May 24, 2020

This week’s one hour radio broadcast is apropos for the Memorial Day weekend when we honor the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.

Dale Throneberry will interview Joe Galloway, a civilian war correspondent. Galloway served four tours as a war correspondent in Vietnam and also covered the 1971 India-Pakistan War and half a dozen other combat operations.

In Stilwel, Kansas there is a family run foundation that offers combat veterans equine therapy. War Horses for Veterans is the premier horsemanship, networking and personal growth program in the U.S. They are a Kansas City based nonprofit that brings combat veterans from across the country together in a safe and peaceful environment.

Joe Galloway, Vietnam Correspondent and Bronze Star for Valor

Hosted by Dale Throneberry

They Were Soldiers

They Were Soldiers showcases the inspiring true stories of 49 Vietnam veterans who returned home from the “lost war” to enrich America’s present and future.  

In this groundbreaking new book, Joseph L. Galloway, distinguished war correspondent and New York Times bestselling author of We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young, and Marvin J. Wolf, Vietnam veteran and award-winning author, reveal the private lives of those who returned from Vietnam to make astonishing contributions in science, medicine, business, and other arenas, and change America for the better.

For decades, the soldiers who served in Vietnam were shunned by the American public and ignored by their government. Many were vilified or had their struggles to reintegrate into society magnified by distorted depictions of veterans as dangerous or demented. Even today, Vietnam veterans have not received their due. Until now. These profiles are touching and courageous, and often startling.

They include veterans both known and unknown, including:

  • Frederick Wallace (“Fred”) Smith, CEO and founder of FedEx
  • Marshall Carter, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange
  • Justice Eileen Moore, appellate judge who also serves as a mentor in California’s Combat Veterans Court
  • Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state under Colin Powell
  • Guion “Guy” Bluford Jr., first African American in space

Engrossing, moving, and eye-opening, They Were Soldiers is a magnificent tribute that gives long overdue honor and recognition to the soldiers of this “forgotten generation.”

You can find Joe’s books on Amazon.com.

War Correspondent Joe Galloway

Joseph L. Galloway, one of America’s premier war and foreign correspondents for half a century, recently retired as the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers. Before that he held an assignment as a special consultant to General Colin Powell at the State Department.

Early in 2013 he was sworn into service as a special consultant to the Vietnam War 50th Anniversary Commemoration project run by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He is also permanent consultant to Ken Burns’ Florentine Films project to make a documentary history of the Vietnam War for broadcast in 2016 on PBS.

Galloway, a native of Refugio, Texas, spent 22 years as a foreign and war correspondent and bureau chief for United Press International, and 20 years as a senior editor and senior writer for U.S. News & World Report magazine. He joined Knight Ridder in the fall of 2002.

During the course of 15 years of foreign postings—including assignments in Japan,  Indonesia, India, Singapore and three years as UPI bureau chief in Moscow in the former Soviet Union–Galloway served four tours as a war correspondent in Vietnam and also covered the 1971 India-Pakistan War and half a dozen other combat operations.

 In 1990-1991 Galloway covered Desert Shield/Desert Storm, riding with the 24th Infantry Division (Mech) in the assault into Iraq. Galloway also covered the Haiti incursion and made trips to Iraq to cover the war there in 2003 and 2005-2006.

The late Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf who first met Galloway in South Vietnam when he was a brand new Army major, called the Texan “the finest combat correspondent of our generation—a soldier’s reporter and a soldier’s friend.”

Powerful Storytelling through Books and a Movie

He is co-author, with Lt. Gen. (ret) Hal Moore, of the national bestseller “We Were Soldiers Once-And Young” which has been made into a critically acclaimed movie, “We Were Soldiers”, starring Mel Gibson. “We Were Soldiers Once-And Young” is presently in print in six different languages and more than 1.2 million copies have been sold.

Galloway also co-authored “Triumph Without Victory: The History of the Persian Gulf War” for Times Books— and he and Gen. Moore in 2008 published their sequel to We Were Soldiers, a work titled: “We Are Soldiers Still:  A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam.”

 Last year Military History magazine polled 50 leading historians to choose the Ten Greatest Books Ever Written on War. We Were Soldiers Once…and Young was among those ten books.

Awards and Boards and Honorary Doctorates

Galloway received the National Magazine Award in 1991 for a U.S. News cover article on the 25th anniversary of the Ia Drang Battles, and the National News Media Award of the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1992 for coverage of the Gulf War. In 2000, he received the President’s Award for the Arts of the Vietnam Veterans Association of America. In 2001, he received the BG Robert L. Denig Award for Distinguished Service presented by the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Association. In 2005, he received the Abraham Lincoln Award of the Union League Club of Philadelphia, and the John Reagan (Tex) McCrary Award of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

Galloway was awarded the 2011 Doughboy Award, the highest honor the Army’s Infantry can bestow on an individual. Few civilians have ever received a Doughboy. On Veterans Day, 2011, he received the Legacy of Service Award of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.

Galloway is a member of the boards or advisory boards of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the 1st Cavalry Division Association, the National Infantry Museum, the School of Social Studies of The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., the Museum of America’s Wars, and the Military Reporters and Editors Association.

 Galloway is the recipient of honorary doctorate degrees from Norwich University and Mount St. Mary’s College of Newburgh, N.Y.

War Horses for Veterans

War Horses for Veterans is the premier horsemanship, networking and personal growth program in the U.S. We are a Kansas City based nonprofit that brings combat veterans from across the country together in a safe and peaceful environment.

Our 3-4 day programs are designed to teach the basics of horsemanship and create a network that will provide outlets for other opportunities and friendships. We use a combination of learning to work a horse, creating new networks and Equus/Life coaching to help each veteran with their own personal growth.

There is no cost to the veteran. Veterans may return as often as they like, as long as they bring another combat veteran.

www.warhorsesforveterans.com

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