Patt Morrison for Monday, May 28, 2012 - ON TAPE

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Monday, May 28, 2012

1-3 p.m.



MEMORIAL DAY SCHEDULE - ON TAPE



1:06 - 1:19

Military families and their private front lines

This portrait of the Kahlors family comes from the Backdraft project, which critically explores the domestic consequences of America's armed forces endeavors on military veterans and their families. Military families face so many challenges, many amplified by the unknown: finding and keeping a good job, caring for children, staying connected while separated by thousands of miles, helping a loved one who has returned from the war with wounds to the body or brain. Every family has a story; we would like to hear yours.



Guests:

Tom Tarantino, senior legislative associate of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America; retired Army Captain and veteran of tours in Iraq & Bosnia



Tim Kahlor, father of Ryan Kahlor, an Army sergeant who served two deployments - 26 months, in Anbar province, Iraq, working with both the Army and the Marines. He left for basic training on March 18, 2003, the first day of the Iraqi invasion. He was 19 years old at the time. Ryan returned with traumatic brain injury, PTSD, hearing loss, nerve damage in both arms, a detached retina, and back and neck injuries



Debbie Nichols, took care of her two grandchildren while her daughter Erin, who was a single parent, was deployed to Afghanistan. She has written a book called Deployed Grandparents being Parents, providing military families positive tools for all stages of deployment and reintegration, and helped her granddaughters write their own book, Deployed Kids.



Alejandra Rishton, who, with her husband Jeremiah, joined the Army in 2004. Jeremiah was deployed to Iraq in 2007 while Alejandra stayed at home; they had two children at the time and she was pregnant with their third.



1:41:30 - 1:58:30

Dan Rather pulls no punches

Dan Rather served as the anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, and the divorce wasn't pretty. As a correspondent, he reported on some of the biggest news stories of the 1960s like the Civil Rights movement and President Kennedy's assassination. But his career at CBS came to a screeching halt in September 2004 when he did a 60 Minutes II report about President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard. The story led to his dismissal from CBS; he later sued for breach of contract, but the case was dismissed before it could go to trial. Once the face of CBS, what does Rather think of his old network? How has the internet and the 24 hour news cycle changed the way that networks look at news? And what does he really think about Katie Couric?



Guests:

Dan Rather, managing editor, host, Dan Rather Reports, HD Net; former veteran anchor, CBS Evening News



2:06 - 2:19

The Presidents Club: Inside the world's most exclusive fraternity

Skull and Bones, Freemasons, Bohemian Grove, the California Club-you always hear that this or that is the world's most exclusive club. This one really is: former U.S. presidents, whether they liked each other or not, are bound together by the Oval Office. Now, a new tell-all book reveals the secrets of the Presidents Club, like how John F. Kennedy disliked Dwight Eisenhower, and how Jerry Ford and Jimmy Carter feuded and made up. From Hoover and Truman to Obama and Bush 1 and 2, the backroom deals, secret alliances, and bitter rivalries among America's current and former presidents have helped shape U.S. politics and history.



Guest:

Nancy Gibbs, coauthor, "The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity"

Michael Duffy, TIME's Washington bureau chief and co-author of The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity

2:21:30 - 2:39

Soldiers' remains return from Tarawa 69 years after the battle
Leon Cooper was a young Navy seaman who piloted a Higgins landing craft during the first Marine amphibious assault of the Pacific Theater in World War II on the island of Tarawa. In three days of fighting, nearly 6,000 soldiers - both American and Japanese - died in the battle for the small atoll, earning the name "Bloody Tarawa." Cooper was fortunate enough to survive, and was outraged to learn decades later that the beaches where so many of his fellow soldiers, seamen and Marines died were littered with trash. So, in 2008 Cooper mounted a self-financed campaign to return to Tarawa to clean up the beaches. When he arrived, he discovered something even more disturbing... that the remains of as many as 500 Americans who died in the battle might still be buried on the tiny island. A filmmaker, Steven Barber, accompanied Cooper's journey and the story was made into a documentary, "Return to Tarawa." Four years later, Cooper and Barber have returned with a follow up documentary, "Until They Are Home," which tells the story of the U.S. Government's involvement in the retrieval and repatriation of the remains of American military personal who died on Tarawa. Do soldiers ever recover from the scars of battle? What is the legacy of the brave men who fought in places like Tarawa?

Guests:
Leon Cooper, World War II Navy veteran of the Battle of Tarawa; spearheaded the cleanup of Tarawa and the search for remains of American military personnel who died in the battle

Steven Barber, documentary filmmaker; directed both "Return to Tarawa" and "Until They Are Home"




2:41:30 - 2:58:30

Will America's military dogs get a promotion?

Dogs have been stalwart human companions for thousands of years - they share our joys, sorrows, homes and lives, and increasingly, they've been following us into battle as well.

The story of Cairo, the Belgian Malinois who joined the U.S. Navy SEAL Team Six raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden in May, 2011 is now world famous. But Cairo is just one of the roughly 2,700 military dogs deployed around the globe - 600 of which serve in combat zones. America's military dogs sniff out bombs, rappel from helicopters and provide much-needed companionship for soldiers in harsh circumstances... and the story of these valiant dogs is also the story of their handlers, who pair with a specific dog for their tandem tour of duty. Former USA Today journalist Maria Goodavage was already the author of three previous dog-oriented books when she decided that the story of these four-legged warriors needed to be told. The result of her boots and paws-on-the-ground research is "Soldier Dogs: The Untold Story of America's Canine Heroes." There is a different kind of battle going on in congress over the classification of America's soldier dogs, as lawmakers debate to decide whether or not to promote these dogs' classification from "equipment" to "Canine Members of the Armed Forces."



Guests:

Maria Goodavage, author, "Soldier Dogs: The Untold Story of America's Canine Heroes"








Lauren Osen
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