Guest: Dr. Lynnea Magnuson, Museum and Collections Executive, St. Louis Soldiers Memorial

This week Vet Net Producer and Co-host, Lynnea Magnuson takes a break from scheduling and hosting to be interviewed about her day job as the person in charge of the St. Louis Soldiers Memorial Military Museum. The Museum, a St. Louis downtown landmark since 1923, is located at 1315 Chestnut Street. Find out what is going on at the Memorial and the Museum by listening to this episode of the Vet Net. For even more information, visit the museum’s web site or call (314) 622-4550. Tell them you heard about it on Vet Net!

Photo courtesy of St. Louis Soldiers Memorial Military Museum. Photographer Roger Perry

Guest: Sergeant First Class Michael Hinzmann, Drill Sergeant, Fort Benning, GA

This week’s special guest is SFC Michael Hinzmann, a sixteen year Army veteran who has served a year in Korea, one tour in Afghanistan, and two tours in Iraq. He is currently assigned to Fort Benning, GA, as a drill sergeant. SFC Hinzmann finds this duty very rewarding, offering his extensive experience to the brand new Army privates as he guides them through their first weeks of training. In this interview, SFC Hinzmann fills us in on what basic training is like in today’s Army.

Interesting note: Charles Clyde, host of the Vet Net, has a son currently going through basic training at Fort Benning. Immediately following the taping of this interview, SFC Hinzmann revealed that Charles’s son is a member of his platoon! Next week, Charles will attend his son’s basic training graduation. He is looking forward to meeting SFC Hinzmann in person.

Photo courtesy of U. S. Army

Guest: Staff Sergeant Timothy Ferris, Instructor Army Combatives School, Fort Benning, GA

From the Army Combatives School Website:
The mission of the Army Combatives School is develop the instructor base necessary to get Basic Combatives to every Soldier.

SSG Timothy Ferris, a native of Doniphan, MO, joins the Vet Net to fill us in on his job as an instructor in the Army Combatives School. Ferris has worked teaching this very personal hand-to-hand warrior skill for the last 18 months. When asked if this training was helpful to him during his two deployments to Iraq, the ten year Army veteran doesn’t hesitate. The answer is an unqualified yes. For more information (including photos and video), go to the Army Combatives page of the Fort Benning Website. Details are also on the site about the 2009 Army Championship Combatives Tournament, Fort Benning, GA, September 17-20, 2009 (open to the public with no admission charge.)

Image Courtesy of United States Army

Guests: Josh Steiber and Conor Curran, Veterans of Iraq and Originators of the Contagious Love Experiment.

Recently, I was privileged to listen to the stories of two Iraq combat veterans passing through St. Louis on their bicycles on the way to San Francisco.
I was deeply impressed; not by the venture, though it was bold and wonderful in its own way, but by the spirit that drove it. It was something genuine, rooted in the errors of the past recognized and overcome; sanity arising from insanity, enlightenment and freedom, resulting from the application of critical thinking and a release of spirit.
Josh Steiber and Conor Curran have been bicycling across the country, encountering its citizens where they live, telling their stories and letting those stories work their way into the conscience of the people they meet.
I was impressed not only by their spirit, but how that spirit guided their encounters, laying off the preaching, doing a lot of listening, seeking areas of common interest, yet being fully their enlightened selves in a totally non-threatening way.

This week, Chuc goes on location to interview Josh Steiber and Conor Curran about the Contagious Love Experiment and the cross country bicycle trip that is part of it. Give a listen, then check out their blog to follow them to the West Coast.

Photo courtesy of Josh and Conor. Thanks, guys!
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