Storytelling America: Veteran Stories - 2

Old Guys & Their Airplanes

OGTA is a small clan of writer, producer, director-types who rally around the idea the "old guys" who've been inside the crucible of conflict have especially interesting stories to tell.
The show idea is simple: John Mollison (an aviation artist and history writer) draws a representative of the "old guy's" service and in the process, asks a lot of questions.

On all the (OGTA) segments below Rick Lingberg served as videographer, editor and story developer.

PROMO #1  

 John Mollison:  "Old Guys & Their Planes"

John Mollison may have started out as a "drawer" of airplanes, but he would go on to be a composer of the stories of many of American's most notable aviation warriors.

Host and co-developer of "Old Guys & Their Airplanes", John is an artist, writer, speaker and passionate about the timeless lessons exhibited by the men who have bravely served to protect the liberties we all enjoy.

Dates That Matter
Do you remember dates? I seem to recall the important ones—birthdays, anniversaries, or major historical events—but most dates just pass me by and I fail to see any course that they may plot or the meanings they reveal.

I don't think Friday, May 19, 1967, meant much to me – I was an eighth-grader at Beresford Junior High School but the day would end up meaning quite a bit to naval pilot, Lieutenant Charlie Plumb, who was flying an F-4 Phantom jet fighter on a combat mission over Hanoi, North Vietnam. While I was safely in my classroom that day dreaming about my upcoming weekend, Charlie Plumb was shot down by a surface-to-air missile just south of Hanoi. He was then captured, tortured, and placed in an eight-by-eight-foot prison cell. He would spend the next 2,103 days in captivity in communist prison camps. I went to high school.

The Greatest Weapon Ever Used
A Missiler Story
Ever wonder who has their hands on the 'key' to nuclear war?

Major General Robert Parker (ret) explains the enigmatic work of the USAF "Missileer"...and experience how the current generation of Missileers articulate their sobering duty.

Bob Pardo "Push Someone"
On March 10, 1967, Bob Pardo was part of a four-ship mission to take out a target just north of Hanoi, North Vietnam. Going in, Earl Aman and Bob Houghton's F-4 Phantom took a mortal hit and what happened next is one of the most amazing stories you'll ever experience.

Claude Hone "696"
To say Claude Hone is a charactor wouldn't be inaccurate, but it wouldn't be complete, either. Claude Hone, is a 93 year-old former World War II pilot of a Marine Corsair who was one of the first pilots to attack Japanese homeland, you don't want to miss his stories in "696". 

Rich Hall "Sweet Marlene"
Rich Hall flew her from 1967-68. John Mollison drew her in 2013 and now interviews Rich Hall, a notable Vietnam War aviator who learned timeless lessons from his life and death experiences while at the throttle of the Skyraider A-1E, "Sweet Marlene".

Chris Morgan "The Wind Beneath Your Wings
Chris Morgan was a Prisoner of the Japanese from October 1943 through June 1945. To put this into perspective, while Allied prisoners of German camps experienced a mortality rate of about 3%, those under Japanese military suffered, depending upon your source, between 33% and 43% mortality.

That Chris survived is one thing. How he thrived...is another. 

Dick Rutan "Misty"
These heroic fighting men found themselves in situations that forced to ask themselves difficult questions to which they hoped they'd find the answers. I asked myself, how would I handle it? How do I explain this to others?

Dick Rutan is a true Renaissance Man. Engineer, Test Pilot, Combat Veteran, Explorer, Philosopher. 

"I had to find out whether I was capable of doing what those people did (WWII bomber crews). What would happen when I first got shot at. What would I do? What would my reaction be? And I had to know the answer." (He found out). 

Nguyen Hong My & John Stiles "The History Lesson"
It really is an improbable situation: a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot meets the North Vietnamese fighter pilot who blew him out of the sky during the Vietnam War...on the former enemy's home turf, Hanoi.

This episode proves out WWII fighter pilot "Morrie" Magnusson's assertion that, "War is a cruel act of diplomacy, of finance, of politics, of personality. But rarely between two (humans)." 

"The History Lesson" is a truly positive story.
PROMO 

The Mettle Behind the Merit - The Steve Pisanos Story