Tango Alpha Lima celebrates its fifth anniversary April 1, a good time to revisit the five most popular episodes this year featuring a former POW, comedian, Grammy-nominated songwriter, history-making pilot and a sleep expert.
The award-winning American Legion Tango Alpha Lima podcast celebrated its fifth anniversary April 1. To honor this achievement, here are the most popular five recent episodes of this year that you don’t want to miss:
• Retired Air Force Col. Lee Ellis, who had flown nearly 70 previous combat missions, describes what happened on Nov. 7, 1967, when he was shot down, captured and held as a prisoner of war until March 1973. “Those first few months were really hard and we were all tortured,” said Ellis, a member of American Legion Post 307 in Cumming, Ga. “They wanted to get some information and they wanted to break us so we would collaborate with them and cooperate.”
• Grammy-nominated American folk singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier talks about her addiction recovery, mental health journey and how she uses songwriting to help veterans with PTSD. “The beauty of recovery is you don’t have to deal with it, you just surrender.”
• Dr. Kamin Samuel, who made history as the Navy’s first Black female helicopter pilot, now mentors others. “We are so good at what our weaknesses are. If we can live in our strengths, that’s the best we can do.”
• Army 1st Lt. Austin von Letkemann, better known as MandatoryFunDay on Instagram, shares how he has gained more than 1.1 million followers. “I yell at my phone and post it on the Internet and now people want me to speak in front of crowds. I didn’t expect that (popularity) because personally I don’t find myself that interesting.”
• Sleep expert Dr. Tina Burke discusses how TBIs, stress and other factors can impede quality sleep for veterans and others. “If you look at our veterans and servicemembers who have had these experiences, it’s adding these factors or conditions that can contribute to what may be leading to sleep problems.”
These are among the 300 Tango Alpha Lima episodes since the podcast kicked off in April 2020. All are available at legion.org/tangoalphalima, the Legion’s YouTube channel, Apple podcasts and other podcast platforms.
- Tango Alpha Lima