Medal of Honor Podcast

49 episodes listed below

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Valor, memory, and the cost of courage.

The gist

Medal of Honor Podcast presents tightly narrated accounts of service members whose actions led to the nation’s highest military award. Its episodes move from battlefield context to decisive moments of courage, often lingering on the cost paid by the recipient and those around them.

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About Medal of Honor Podcast

Medal of Honor Podcast is a compact military-history series about valor in conditions where survival is uncertain and time is collapsing. Its episodes are built like case files with a pulse. A service member is introduced through background, unit, war, and terrain, then the story tightens around the action that made the medal possible. The tone is measured. It does not need ornament because the situations are already severe. Owen F.P. Hammerberg’s episode turns a salvage dive into a claustrophobic rescue story, with mud, steel cables, zero visibility, and two trapped men underwater. The A Shau episodes place Bennie G. Adkins and Bernard Francis Fisher inside a wider battle shaped by failed resupply, weather, retreat, and confused fire. Emil J. Kapaun’s story shifts from battlefield chaplaincy to captivity, where survival depends on heat, water, morale, and the refusal to abandon wounded men. The show also makes room for disputed memory. Its Alvin York episode examines how a heroic account can harden into public myth while other soldiers’ roles fade from view. That gives the series more range than a simple gallery of bravery. It honors sacrifice, but it also asks how recognition is created, delayed, challenged, or upgraded decades later. Some installments are standard narrated profiles. Others arrive as feed drops from related history shows, bringing in interviews and adjacent stories such as Earl Plumlee, Louis Zamperini, and Jack H. Jacobs. The recurring structure makes the show easy to enter at almost any episode. The details are often grim. Men are trapped, wounded, captured, shot at, or left with impossible choices. Still, the focus stays on conduct under pressure rather than spectacle. For listeners drawn to military history, moral courage, and the complicated afterlife of official honor, Medal of Honor Podcast offers clean, concentrated storytelling with real historical weight.

Made for: For military-history listeners who want concise, serious accounts of combat, rescue, captivity, and recognition. It also suits audiences interested in how heroic reputations are documented, disputed, and remembered.

What sets it apart: The series pairs battlefield narration with the administrative and historical afterlife of the Medal of Honor, including delayed upgrades and contested accounts. It is reverent without flattening every story into legend.

In their own words

Ken Harbaugh tells the stories of service members who have distinguished themselves through an act of valor. These stories from the Civil War to present day include recipients who were originally overlooked for the medal as well as those who were celebrated at the time.This podcast is made in partnership with The National Medal of Honor Museum.

Medal of Honor actionsbattlefield rescueVietnam War combatWorld War II serviceKorean War captivitydelayed recognitionmilitary memory and mythservice-member sacrifice

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Episodes

  1. 1

    Diving in Darkness: PO2 Owen F.P. Hammerberg

    Dec 23, 2024·5m
  2. 2

    Landing in a Minefield: MG Patrick Henry Brady

    Dec 9, 2024·7m
  3. 3

    The Rescue of Bat 21: Lieutenant Thomas Norris

    Nov 25, 2024·8m
  4. 4

    Hunted in North Vietnam: Lieutenant Michael Thornton

    Nov 11, 2024·8m
  5. 5

    The Capture of U-505: LTJG Albert L. David

    Oct 28, 2024·5m
  6. 6

    The Battle of Shok Valley: SSG Ronald J. Shurer II

    Oct 14, 2024·7m
  7. 7

    The Ultimate Sacrifice: Pvt. Christian and Pvt. Johnson

    Sep 30, 2024·7m
  8. 8

    The Fighting Field Music: Sgt. Darrell S. Cole

    Sep 16, 2024·6m
  9. 9

    The Battle of A Shau Part II: CSM Bennie G. Adkins

    Sep 2, 2024·15m
  10. 10

    The Battle of A Shau Part I: Col. Bernard Francis Fisher

    Hidden gem

    Medal of Honor Podcast's "The Battle of A Shau Part I: Col.

    Aug 19, 2024·22m·1 clip
  11. 11

    Feed Drop: History Daily - A B-24 Crash Survivor Begins a Fight for Survival

    Hidden gem

    Louis Zamperini survives the Green Hornet crash, 33 days on a raft, and capture in the Marshall Islands.

    Aug 12, 2024·19m·1 clip
  12. 12

    Surrounded in Ia Drang: LTC Ronald E. Ray

    Aug 5, 2024·7m
  13. 13

    A Sky Full of Bullets: SSG Salvatore Agustine Giunta

    Jul 22, 2024·5m
  14. 14

    Rerun: Daniel Inouye

    Jul 8, 2024·4m
  15. 15

    Anything for His Crew: 2d Lt. Robert Edward Femoyer

    Jul 1, 2024·5m
  16. 16

    A Century Old Myth: Sergeant Alvin York

    Hidden gem

    The familiar Alvin York legend was “fabricated,” and the Medal of Honor recommendation helped lock it in.

    Jun 24, 2024·18m·1 clip
  17. 17

    Rerun: Jacob Parrott

    Jun 17, 2024·5m
  18. 18

    Clearing the Trench: SSG Edward N. Kaneshiro

    Jun 10, 2024·6m
  19. 19

    A Beacon of Light: CH (CPT) Emil J. Kapaun

    This episode tells the story of Father Emil Capon, a Catholic priest who served as a chaplain in WWII and was awarded the Medal of Honor.

    Jun 3, 2024·10m
  20. 20

    Feed Drop: An Insurgent’s Nightmare - MSG Earl Plumlee

    Host Ken Harbaugh introduces an interview with Medal of Honor recipient Earl Plumlee, who recounts his heroic actions in Afghanistan.

    May 27, 2024·55m·2 clips
  21. 21

    Rerun: The Unbelievable Story - MSG Earl Plumlee

    May 20, 2024·8m
  22. 22

    A One-Man Advance: Pvt. Dale Merlin Hansen

    May 13, 2024·4m
  23. 23

    Feed Drop: History Shorts - Conversations: Col. Jack H. Jacobs

    May 10, 2024·17m
  24. 24

    1,000 Man Ambush: SP5 Dwight W. Birdwell

    May 6, 2024·7m
  25. 25

    A Ticking Time Bomb: AC1 John Lee Levitow

    Apr 29, 2024·7m
  26. 26

    Hostage Rescue in Iraq: SGM Thomas P. Payne

    Apr 22, 2024·7m
  27. 27

    The Invasion of Iraq: SFC Paul Ray Smith

    Apr 15, 2024·5m
  28. 28

    Running Over the Enemy: S/Sgt. Herbert H. Burr

    Apr 8, 2024·5m
  29. 29

    A Pilot’s Final Moments: Capt. Steven Logan Bennett

    Apr 1, 2024·6m
  30. 30

    Rerun: SFC Webster Anderson

    Mar 29, 2024·4m
  31. 31

    The Only Female Recipient: Dr. Mary E. Walker

    Mar 25, 2024·6m
  32. 32

    Ambushed in Afghanistan: SSG Robert J. Miller

    Mar 18, 2024·8m
  33. 33

    Defending Till the End: PFC Anthony T. Kaho’ohanohano

    Mar 11, 2024·4m
  34. 34

    A Selfless Hero: SGT John Phillip Baca

    Mar 4, 2024·5m
  35. 35

    The Battle of Ia Drang Valley: Col. Walter Marm Jr.

    Feb 26, 2024·5m
  36. 36

    The Myth of the Arizona Balloon Buster: 1st Lt. Frank Luke

    This episode tells the story of Frank Luke Jr., a World War I aviator who earned the Medal of Honor.

    Feb 19, 2024·11m
  37. 37

    The Kamikaze Attacks: Lt. Richard Miles McCool Jr.

    Feb 12, 2024·7m
  38. 38

    The Black Panther Tank Battalion: S/Sgt. Ruben Rivers

    Feb 5, 2024·5m
  39. 39

    The Lost Battalion: Four Medal of Honor Stories - Part 2

    Jan 22, 2024·7m
  40. 40

    The Lost Battalion: Four Medal of Honor Stories - Part 1

    Jan 15, 2024·8m
  41. 41

    Thirteen vs. Two: Col William A. Shomo

    Jan 8, 2024·4m
  42. 42

    Rerun: MSgt Leroy Petry

    Jan 1, 2024·5m
  43. 43

    The Unbelievable Story: MSG Earl Plumlee

    Dec 18, 2023·8m
  44. 44

    The Toughest Thing He’s Ever Done: SP5 Clarence Eugene Sasser

    Dec 11, 2023·6m
  45. 45

    Brothers in Arms: SM1 Douglas Albert Munro

    Dec 4, 2023·6m
  46. 46

    Surviving a Rocket: Lt. Comdr. Thomas Gunning Kelly

    Nov 27, 2023·5m
  47. 47

    Service and Sacrifice: Cpl William Kyle Carpenter

    Nov 20, 2023·6m
  48. 48

    BG Theodore Roosevelt Jr.: A D-Day Hero

    Nov 13, 2023·5m
  49. 49

    CinC Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt: The Rough Riders

    Nov 6, 2023·7m