This time of year, with the flags and bunting, flipping burgers on the grill… it tends to get us thinking about what exactly it means to be American.

There are a lot of answers to that question. But one we don’t often explore has to do with those burgers, or pad thai… whatever you might find on your plate… and what those things have to do with our national security.

In this special from from Things That Go Boom, Inkstick Media, and PRX: Two stories about food, family, and the choices our government makes in our name.

The US Secret War turned many Southeast Asians into refugees. Now their kids are keeping that story alive. 

But first…. We meet one of the one-in-four military families dealing with hunger, even as they serve our country.

After a three-year legal battle, The Post obtained hundreds of records of candid interviews assessing the war in Afghanistan and its failures. PRX worked with The Post to turn their podcast on The Afghanistan Papers into a radio special, with broadcast-exclusive reactions from veterans.

 A One Hour Memorial Day Special   

 Alan Seeger: Instrument of Destiny

A new Oratorio in performance

Broadcast Host: Scott Simon

“…Irresistible energy seemed to come from everywhere:

classical forms, jazz harmonies and Arvo Part-like meditations were all on tap...”

wrote the New York Times about Patrick Zimmerli.  The composer and saxophonist, whose recent collaborators include Brad Mehldau, Luciana Souza, the choir Mikrokosmos, and pianist Ethan Iverson, turns now to the Cathedral Chorus of St. John the Divine.  Weaving opera, jazz and choral traditions, Zimmerli brings Alan Seeger’s poems, letters and diaries alive in a compelling music special.   Our broadcast host is NPR’s Scott Simon.

The 59 minute Memorial and Veterans Day music special, produced by Steve Rathe and David Goren for Murray Street is available beginning March, 2021, from PRX.

Paris-based director Mirabelle Ordinaire conceived this work and wrote the libretto, gathering from Seeger’s words a whirlwind of emotions and poignant battle scenes. She directs productions with New York’s Metropolitan Opera and, the Paris Opera, and other companies in works from Berlioz to Mozart and Stravinsky to Weill.

Cathedral Choir Conductor Kent Tritle has been called “the brightest star in New York’s choral music world” by the NY Times. He directs Cathedral Music at St. John the Divine and Musica Sacra as well as the Oratorio Society of New York. He teaches at Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School.

Scott Simon is a journalist and host of NPR’s “Weekend Edition Saturday”.  Author of books ranging from biography to memoir to mystery, he has reported from every state, five continents and ten wars.  He brings a deep humanity to his work in every medium.

Featured soloists: 

Vocalist Alex Richardson is in his fifth season on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He has sung major roles with the New York City Opera and solos with The Boston Symphony Orchestra and at Spoleto USA. His performance illuminates  

Pianist and composer Thomas Enhco’s jazz and classical performances can be heard on the Verve, Deutsche Grammophon and Sony Music labels. His melodies here bring both a light touch of classical repertoire and a thorough knowledge of jazz and improvisation.

David Rozenblatt is a drummer, percussionist and composer whose works have earned Grammy nominations in both classical and popular fields. He is the composer of five original ballets, as well as chamber, orchestral and operatic works. His multiple percussion parts bring gravity, swing and explosive energy to the Zimmerli-Seeger Oratorio.

The professional Cathedral Choir of St. John the Divine sets the standard for music at the Cathedral, both in worship and in concert. Its members include some of New York City’s finest singers, many accomplished soloists in their own right.

Photos available:  Alan Seeger; Patrick Zimmerli; Mirabelle Ordinaire; Kent Tritle conducting; Tenor Alex Richardson; The Cathedral Choir; Pianist Thomas Encho

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This is a country awash in monuments. They adorn traffic circles, street corners and, of course, the National Mall. We’ve memorialized everything from famous soldiers and statesmen, to big ideas or major events – and a lot in between. Yet our ambivalence towards these monuments is as old as our enthusiasm for them. Case in point: The Washington Monument. Ever wonder why there isn’t actually a image of Washington on it?

In this Memorial Day episode of BackStory , we explore the idea of national remembrance. Looking at some of our country’s most iconic monuments, the Guys ask what—and whom—Americans choose to remember, and discover how memorials often tell us more about their creators than what or whom they memorialize.

Guests Include:

• Kirk Savage , Professor of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh on the early controversy over whether or not to build the Washington Monument on the National Mall.

• Kristin Szakos , City Council Member in Charlottesville, Virginia, on two local monuments to famous Confederate generals.

• Teresa Bergman , Professor of Communications and Film Studies at the University of the Pacific, on the evolving film presentations the National Park Service has used to welcome tourists at Mount Rushmore.

At War in the Pacific tells the story of heroism and sacrifice by the young Marines who stormed onto the islands and fought from inside the foxholes in the bloody Pacific Campaign of World War II.  David D'Arcy hosts this compelling radio hour featuring personal testimony from the Marines and historical context from scholars. We hear how the Marines came of age during weeks and months of searing combat -- and how their sacrifices shaped the history of our nation. As the conflict unfolds in the Pacific, friends and relatives tell how they shouldered the burden back home. Filmmakers Steven Spielberg and actor Tom Hanks offer their views on what the war in the Pacific meant -- then and now.

Module 3:  “The Propaganda War at Home”
The horrors of the “forgotten war” in the Pacific are sanitized by Hollywood, the U.S. government and tours of returning war heroes like John Basilone. But the American public faces reality from photojournalists on the scene, and Basilone’s return to duty – and death – at Iwo Jima.

Module 4:  “The Marines Come Home”
The Pacific fighting escalates with kamikaze attacks at Okinawa, and in August of 1945, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As we learn from marines Robert Leckie, R.V. Burgin and historian Donald Miller, the men who came of age in the brutal battles of the Pacific discover a longer and perhaps more difficult challenge ahead: adjustment to life back home.

Eugene "Bud" Clark, a pint-sized scrapper from Macon, GA, mowed down Banzai warriors, watched mass suicide on Saipan, and was severely wounded on Iwo Jima. Howard Terry was traumatized by his accidental killing of an Okinawan boy, returned home angry, belligerent and unable to hold a job. Anthony Daddato lost his best friend to friendly fire,contracted dengue fever,malaria and tuberculosis, and spent three embittered years in hospitals before a feisty nun's advice changed his outlook. Giles McCoy went down with the Indianapolis in one of the worst naval disasters in history. These are just a few of the voices in "The Silent Generation", a one-hour documentary that follows more than a score of men through the definitive year of their lives. Men from all walks of life and all corners of the nation. Men who melted quietly back into civilian life and kept silent for decades. Men who, as time grows short, have been moved to speak with unflinching honesty of events that changed them forever. Their memories are not for the faint-hearted. Here is a view of war from the foxhole. A side of war as relevant today as in 1945. To listen is to understand why they, like tens of thousands of others, could not speak for so long. "The Silent Generation" closes with their unblinking, often wrenching remarks on how combat later affected their attitudes, identity and everyday lives. Producer/Narrator Borten knits their stories into a chronological whole, adding archival newscasts, live reports from the battlefield, and little-known historical details that, together with these unforgettable stories, bring a momentous, searingly brutal chapter in history to life.

For Memorial Day —a portrait of life on the homefront during World War II featuring 4 women’s stories, rare home recorded letters sent overseas to soldiers, archival audio, music and news broadcasts from the era.

In January of 1968 U.S. Air Force Major Stanley Horne was listed as missing-in-action (MIA) after his fighter-bomber was shot down over North Vietnam. Soon afterward his name was one of the many engraved on a POW-MIA bracelet. His story and the stories of those who wore his bracelet, not only contribute to the narrative of the impact of those bracelets, but also to the story of how America struggled with the war and tried to heal from the scars it left behind.

The POW-MIA bracelets of the Vietnam War era made a lasting impression on all those who wore them. Millions of bracelets with the name of a missing or imprisoned soldier were worn on the wrists of family, friends, supporters and critics of the war. It may have been the only item - the only common bond - that crossed the tumultuous political divide. 

BRACELETS OF GRACE: The Vietnam War Story of Major Stanley Horne includes audio from the personal tapes sent back and forth between Southeast Asia and Major Horne’s family in Madison, Wisconsin. It also includes recollections from the young California college students who originated the bracelets, those who wore Major Horne’s bracelet, and those who wrote hundred of letters to the Horne family until the major’s remains were finally recovered in April, 1990, 22 years after his plane was shot down.  

November 11, 2010 is Veterans Day and the 40th anniversary of the POW-MIA bracelets of the Vietnam War.

The documentary is available to broadcast in its entirety or in three installments. 

 

In 1966, a young marine took a reel-to reel tape recorder with him into the Vietnam War. For two months, until he was killed in action, Michael Baronowski made tapes of his friends, of life in fighting holes, of combat. 34 years later, his comrade Tim Duffie brought Baronowski's three-inch reels to Lost & Found Sound. The Vietnam Tapes of Lance Corporal Michael A. Baronowski aired on NPR's All Things Considered on the 25th anniversary of America's withdrawal from the Vietnam. The documentary shed light on the experience of that war, and, in some measure, of all wars. It used the power of radio to reveal the heart through the voice and to see in the dark. It combined the rare talent of the late Baronowski as a "correspondent" from the front, the compassion of his dedicated platoon mate Duffie. This program struck a universal chord with listeners--with those who fought the war, those who protested it, and those who weren't even born at the time. It generated perhaps the greatest outpouring of response in the history of NPR's All Things Considered to date. The documentary won the first Gold Award in the Third Coast Audio Festival competition. Produced by Christina Egloff with Jay Allison.

During her service in the 82nd Airborne Division, Sgt. Kathleen Polanco despised her duty to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. It wasn’t something she fully understood nor carried with a sense of pride, until she felt the impacts of the Invasion of Normandy.

Like many of us, Army Captain Jim Gallagher, a West Point graduate who served in Iraq, could scarcely be separated from his smartphone.

He and I were constantly texting throughout the day,” said his wife, Amanda Gallagher, who lives near Fayetteville, N.C. with their three young daughters. “And he would be on Twitter all the time.

"He was just always using his phone," she said. "To the point where we could get into arguments about like, you know, 'you need to get off phone and pay attention to what's going on here.'"

Then one Saturday night they were watching TV, and he got up and told her he was going to the bathroom. Instead he went into the garage to kill himself.

Gallagher left his iPhone on the kitchen counter and wasn’t wearing the Apple Watch that had become a constant presence on his wrist. She was surprised to find it later in the house.

Now his two laptops, tablet, and that phone – likely containing data about his heart function and sleep patterns uploaded from his watch – are in the hands of the Black Box Project. The initiative - which won a $3 million VA grant - will use artificial intelligence to look for patterns in data from the devices of people who die by suicide.

“In today's day and age, our digital devices, especially smartphones, know more about us than things we've shared with even those we’re closest to,” said Chris Ford, who leads the Durham, N.C.-based non-profit group Stop Soldier Suicide, which runs the project.

The group's main work is suicide-specific telehealth therapy with clients who voluntarily seek help.

Suicide research is notoriously hard, and a key reason is that the people scientists most need to study are, of course, no longer alive. Now, though, the devices that have become extensions of us offer a new window.

“The inner thoughts, feelings and behaviors, the things that I'm doing at two in the morning when I can't sleep,” Ford said. “Those don't get shared with our intimate partners, those don't get shared with our parents or our friends in most circumstances. So, when we came up with this approach, we felt it was the last missing piece in the advancement of understanding suicide risk.”

They also thought it could be an unusually reliable source.

“Psychological autopsies have been done for decades,” he said, “But it's not the whole picture. It's third party data around the person who died… you're asking friends, co-workers, and loved ones their perspectives about the person who died. And so it's biased by the person who's being interviewed and their thoughts and feelings and memories, and it's biased by the interviewer. because if they think suicide is driven mostly by mental health, they're going to probe deeper into mental health. If they think it's more driven by relationships or isolation, they’re going to drill into those things.

“So we really believe the data that we're getting from these devices are the most objective data available to really help us understand the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors in that last year of life,” Ford said.

Some information the devices contain might be obviously useful, like texts, emails, and browser and location histories. But the artificial intelligence will also be looking for patterns in less obvious data that might correlate with suicide risk - things researchers may not have even thought of yet.

The project is just getting up to speed, but it may already be changing some long-held beliefs among suicide researchers, such as the rarity of suicide notes.

“Most research studies in modern times indicate suicide notes happen 15 or 20 percent of the time,” Ford said. “In just looking at our test set, we're finding drafted and deleted suicide notes in at least half the devices.

The digital forensics examiner for the project, Dustin Millado, said these are often in a phone’s notes app or sometimes take the form of an audio or video recording.

“It almost seems like they want to tell somebody what's going on, but they don't really want to tell a person," said Millado. “So that's why they document these things in these notes."

Experts say the project's results could apply to the non-military population, too, with caveats about the differences between the two groups. But they caution against expecting too much from technology.

“Suicide has so many different possible combinations of variables and factors that there are an infinite number of pathways to get there," said Craig Bryan, an Ohio State University professor and a suicide prevention researcher.

He said predictive analytic, large data approaches probably are never going to be able to predict when a specific person is going to attempt suicide. But he said the technology might allow for an approach that he compares to weather forecasting.

“When there's a tornado warning, we don't know if a tornado is going to hit anyone's house in particular at a particular time, he said, "but we know that, hey, the conditions are right, in this county or this city.”

So far, the project has received more than 100 loaned devices that were used by people who died by suicide. Millado - the forensics examiner - handles them with gloves and keeps them in meticulously tracked evidence bags. After he copies the data, he ships the devices back with their contents still intact.

There’s a reason he’s so careful: To people like Amanda Gallagher these aren’t just phones and computers.

“So all of his possessions are really important to me, and they seem like such a limited resource,” Gallagher said. “Like I have to repost the same pictures every year on his birthday, because there aren't any new pictures. If I want to see him with his daughters now, I have to lay one picture on top of the other."

She thinks he’d have been happy to be a part of the project.

“Because it would be exactly the kind of work that he would want to do, because he had a real heart for the soldiers that he worked for and a real passion for data analysis,” she said.

Even though she made copies of the data, she said it was stressful to send the devices away to the Black Box Project. But she said if it helps prevent even one suicide, it's worth it.

“I knew that if there was a chance that another woman didn't have to sit in her child's bedroom and explain to them that their dad wasn't coming home because I was willing to let the phone go, then I should let the phone go,” she said.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a certified listener, call 988.

CrisisText Line is a texting service for emotional crisis support. To speak with a trained listener, text HELLO to 741741. It is free, available 24/7, and confidential.

Veterans share their experiences