of the 23rd (Americal) Infantry Division ford a river about 11 miles west of Chu Lai in South Vietnam (then the Republic of Vietnam, or RVN), 15th August 1971. The GIs, members of Bravo Company, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry, are among the last U. S. combat troops still operating in the field. US B-52 aircraft bombed suspected communist troop concentrations near the demilitarized zone, on August 15th, following more shelling and ground assaults earlier on August 15th. More than 750 rounds of mortar and artillery fire have been directed at South Vietnamese outposts along the demilitarized zone August 14-15th.

In addition to my combat experiences, I was also injured by exposure to Agent Orange, and I sometimes reflect on how my condition can never be cured, but only treated (as the VA medications will only slow down the inevitable, which is that the toxin will kill me — so much so that I have been murdered or “killed” even though I am not completely dead yet, and my life in my body has not fully expired). And a t-shirt that I have tells the truth to everyone around me.

As a podcaster, I am grateful that I had a chance to live this long so far, even though my complications from AO exposure to the toxins are taking more of a toll on my health. But these seem to remind me of the Vietnam War and the experiences that I had going through my tour of duty as a combat infantryman, where I served as a machine-gunner and grenadier in the jungles, the mountains and the rice paddies.

I have told this story of my time in the war and how I dealt with some of the issues that I still carry today — especially of how I had to confront the PTSD when I returned home. This was highlighted in an interview that I did on Mack Payne’s podcast show, Vietnam Veteran News. You can go to a podcast show where I include a 45-minute interview with Mack on an earlier podcast episode #611 in this series at this URL: podcastreporter.com/?p=2236:

611- BONUS episode — Vietnam Veterans Podcast interview 2022

Now, earlier, I attended a session of the Texas legislature, where the National Day for Vietnam Veterans was declared. Also, there was a statue that was dedicated to over 3,000 Texas Vietnam Veterans who were killed in the war. That statue is now in the grounds of the Texas State Capitol, as a reminder of the sacrifices made by its citizens:

In my past podcast shows, I have contributed to the veterans of that war, as well as others in my 2 previous shows, Combat Infantryman’s Podcast show and the 82nd Airborne Division podcast (both now podfaded after 11 years).

So podcasting has allowed me to deliver homage and honor to the veterans who fought in that war and who sacrificed. As you can determine from my own experiences, not all veterans who returned without being physically maimed in combat were still affected or injured. Some of us will always carry the pangs of the war in our minds, our hearts and our decaying bodies after 52 years.

But podcasting has, for the most part, allowed me to reflect on the war and has given me a chance to obtain a bit of closure on the memories and the nightmares from that time in history where the veterans were shunned by a large group of an ungrateful American public upon their return home.

I have a Zippo lighter as a relic from the war, and I had it engraved with some words of wisdom that I still see today: It says “For those who have fought for it, Freedom has a taste that the protected can never know.”

So, to my fellow veterans, I deliver a salute to them as part of my gratitude and camaraderie to say “Welcome home, brother.”

Thank you for your attention — and please thank a veteran for what you are enjoying today (your life).

Copyright (c) 2023, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Mack Payne of vietnamveterannews.com. All rights reserved.

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podcast

631- Microcasts and long-play episodes in podcasting of memoirs

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter show, we discuss the concept of creating your memoirs as episodes in a podcast show, instead of written content in the form of a book or collection of stories in some written format.

The memoirs in which I am creating (since I am in my twilight years at this time) are going to be put into a podcast show (which is yet to be published — for I am hoping it will be in the next few years) which is called The Real Academy of Life (or RAL). And since it is not yet launched, I do have the domain for the URL and will have the host media site which will be the tools needed for this. And also, I have the first 4 episodes already recorded and ready to include in this podcast show.

Now, in the latest episode in which I greatly test the comparison and contrast of a short episode in length (i.e., a micro-cast) and a longer-length podcast show, the topic is my military experience in the military when I was in the Army as a combat veteran and served in the Vietnam War.

The format I had for this longer-length podcast episode was the following:

  • Title and name and number and podcast show (audio);
  • Intro music;
  • Intro content — usually 3 minutes or shorter;
  • The segue of music to introduce the first complete and unabridged 24-minute repurposed podcast episode from the Combat Infantrymen’s podcast show called Combat and Camaraderie
  • The segue music to bring on the final other repurposed podcast episode which had Mack Payne, podcaster of the VietnamVeteranNews.com show interview me to discuss multiple ways in which I coped with PTSD after my return to the USA from the war;
  • Exit music.

  • And here is the long-play content with 2 episodes:

So this episode in this show lasted one hour and 21 minutes total — a complete change from my micro-cast episode format for the past 2 years or more. However, that does not mean that I did not include any longer in time content in my episodes. I did include both links and URLs and other reference resources. By pointing to these content sections in the links and other references, I allowed my listeners to link over to the details and longer-length episodes of some of my other podcasts, as well as other podcast shows from other podcasters (e.g., Dave Jackson and Daniel J Lewis and Adam Curry, etc.).

So when I finally get ready to publish and launch my new podcast show titled The Real Academy of Life and its URL to the domain, I will announce this and give it the needed quality of a good podcast show, with the details and shownotes it deserves.

So, we hope that you may find my life experiences interesting in this newer podcast show of my memoirs that will contain both micro-cast format episodes as well as longer episodes (of an hour or more in time), and that you will find it of value in your podcasting career.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Mack Payne of vietnamveterannews.com and David Jackson and Daniel J Lewis. All rights reserved.

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RAL 03- Podcasting memoirs — Military experiences in the war

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This is episode 03 of RealAcademyOfLife.com – My Military life in the war — as part of my memoirs.

In this episode, I wish to publish my experiences in my real academy of life described by podcast episodes — they can do a better job of providing the content for memoirs that really is part of the podcast of REAL ACADEMY OF LIFE, as well as syndicating it to PODCAST REPORTER.

If I take a look at my life (currently without a bucket list), I would approach this from the perspective of my funeral services. You see, Ordinarily, I would have requested 5 photos to be put on display during my upcoming funeral services:

– Photo of myself with my wife and children (myself as a family man);

– Photo of myself in business attire (showing myself as a business man);

– Photo of myself in my charro attire (showing myself as a folklorico dancer and instructor);

– Photo of myself in my uniform in 1972 (showing myself as a military man and veteran of the war in Vietnam); and

– Photo of my wedding, with all the wedding party (showing myself surrounded by the friends and family who shared the happiest day of my life).

However, in this episode of THE REAL ACADEMY OF LIFE, we will focus on one of these eras in my life — just a part of my experiences in the military when I was a combat infantryman and paratrooper during the Vietnam War.

For the initial discussion points in my life, I would want to include a repurposed podcast episode that focused on combat and camaraderie — which is the title of the episode content that Mack Payne (podcaster with his show of VietnamVeteranNews.com) published in his show with my own thoughts of those two situations.

Then we would want to discuss how I dealt with the return from combat and assimilated myself back into THE WORLD after my tour in Vietnam.

To do this, we will first admit that I had a bad case of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) when I came back from the war). And then I had a 45-minute discussion in an interview with Mack Payne in the same podcast show (i.e., VietnamVeteranNews.com) in which we discussed my multiple ways of dealing with the PTSD situations after the war. The four main ways of my dealing with my post-war problems and complications were:

  1. Writing — both nonfiction stories and later podcast and blog content;
  2. College and graduate education (in a rather obsessive manner);
  3. Joining and participating in Veterans Service Organizations; and
  4. Podcasting and blogging.

However, I do wish to mention that there were another few minor experiences that I had while in the Army, especially when I was an instructor in the 82nd Airborne RECONDO school, as well as being a recruiter-canvasser for the 82nd Airborne Division in the West and Southeast of the USA, just before my participation in the deployment of the 82nd Airborne for entering the Yom Kippur war in October of 1973.

In addition, I will also discuss and describe my experiences with my treatment by the VA — the Veterans Affairs (earlier referred to as the Veterans’ Administration) — and the struggles to deal with my physical complications from the war as a disabled veteran.

However, we can deal with those in a later episode of this podcast series called THE REAL ACADEMY OF LIFE).

So, for this long episode, we will first include the 24-minute discussion of combat and camaraderie…and then follow it up with a 45-minute interview with Mack Payne about dealing with PTSD for VietnamVeternanNews.com.

I salute those veterans who fought in the infantry in the Vietnam war, and who experienced the combat and camaraderie.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2022, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and vietnamveterannews.com and Mack Payne. All rights reserved.

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566- True history stories in Podcasting — content with flashbacks

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss one type of content for podcasters (especially senior or older podcasters) — that is, the stories of historical value and truth that we remember and are faced with daily from our own past, and which may cause flashbacks (and sometimes bring on an episode of PTSD).

 

I am referring to a photo that was taken over 50 years ago, while I was a combat infantrymen in the jungles of Vietnam during the war. This was a photo of which I clearly remembered the situation once I had seen it in a summer, 2021, issue of Vietnam Veterans of America magazine.

That’s right…the photo is of yours truly on a patrol in the mountains and jungles of Vietnam over 50 years ago. The articles surrounding this photo tells the story of 3 combat troops who were killed in action during that time. The photo below is the reminder for the story.

US troops of the 23rd (Americal) Infantry Division ford a river about 11 miles west of Chu Lai in South Vietnam (then the Republic of Vietnam, or RVN), 15th August 1971. The GIs, members of Bravo Company, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry, are among the last U. S. combat troops still operating in the field. US B-52 aircraft bombed suspected communist troop concentrations near the demilitarized zone, on August 15th, following more shelling and ground assaults earlier on August 15th. More than 750 rounds of mortar and artillery fire have been directed at South Vietnamese outposts along the demilitarized zone August 14-15th.

The reason that this story is important for this podcast show is that memories like this can cause us to try to create and send a message out to willing audiences in the form of podcast shows and episodes.

Such was my case when, in 2008, I created a podcast show called the Combat Infantrymen’s podcast. It was going strong in 2017, when I had to podfade the show, due to health complications that I was suffering, as well as operations and hospitalization (mainly from complications due to Agent Orange exposure). In looking back (without going to my saved archives), I think I must have had between over 50 to 100 episodes in that show.

The creation of the podcast show and its episodes allowed me to send my message out to fellow combat infantrymen — not only during the Vietnam War, but also from WWII and Korea, etc. It also allowed me to purge some of the PTSD demons that haunted me, and it did give me (at times) some form of closure during the years of creating, producing, posting and publishing my podcast show. Also, I had grown closer to many brothers of mine who served in the War (many of whom were in the same Division and unit in which I was in), especially when I promoted the association that I was publishing this podcast show for. This was for the Combat Infantrymen’s Association — not only for the soldiers who fought in the war, but for their families and the relatives of those who did not make it home. We honored them.

For the Association was the main conduit of my stories, my interviews, my history and my content for all the episodes that I had published.

So, sometimes your own past history and stories can create good content for a welcomed audience that would appreciate your show and be appreciative of the content and the closure that you can provide, depending upon the stories.

So, from the stories that I had told about World War II paratroopers who earned the CIB (combat infantryman’s badge) when it was first issued in 1943 — and especially one paratrooper (D. G. Harris, RIP) who crossed the Waal River at the Nijmegen bridge in Holland during Operation Market Garden, as well as make 2 more combat jumps in Salerno and Sicily — to the tales of combat veterans during the Vietnam War, this podcast show delivered a unique VALUE to those veterans who consumed podcasts. However, today, there are several Vietnam Veteran podcast shows, including the Vietnam Veteran News with Mack Payne. Now, although Mack delivers a consistent stream of episodes, I tried to reach out to him to provide him with great stories from a combat infantrymen of myself in the 23rd Infantry Division (Americal)… — all I wanted to do was to thank him for his show and respect to Vietnam Veterans and offer him some free content of interviews that I had done….

So, from this podcaster, I wish to tell you podcasters that some of the stories and history that you may have in your life may be great content to provide value to some of the audiences that you may not even realize may be hungry for your stories and interviews.

We hope that you, also, can find a way to get your own personal stories (when it makes sense to do so and when you are mentally and psychologically ready to share them) out to your new audiences. In this way, we hope you make your podcasting careers more successful.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation and michaelandmike.com and Mack Payne. Photo image licensed from getty images. All rights reserved.

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podcast

509- A eulogy for podcasting — but a bit too early

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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter, we discuss how your departure from podcasting and downsizing of your shows from several to just one or two may be a bit premature at the time you start to suffer from health complications due to age.

I, myself, a podcaster for the last 15 years, did feel that the world of health complications was crushing in on me and that I would have to exit from the podosphere. And so, in January of 2018, I wanted to give my listeners from the last 3 remaining podcast shows a type of eulogy that will signal my farewell (as at that time, I did feel that I was going downhill and would not recover to my previous level due to my conditions — both mental and physical, especially with the reactions to my complications resulting from exposure to Agent Orange from my experience in the Vietnam War as a combat infantryman).

So, at that time, I did present a type of eulogy to my listeners as I had just finished shutting down 5 of my then current shows. And today, I had withdrawn 15 of my shows, even though since 2018, I did add 2 more shows — and that is my situation today.

Now, besides physical health complications and aging, what other situations would force an avid podcaster to podfade his shows? Well, I know now that aging conditions that start with dementia and alzheimers (the symptoms, that is) can signify slipping into non-productive situations that may force me to podfade my shows and resign myself to treatment in the VA for PTSD, dementia and alzheimers for my injuries and wounds during my time in the service.

But at this time, I have grown much stronger since the time that I recorded my eulogy in audio for my listeners in the podosphere. And because of this, I feel that I am still going strong in the world of podcasting — and this proves that podcasting is a great way to recover from declining weakness from health and other family medical situations, even though the cause of my health situations was 50 years ago.

And so, I wanted to give you in this audio player the six-minute audio episode of this podcast series (episode 95), so that you can hear what a eulogy from podcasting would be like — and you can understand that it was premature.

So I am in recovery and still feeling strong to podcast my episodes and see that my shows are growing with great numbers of listeners and followers. In fact, I have reached a new high for listeners to another podcast show (2030podcast.com) due to the value that others have received — and from their posting not only great reviews, but also republishing episodes in a worldwide stream that has grown my audience of listeners by many thousands.

Thus, I am living proof that age is just a number, but your mental attitude and strength to continue podcasting for passion is most important to overcome both ageism and some of the mental and physical “speed bumps” with declining health.

And for this, I am grateful to my audience, my listeners, my producers and to both Adam Curry and John C Dvorak of the show No Agenda for keeping me sane through all the craziness of 2020. I also thank Sir Ryan Bemrose and Darren O’Neill of the Grumpy old Bens show — especially for promoting my podcast episodes on the noagendastream.com worldwide stream.

Thank you for your attention.

Copyright (c) 2021, Matrix Solutions Corporation . All rights reserved.