To honor the men and women of the armed forces this Veterans Day, Westwood One News is offering stations an 11-part original series of featuring content on U.S. veterans. The 60-second features include perspectives from national leaders and veterans on their service; they were produced by Westwood One News national security correspondent and anchor Chas Henry, himself a veteran and former captain of the U.S. Marine Corps.
Stations will have access to these features on Veterans Day this Wednesday, Nov. 11, as well as on audioBoom as part of the Westwood One Podcast and On Demand Platform.
Here are the topics of each feature:
● A history of how Veterans Day came to be
● An Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, now in college, on how different infantry life is from student life
● A World War II vet tells how people often pay for his meals when he’s wearing his armored division ball cap
● A West Point graduate talks about what he learned from leading soldiers during two tours in Iraq
● A web site offering ideas on how people can volunteer their time to make Veterans Day more meaningful — a “day on” rather than a day off
● The president of a small liberal arts college in Salt Lake City talks about how the institution is helping vets graduate by creating a one-stop shopping Veterans Center on campus
● A woman who served in the Marines from the 1960s to the 1980s talks about how — even at VA centers — people don’t assume that a woman can be a veteran
● Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), a retired Air Force attack pilot and squadron commander — discusses challenges veterans face when dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs
● A former Army officer discusses how some returning veterans now could benefit from looking to the example World War II veterans set with regard to transitioning back to civilian life
● The manager of an American Legion post discusses why fewer young veterans are affiliating with traditional veterans’ service organizations, and why he believes they should join
● A consultant who helps companies find and hire top-quality men and women leaving the military says the veteran employment picture is better than some think — even for some veterans who may be going about their job hunt the wrong way
The series has 11 parts because the origin of Veterans Day is Armistice Day, which remembered the end of World War I. The armistice for that war was initiated on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.
