VA Presents: My Life, My Story

VA Presents: My Life, My Story

If someone asked you to tell your life story, what would you say? Since 2013, writers from the “My Life, My Story” project have asked more than 5,000 Veterans at VA hospitals around the United States to tell their life stories. With the Veteran’s permission, those stories go into the Veteran’s medical record so that VA health care providers can read them and get to know their patients better. On this podcast, we’ll share some of our favorite stories from over the years.

Episodes

Kari: A big, wonderful, dysfunctional family

August 2, 2023 • 10 mins
A smart, funny sailor talks about her journey from being a cook on a destroyer to a counselor on an aircraft carrier.
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Luke: Turnip soup, black bread

June 9, 2023 • 10 mins
This amazing story details the day-to-day existence of a prisoner of war in Germany during World War II, and also what followed his liberation.
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Eugene: He helps me, and I help him

June 2, 2023 • 8 mins
A veteran discovers at 20 years old something that upends everything he thought he knew about himself. But life goes on.
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Greg: Just keep pedaling

May 26, 2023 • 8 mins
“You never know what other people are going through." That's a cornerstone idea for the "My Life, My Story" project, and it really rings true in this story about Greg.
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Kevin: Boring can be good

May 19, 2023 • 9 mins
Where you start in life can go a long way toward determining where you end up as an adult. But it doesn’t have to.
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Florian: the story everyone wants to hear

August 26, 2021 • 10 mins
The story that Florian tells in this episode is literally the stuff movies are (and have been) made of. Whether or not you know the history of the USS Indianapolis, this is a story worth hearing.
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Jimmy: Leaving a mark

August 19, 2021 • 9 mins
A taxidermist who trekked alone through China and made it into a book called "Weird Wisconsin" -- those are some of the highlights of this wonderful veteran's story.
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Jeb: The Guy Who Got Out

August 12, 2021 • 9 mins
A lot of people have screwed up, royally, at least once in their lives. They've crashed cars, yelled at the wrong guy in a bar, fallen asleep on guard duty, cheated on their spouse . . . or worse. Sometimes, people dwell a lot on the screw-ups. But in Jeb's case, we hear more about what it means to deal with regret while moving on.
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Kevin: Getting tattoos

August 5, 2021 • 13 mins
Many of the veterans we interview are very sick. Sometimes they're even in hospice care. Those patients are often very aware that the end is near. When that's the case, it can really shape what a veteran has to say about his or her life as a whole.
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Alexis: What family's supposed to do

July 29, 2021 • 9 mins
From sibling rivalries to birthday traditions, Alexis's story highlights the highs and lows of family life. Her story was written by a medical student, part of a growing educational trend of having future doctors and nurses interview patients and write up their life histories.
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Boone: In the blink of an eye

July 22, 2021 • 7 mins
Life stories can move at a lot of different speeds. Sometimes, we'll get a "slow burner" - the gradual accumulation of years and relationships and jobs all add up to One Big Tale. Other times, life changes in a flash. Boone's life is one of those "flash" stories.
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Rick: There's a quietness to it all

July 15, 2021 • 11 mins
Rick's story takes several major turns, but one struggle he faced more than once was the struggle of being alone. There's the loneliness that comes from pain, and from being ostracized. And then there's the solitude some people might go looking for to heal up from the things that hurt them.
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Marvin: Greetings!

July 8, 2021 • 10 mins
Everyone we interview has served in the military. But why did they sign up? It's a question we ask often. The answer featured in this episode of our podcast is priceless.
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Anthony: Might as well keep working

July 1, 2021 • 9 mins
Some people search their whole life for work they love. How many of us know what we want to do before we're old enough to walk?
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Mary: Life is a learning proposition

June 24, 2021 • 9 mins
Do you remember the first time you saw your spouse? How did your upbringing shape how you raised your kids? Have you ever been seconds away from dying? In this episode, Mary revisits some of her life's biggest moments.
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Dale: 45 years later

June 14, 2021 • 9 mins
This story is a good reminder of how "going off to war" isn't just a perilous situation for the combatant, but also for the family members back home.
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Joseph: You'd be surprised what we went through

June 14, 2021 • 10 mins
In his very long life, Joseph was many things. World War II veteran. Son. Father. Worker. Traveler. And he was also a pioneer who faced all kinds of resistance and discrimination during his nearly 10 decades on this earth.
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Special Valentine's Day Episode| Stan: 'She made me calm'

February 14, 2021 • 10 mins
We've heard a lot of war stories over the years from the veterans we interview for the "My Life, My Story" project. But because our project focuses on Veterans' entire lives -- and not just their time in service -- we also hear about first loves, broken hearts, and the secrets to long marriages. In this episode, we're bringing you a love story that has a little bit of all three.
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Special Veteran’s Day Episode: "Daniel Facing the Tiger"

November 10, 2020 • 12 mins
The Korean War is often called "the forgotten war," but in this episode of the "My Life, My Story" podcast, we bring you the unforgettable story of Daniel, who was a prisoner of war in Korea for an astonishing 38 months.

Daniel was one of hundreds of captured U.S. soldiers who endured what has come to be known as the Tiger Death March. He shared his story with us more than 60 years after his release in 1953.
We're releasing this epis...
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Charlie: I Don't Want Notoriety

August 31, 2020 • 8 mins
For our last episode of the first season of the "My Life, My Story" podcast, we decided to record the story of the oldest Veteran we've ever interviewed. "Charlie" was nearly 108 when his story was written in the spring of 2020. That means he was old even for World War II veterans. By the time he fought in the Battle of the Bulge, he was already 32.

There's something about Charlie's story that captures what our project is all about....
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