Our guest today is one of the nicest guys in the military history community (which is filled with wonderful people!) - Derek Mallett. Late of the US Army Command and General Staff College school at Ft. Belvoir, Derek taught in professional military education for several years after a stint with the Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency in Hawaii and teaching everything from high school (albeit very briefly!) to community college, as well as a summer at Texas A&M's engineering school branch in Qatar! Derek earned his BA from Culver-Stockton College, spent a semester in law school at Mizzou, then took MAs in History and Education from Truman State University, before earning his PhD in history at Texas A&M University (yep, another one of those!). He is author of Hitler’s Generals in America: Nazi POWs and Allied Military Intelligence (Kentucky) and the forthcoming Benedict Arnolds in Skirts: Race, Gender, and American National Security during the Second World War, which he co-authored with Stephanie Hinnershitz for the University of Press of Kansas. Derek is also the editor of Monumental Conflicts: Twentieth Century Wars and the Evolution of Public Memory (Routledge). Like Johnny Cash, Derek has "been everywhere, man." He's come a long way from humble roots in LaGrange, Missouri (and he pronounces "Missouri" correctly).

Join us for a delightful chat with Derek Mallett - we'll talk small towns, canned cranberry sauce, Van Halen, cruising the French countryside for WW2 plane crash sites, German POWs playing softball in Hannibal, Missouri, 1966 Thunderbirds, and much more!

Shoutout to C&J Barbeque Market in College Station, Texas!

Rec.: 11/20/2025

Another good one, recorded on Halloween even! Today's guest is the upbeat and energetic Le'Trice Donaldson of Auburn University. Le'Trice is a scholar of the Black soldier experience and founder of the Society for Black Military Studies. With a BA and MA from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and a PhD from the University of Memphis, Le'Trice did the year-to-year sojourn of many new academics before landing at Auburn University. Her first book, Duty Beyond the Battlefield: African American Soldiers Fight for Racial Uplift, Citizenship, and Manhood, 1870-1920, was published by Southern Illinois University Press, and she's working on a biography of Eurene Bullard, the first African American fighter pilot. She's got a new series with the University of Virginia Press called The Black Soldier in War and Society. She found a love for history as a young student as an archive nerd and hasn't looked back.

Join us for a fun chat - we'll talk moving beyond parental expectations, working in archives, starting a professional scholarly organization and journal from scratch, working at K-Mart, Superman, Whitney Houston, and more - enjoy!

Shoutout to Lemon Grass Thai in Columbus, Georgia!

Rec.: 10/31/2025

Today's guest is Chicago-native cum St. Louis Cardinals fan Mark Grotelueschen. Mark is Professor of Military and Strategic Studies at the US Air Force Academy, where he's taught for several years both in uniform and now as a civilian in the Department of Military and Strategic Studies. A USAFA graduate and now retired Air Force officer with 27 years of service, Mark earned his MA from the University of Calgary and his PhD from Texas A&M (yep, another one of those!). Despite his Air Force background, Mark's scholarship centers on the US Army in the First World War, including his well-received book The AEF Way of War: The American Army and Combat in World War I (Cambridge) and a new project on the September 1918 Battle of Saint-Mihiel. You'll enjoy our chat - we talk growing up in a large family, discovering the Air Force had a "school," being stationed in Alaska, being mentored by Dennis Showalter and Brian Linn, even Journey tribute bands. Enjoy!

Shoutout to Steamboat BBQ in Wheaton, Illinois!

Rec.: 10/23/2025