Showing results by narrator "John Chester" in All Categories

A quarter of a million people braved miserable conditions at Epsom Downs on June 2, 1954, to see the 175th running of the prestigious Derby Stakes. Queen Elizabeth II and Sir Winston Churchill were in attendance, along with thousands of Britons who were all convinced of the unfailing superiority of English bloodstock and eager to see a British colt take the victory. They were shocked when a Kentucky-born chestnut named Never Say Die galloped to a two-length triumph at odds of 33-1.

A Soviet dissident poet, a Lithuanian basketball phenom, a baseball legend, a KGB spy, and a dormitory full of oddballs, all together on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. What more could you want in a love story?

Reverend Byron Butler enters the hospital room of an old Marine who wants to confess a dark secret. But Butler can't discover the whole truth until he investigates other leads - Helen and Howard's letters, Josiah Jackson's son, and a mysterious footlocker. Known as the "forgotten battle," Peleliu marked the first time segregated black troops mixed with white Marines on the front lines. The integration wasn't mandated. It was attributed to the ferocity of the battle as black soldiers aided the wounded.

For over 25 years, award-winning journalist Henry Bradsher reported stories from around the world. In this lively and engaging account, Bradsher recounts episodes from a distinguished career that took him to the Himalayas, the jungles of Bhutan, Kremlin caviar receptions, China's Forbidden City, and the battlefields of Vietnam. Throughout, Bradsher emphasizes the unpredictability of a correspondent's life and the strains, perils, and privileges of standing witness to momentous world events.

In the 1960s, the US Air Force lacked both the equipment and properly trained pilots to assure air superiority because the Tactical Air Command (TAC) had become little more than a handmaiden to the Strategic Air Command (SAC). TAC focused primarily on the interdiction of enemy bombers and virtually ignored its other responsibilities, such as providing close support of ground troops with conventional weapons and the interdiction of enemy fighters over the battlefield.

A scientist's recollection of his life as a junior member of the Manhattan Project, Rider of the Pale Horse recounts McAllister Hull's involvement in various nuclear-related enterprises during and after World War II. Fresh from a summer job working with explosives in the chemistry department of an ordnance plant, Hull was drafted in 1943, after his freshman year in college.

When a dead guy falls off the train just yards from Yorktown, a hobo camp near West Wheaton, California, all manner of forces begin to collide. Three men live in Yorktown: York, the old, blind hobo and self-proclaimed mayor of his little enclave; Denny, the young rail rider; and Sly, the damaged Vietnam vet. When they are blamed for the murder, the town fathers are ready to bulldoze the camp that has existed there for 40 years or more.

Children disappear in Vargas County. There's no soft or kind way to put it. In days long past, I lost a sister and then my Weesie and I lost our son. Some live in peace with the specter, some rise up and make accusations, but all of us breathe a sigh of relief when our young'uns reach puberty and we don't have to worry about them anymore.