Ft. Bragg Stories Podcast
by North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC · 20 episodes
SocietyCulturePersonal
The Ft. Bragg Stories podcast uses personal narratives to explore life on and around this country's largest military base. It's a collaboration between the Fayetteville Observer and WUNC's American Homefront Project.
Latest episodes
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: 'Time To Bow Out'
This year, after more than a decade of service as a linguist and a paratrooper, Jay Huwieler made the decision to leave the military. “It was a combination of feeling like I’d serv…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: 'More Happiness In My Life'
Jeremy Moore was on a night patrol in Afghanistan in 2012 when he fell nearly 60 feet down an open well. He suffered serious injuries to his legs, spine, and head. He returned to F…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: 'What We Were Called To Do'
Military service is the thread that weaves Bobby and Alexia Fields’ family life together. He’s on active duty at Fort Bragg, she serves in the Army Reserve. Together, they balance…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: 'A Turning Point In My Life'
From 1942 until 1978, women who wanted to join the Army served in the Women’s Army Corps. Former Specialist Victoria Landes spent six years as a WAC during the 1960s, training to b…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: 'The War Was Wrong'
As a young man in the late 1960s, Hal Noyes faced the prospect of being drafted to fight in Vietnam. He was opposed to the war, but decided to enlist, hoping to avoid combat. By 19…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: From Agriculture To Airborne
Growing up on his family’s farm in southern Alabama, Private First Class Tyler Dunn thought his future lay in agriculture. “Our family farm, we’ve got roughly 3,000 acres that we r…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: Helping Incarcerated Veterans
Lynn and Steve Newsom spent five years as co- directors of Fayetteville’s Quaker House. During their tenure, they advocated for better mental health care for incarcerated veterans,…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: 'No End In Sight'
Sergeant First Class Kelly Rodriguez deployed more than five times in the course of her 21-year military career, serving as an Army Combat Medic in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and twice…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: 'Journey Through Darkness'
Retired Major Ivan Castro’s life was forever changed September 2, 2006, when a mortar landed near him in Iraq. Two of the men in his unit were killed and Castro was gravely injured…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: 'We Try To Debunk'
In 2008, Armando Nunez and a friend decided on a whim to try their hand at ghost-hunting by taking pictures in a local cemetery. His wife Joanna and friend Tom Kuntz soon joined in…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: 'A National Emergency'
Jean Wilson was a college freshman on October 22, 1962, when she heard President John F. Kennedy’s speech announcing the presence of nuclear-armed Soviet missiles on the island of…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: Hurricane Florence
Hundreds of soldiers aided in Hurricane Florence rescue and recovery efforts, even as some saw their own homes flooded or evacuated. Specialist Ruben Alvarez is a parachute rigger…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: Earning The President's Hundred Tab
Specialist Jonathon Wannemacher is an infantryman in the 82nd Airborne. He’s also a skilled marksman. At age 26, he’s ranked as one of the top 100 competitive shooters in the count…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: "Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things"
The Base Realignment and Closure process of 2005 shut down 24 military installations across the country and consolidated many more. Fort Bragg grew as a result, adding the U.S. Arm…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: First Flight
Bob Dean was a twenty-year-old rising senior at Cornell in 1950. When the Korean War started that summer, he was training with his ROTC class at Fort Bragg. “I recall for the early…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: 'The Checkpoints Went Up Overnight'
Growing up on Fort Bragg as the son of an active duty service member, Josh Groll saw the military installation as his home, a small town insulated from the rest of the world.
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: 'Time Stood Still'
In the fall of 2001, Shelli Altopp-Miller was living with her husband and two small children at Pope Air Force Base. He was on active duty with the Air Force, she was a stay-at-hom…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: 'Square Peg In A Round Hole'
Steve Newsom and his wife Lynn spent five years as co-directors of Quaker House, the Fayetteville nonprofit that advocates for peace and supports service members who question their…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: 'He Stood Out In My Mind'
Mary Ellen Shugart served two tours as an Army nurse in Vietnam in the 1960s and early 70s. She treated hundreds of soldiers, but the memory of one young man at Fort Bragg stayed w…
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4 min
FT. BRAGG STORIES: 'The War Is Over'
Bill Reid is 92 now, but back in 1944 he was just 18 when he was drafted to fight in World War II . He traveled by train from New Jerse y to Fort Bragg for 17 weeks of training bef…