Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Oral History Initiative

Local Veterans Share Their Stories at the Veterans Breakfast Club

The Veterans Breakfast Club creates communities of listening around veterans and their stories. Through public storytelling programs such as our local breakfast events, veterans of all eras share their memories and learn about the service of others. These events help build camaraderie among veterans and educate the public about the veteran experience. Click on a location for a live recording.

Podcasts – The Social Voice Podcast Network

The Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Oral History produces several veterans-related podcasts: Argot: Audio Short Stories podcast features heartfelt moments from the Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Oral History archive. Longest War is a podcast of VBC’s special Post-9/11 Veterans Storytelling Project, featuring the stories and experiences of local veterans of the Global War on Terror. Veteran Voices: The Oral History Podcast features conversations about local veterans, their stories, and with those who tell veterans’ stories in creative and interesting ways. Veterans Breakfast Club podcast featuring live-recordings of public storytelling events with local veterans of all branches of service and eras.

TSVPN’s Local History Podcast Initiative (LHPI) produces podcasts in partnership with historical societies and museums throughout Western Pennsylvania.

That Happened: The WW II Collection (Volume One)

That Happened: The WW II Collection | Volume One  is an ongoing series of audio short stories from the archives of the Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Oral History Initiative, in partnership with the Veterans Breakfast Club.  These stories have been adapted from oral history interviews with WW II veterans from the Pittsburgh area and throughout Western Pennsylvania.   Fran Rifugiato: Lucky Man,  Kathleen Short: The Wedding,  Alex Sopka: My Dad, Joe Capone: That Happened,  Julia Parsons: Top Secret, Ralph Carrington: War Volunteer, Victor Miesel: In All Those Years,  Barbara Duffy: Treat Them Well.

Complete Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Audio Archive

Listen to the complete collection of audio short stories, long-form interviews, and other audio recordings.  This collection is located at the Internet Archive, the world’s largest digital archive dedicated to free public access to digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly three million public-domain books.

Autobiographies, Memoirs, Transcripts

A collection of writings by veterans that includes personal statements, eye-witness accounts, autobiographical manuscripts, and memoirs.  Also included are written transcriptions of oral history interviews from the Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh archive.

A Sentimental Journey or Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition, by Ceane O-Hanlon-Lincoln

Interspersed with the author’s comments and historical data, this four volume audiobook recreates a vivid picture of the WWII era, including oral histories garnered through a host of interviews from the author’s historic hometown of Connellsville and Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Mists Over Appomattox

In this second audiobook by Ceane O’Hanlon-Lincoln produced by the Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Oral History Initiative, the award-winning author reads two exciting, historically driven Civil War tales set in Appomattox, Virginia—site of General Lee’s surrender to the Union Army.   “Honor Answering Honor” is a dramatic account of that great American moment.  “The Silent Witness” is an inventive—but historically accurate—account of that day through the eyes of the famous child’s doll taken as a souvenir by Union troops from the McLean Mansion, site of the surrender signing.

In The House Where I Was Born

Adaptation of the original 30-minute Memorial Day radio program written by Wyllis Cooper.  The drama aired on May 28, 1949 as episode 102 of ABC’s fantasy/horror series, Quiet Please!   Through the impressionistic narration of an “unknown soldier,” the show pays homage to all who have died in military service.  Cooper, who was himself gassed and wounded during World War I, uses this play to honor the common soldier.  The show has been described as “a montage of memories—childhood homes, friends, family, war, death—that link the present with the past, the living with the dead, and form the cultural ties that bind communities together.”

Three Men and A Child is Born

Recorded and mixed by Kevin Farkas/Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh. R-ACT Theatre Productions‘ Annual Holiday Radio Show: “Three Men” & “A Child is Born.” Performed live December 6, 2014 at Merrick Art Gallery, New Brighton, Pennsylvania.  “Three Men” was originally written and directed by Wyllis Cooper, broadcast live in May 1949.   The story takes place during the first Christmas after the end of World War I. Three soldiers (French, Australian, American) are introduced on a train during their Christmas leave and share a powerful moment of Christianity.