Warriors In Their Own Words | First Person War Stories

John Nicely was a Sergeant in the US Marine Corps during the brutal Pacific island campaigns of WWII. He saw his first action in the battle of Saipan in June 1944. From there he continued fighting from island to island and eventually prepared for the invasion of Japan. Nicely and his unit entered the devastated city of Nagasaki, just 25 days after the nuclear blast. We met up with him at a reunion of the 2nd Marine division in 1994 and he shared his vivid memories of front-line combat.
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General Frank “Pete” Everest was a record-setting US Air Force Test pilot. As a fighter pilot in World War II he flew over 150 combat missions. He then went on to lead the Air Force flight test program, flying with other legendary pilots like Chuck Yeager and George Welch. In the 1950s Everest set records like taking the X-1 to an altitude of 73,000 feet and the X-2 to 1957 mph. In this episode Pete Everest tells stories of those pioneering days of experimental aircraft and daring test pilots.
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John C. Muir was a decorated combat veteran of the Vietnam War. He hailed from four generations of men and woman who served in distinguished military service. He was also cousin to John Muir the famous naturalist who's been called “The Father of America’s National Parks.” In 1965, Muir volunteered for the US Marine Corps and was sent to Vietnam as a Rifleman. John C. Muir was an excellent storyteller who delivered powerful words about fighting the war and returning home.
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Col. Walker “Bud” Mahurin was an American combat fighter pilot. Flying P-47s with the 56th FG in WWII, he became an ace three times over in the skies over Europe. After the war, he remained in the US Air Force. The outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 found him in the Pentagon, working on fighter aircraft procurement. The skills he exhibited in WWII would once again be tested, this time in a new arena of air warfare, the jet age dogfight. Mahurin tells his story of returning to combat in Korea.
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Walter Bodlander was a military intelligence officer for the US Army during WWII. He was born in Germany in 1920. As a Jew, he knew he had to flea Hitler’s regime. He eventually made his way to the United States and volunteered to join the Army to fight the Nazis. Military Intelligence wanted to use his fluency in German to interrogate Nazi prisoners on the front lines. Walter was soon dispatched to England to join the D-Day invasion and the march into Germany.
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