Ask a Vet Podcast - Curious Humanography

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Ask A Vet Podcast is a long-form conversation where veterans share their service experiences in their own words, with respect and control over what they choose to talk about.

10/03/2026

“When I finally came to, I could see the barracks… It was gone.”
On October 23, 1983, at 6:22 a.m., a truck bomb destroyed the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. Marine Scout Sniper Frank Roberts was 400 yards away. He lost both of his sniper partners, his first sergeant, and his company commander. 241 American service members never came home.
In Episode 63, Frank tells us what really happened in Beirut. He talks about a “peacekeeping” mission that was anything but, the week the Marines on the perimeter were cut off after the bombing, and how he carries his brothers with him to this day.

🎙️ Ask A Vet Ep. 63 is out now. Link in bio.
In memory of the 241. Semper Fi.

⚠️ This episode contains graphic descriptions of combat and its aftermath.

10/03/2026

I Watched A Chinook Do This In Vietnam

John was stationed at a remote American fire base deep in the jungles of Vietnam when he watched a Chinook helicopter get into serious trouble.

The helicopter was carrying too much weight.

As it flew over the base, one man jumped from the helicopter roughly 35 feet in the air. Then the Chinook continued into the field beyond the concertina wire, turned upside down and came down in pieces.

John watched it happen.

Hundreds of soldiers ran toward the wreckage hoping someone had survived.

No one had.

“I can't believe what I'm seeing.”

“It was horrible.”

Another firsthand memory from John, a young American machine gunner in Vietnam.

Watch John’s complete interview “ What I Saw in Hell - Memories of a Vietnam Veteran” here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj3nUdsH1CI

10/03/2026

SHE SPENT A YEAR TRYING TO UNDERSTAND HER FATHER'S WAR

Amy was only four years old when her father, Dave, was killed in Vietnam.

Decades later, she began reading the letters he had written home. But there was a problem — she didn't understand the world he was describing.

So Amy started researching.

She watched every Vietnam documentary she could find. She searched for the best books about the war. She listened, read and absorbed everything she could, trying to build a picture of the Vietnam her father had experienced.

And eventually, his letters began to mean something different.

For the first time, Amy could understand some of what her father had been trying to tell his family from halfway around the world.

Watch Amy’s complete interview “What I Never Knew About My Father Killed in Vietnam” here: https://youtu.be/WO2BYNeRG8A

10/02/2026

Vietnam Followed Me Home

John came home from Vietnam carrying something he didn't understand.

The horror he'd experienced didn't simply disappear when he left Vietnam.

For years afterward, he had intense dreams that would wake him up crying, shivering and shaking. The nightmares lasted for nearly eight years.

John says he began to wonder if he was going crazy.

And looking back, he realized how much it affected the people around him—including his first wife.

“I couldn't imagine why she'd divorce me.”

This is another firsthand memory from John about what happened after Vietnam, when the war was over but the memories weren't.

Watch John’s complete interview “ What I Saw in Hell - Memories of a Vietnam Veteran” here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj3nUdsH1CI

10/02/2026

“HOW COULD 10 MONTHS CHANGE ME FOREVER?”

He had been home from Vietnam for years, but he was still trying to understand the anger, fear and other feelings he had brought home with him.

While talking with a psychiatrist at a VA hospital, he questioned how something that lasted only 10 months could leave such a permanent imprint on his life.

His psychiatrist's answer stopped him:

“It can happen in 30 seconds.”

Sometimes the length of an experience isn't what determines how deeply it affects you.

This is one veteran trying to understand what Vietnam left behind after he came home.

Watch Paul’s full interview "What They Don’t Tell About Getting Wounded in Vietnam" here : https://youtu.be/kwns1-jcL8w

10/01/2026

HE COULD HAVE LEFT THEM. HE DIDN'T.

In May 1968, Amy's father Dave was serving in Vietnam as a forward observer.

He was sent south to an area known as the French Cemetery, where he saw wounded American soldiers in the jungle below.

Amy says her father ordered the helicopter down to get them out.

He got off the helicopter and helped the wounded men aboard. But as the helicopter lifted away, Dave was shot in the head and killed.

Amy was only four years old.

This is her account of the final moments of her father's life in Vietnam — and the story she has spent decades trying to understand.

Watch Amy’s complete interview “What I Never Knew About My Father Killed in Vietnam” here: https://youtu.be/WO2BYNeRG8A

10/01/2026

How To Become The Honor Grad In Boot Camp

Larry didn't join the Army because he had some grand plan for his life.

He was looking for structure.

So he enlisted, asked to work in communications, and found himself at Fort Lewis, Washington — doing basic training in the middle of winter.

Somehow, Larry ended up as the honor graduate of his class. His explanation?

He could do more pushups than anybody else.

And he loved bayonet fighting — although, as Larry is quick to explain, it wasn't because he wanted to hit people.

This was the beginning of Larry's journey into the Army and, eventually, Vietnam.

Watch Larry’s complete interview “What They Don't Tell You About Being a 1st Cav Grunt in Vietnam” here: https://youtu.be/btT1gJGw4do

10/01/2026

They Said If You Could Fly This, You Could Fly Anything

Before Buddy ever got to Vietnam, he had to learn to fly one of the Air Force's most demanding training aircraft.

The T-38 Talon was a small, sleek jet with very short wings, and there was a reason the Air Force used it to train fighter pilots.

As Buddy remembers it, the thinking was simple:

If you could fly the T-38, supposedly you could fly anything in the Air Force inventory.

“Not exactly true,” Buddy says.

“But you really had to know what you were doing to fly that plane.”

Another piece of Buddy's story before Vietnam.

Watch Buddy’s complete interview “What They Don't Tell You About Flying B-52s Over Vietnam” here: https://youtu.be/QblbyTbSVe4

09/30/2026

WHEN YOUR DAD GOES TO VIETNAM AND NEVER COMES HOME

my was only four years old when her father, Dave, was killed in Vietnam.

For much of her life, she tried to understand the man she barely had the chance to know — the big, kind-looking football player who became an Army officer and went to Vietnam.

Her mother always told her that Dave wanted to be there. He wanted to help his fellow soldiers. And Amy has come to understand that, while he certainly didn't want to die, he knew the danger was part of what he had signed up for.

This is Amy trying to make sense of the father she lost as a little girl — and the choice he made to serve.

Watch Amy’s complete interview “What I Never Knew About My Father Killed in Vietnam” here: https://youtu.be/WO2BYNeRG8A

09/30/2026

THE LONELIEST JOB IN VIETNAM?

After recovering from malaria, Larry returned to his unit and was given a job that took him to the top of a mountain in Vietnam.

His job was radio relay.

Because FM radios were line-of-sight, units on opposite sides of a mountain couldn't communicate directly. So Larry and one other American were stationed on the mountaintop to relay those communications.

There were also about ten South Vietnamese soldiers up there — and, according to Larry, a Special Forces guy who was busy doing his own thing and didn't seem particularly interested in talking to the rest of them.

Sometimes Vietnam wasn't about firefights. Sometimes it was just two Americans sitting on top of a mountain, keeping the rest of the unit connected.

Watch Larry’s complete interview “What They Don't Tell You About Being a 1st Cav Grunt in Vietnam” here: https://youtu.be/btT1gJGw4do

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