And good morning America and welcome to Veterans
Radio. My name is Dale Throneberry and I'll be
kind of your facilitator today but our host this
morning is Dwight Zimmerman. This is our At Ease
segment of Veterans Radio and I was just looking
here at our notes and I see that this is the
beginning of its second year for Dwight being
the host of the At Ease segment and Dwight is
an award -winning author as we all know and president
of the Military Writers Association. society,
excuse me, and Dwight, welcome back to Veterans
Radio. Thank you, Dale. Glad to be here and kicking
off the first show of our second season. It's
amazing how time flies. Especially when you're
having fun. Yes, indeed. And at ease, everyone,
is coming to you live from Studio 4F. at Veterans
Radio East here in Brooklyn, New York where the
weather is absolutely gorgeous. As it is here.
I think we've finally broken that winter jinx
although it did snow just the other day here
again. Yes, my mother in North Dakota has been
complaining about the weather patterns and she's
ready for spring. Well, that is true. Well, as
we know that this segment every month that Dwight
does for the At Ease is that he talks with different
authors about different types of books. And so,
Dwight, who are your guests coming up today?
We have a great group today. We're welcoming
back my friend Stephen Koontz, who's got a new
book out, Pirate Alley. And my longtime friend,
Wayne Van Zandt, has done an absolutely stunning
graphic history of Gettysburg. I'm really excited
about that for him. And Mike Ridland, together
with Gary Brozek, has written an absolutely incredible
story about, it's titled Trident K -9 Warriors.
It's about military working dogs and these are
ones that have been trained for special operations
missions. It's a riveting account and I can't
wait to start talking to him about all of that.
But before we get into that, we have, as we've
been doing recently on the show, a Test Your
Civil War IQ question taken from my upcoming
book that's going to be out this fall called
Test Your Civil War IQ. There are 500 questions
in it, and it's wide -ranging. And today I have
a question here that someone calls in. and gives
us the correct answer, they will get an autographed
copy of my book, Uncommon Valor, the Medal of
Honor, and the warriors who earned it in Afghanistan
and Iraq. That's a pretty good prize because
I've read that book and of course Dwight has
talked about that book on the program before.
I think you're going to have to do an updated
version of it because you're going to have to
add a few more Medal of Honor recipients it sounds
like. I am so happy that we are getting more
and more because for so many years. We just didn't
have any. I was able to include a couple extra
in the paperback edition, and then of course
we've had more since, so we will see how it plays
out. Now, onto our question. I have to do a drum
roll. Oh, okay. Okay, and the question of the
day is? True or false? The U .S. Army Medal of
Honor was the first authorized Medal of Honor.
True or false? The Army Medal of Honor was the
first Medal of Honor designed, I guess you could
say. Yep. And utilized. So all you gotta do is
give us a call here at Veterans Radio and that
number is 877 -573 -7825. 877 -573 -7825 with
your answer, true or false? And you'll win an
incredible book. We're going to be coming right
back with Dwight's first guest that Stephen Koontz
is on the line. So we're going to do a little
break here to earn a couple of dollars or shekels,
I guess you could call them. And we'll be right
back with Dwight Zimmerman and At Ease. We're
back on Veterans Radio and we are going to turn
it over now to our Studio 4F in Brooklyn, New
York with Dwight Zimmerman. Dwight, you are on.
Thank you, Dale. And my first guest I'm happy
to welcome back is New York Times bestselling
author Stephen Koontz with his latest book, Private
Alley. Stephen, welcome. Hello Dwight. Welcome
back. It's good to talk to you again. Yes. You
know, your books, I have to say I have a love
-hate relationship with them. I love them because
I know I'm going to have a great time reading
them, but I hate them because literally I can't
put the darn things down. Well, that's great.
That's a wonderful thing for an author to hear.
Yes, I know. This was an absolute incredible
ride. And I have to say, you've got some powerful
quotes here. I'm looking at the back jacket here.
Former Defense Secretary William Cohen, W .E
.B. Griffin, Larry Bond. Dalton Fury, who did
Kill Bin Laden, Howard Watson of SEAL Team 6,
Jim DeFelice. You didn't mess around here, did
you? Well, these authors, including Stephen Hunter,
were very, very kind. And I'm obviously very
flattered by some of the things they said about
the book. Now this is the latest in a series
of books that you've written featuring the characters
Jake Grafton and Tommy Carmelini. How many books
in the series? This is the fifth. Okay. Give
our listeners a little bit of background about
how the series evolved. Well, Tommy Carmelini
was in the Jake Grafton books starting with the
book Cuba and as a minor character and The more
I used him, the more I liked him and finally
decided after liberty that Jake was, you know,
he's a senior officer and was getting long in
the tooth to be an action adventure hero and
I decided to use Tommy to tell the main story
in Liars and Thieves in the first person. And
Tommy is young, he's hip, he's irreverent and
he's just a... You know a burglar who got dragooned
into joining the CIA and so he works out very
very well as a major action -adventure character
and so anyway we've had a lot of fun with him
and the readers seem to like him and so he's
back again telling his portion of the tale when
the first person and Jake sorta is the wise old
head that directs the action and orchestrates
the drama. Well, yes, and there is a lot of drama
in this story. So if you could please summarize
the plot here of Pirate Alley. Well, Pirate Alley
is about the Somali pirates capturing a cruise
ship. It's set today in the Gulf of Aden. The
pirates actually, after a drawn -out naval battle,
managed to get the cruise ship with 450 passengers
and 350 crewmen. into the port of Ely, or actually
it's Isle, E -Y -L, Isle of Somalia, which is
just a flash speck on the Somalia coast, ruled
by a pirate chieftain named Ragnar. He wants
$200 million ransom and Jake Grafton has assigned
the task of rescuing the crew and the passengers
of the ship. kicker in here that really raises
the stakes. Right. You know, the Shabab, which
is the Islamic fundamentalist revolutionary group
that's been fighting the civil war in Somalia
for 17 years, plans to actually confiscate the
ransom and kill all the passengers and crew in
a terror act that they hope will ignite worldwide
jihad. And the United States gets wind of that,
and so that raises the stakes for the rescue.
You know, and I have to say, when you come to
creating villains, you scored big time. Your
pirates are brutal. Well, you know, I think the
key to a good thriller is good villains. And
obviously we need a fun hero for the fans, for
the readers to root for, but... You know, heroes
are measured by the size of the villains they
face. And so, you know, pirates are, they're
a classic. You know, anything from pirates to
the Caribbean to today's real pirates, they're
not warm and fuzzy folks. No, the way you did
that, they sure, they're anything but. What really
impressed me is all these many little touches,
these vignettes that you have that really help
round out the story. You've got an absolute jerk
of a Secretary of State, a former Stasi member
who is a passenger on the ship who is now a cocaine
mule. Somali woman who near the end comes onto
the scene briefly with an AK -47 and murder in
her eye. And then there's this woman passenger
who winds up being raped and the revenge that
she gets. You cover the range. Well, you know,
one of the things that I wanted, this isn't just
a military story, it's a story of also the passengers
and the crewmen. And, you know, can you imagine
a more horrifying thing to be captured by pirates
and held for ransom and the pirates really don't
care if the passengers live or die. And these
people get ill and they have their problems and
they're being held against their will and kidnapped,
in effect, for ransom. And so, you know, I wanted
to get the... I wanted to... the readers to get
the feel for what that might be like. Obviously,
we can't write about 350 passengers and 350 crewmen,
but we can pick certain people and tell their
stories. Yep. And yeah, it really held my interest,
I have to say. The way we were bouncing around
the different scenes and the little touches and
how these little stories progressed. Well done.
Well, thank you. We have high hopes for the book.
It will actually be in the bookstores. It will
be released on May 7th. And, of course, it can
be preordered from bookstores, online, wherever.
And my publisher is excited. I'm excited. We
think we've got a great cover for it. We've got
a story that will... captivate anybody that ever
took a cruise or anybody that's contemplating
taking a cruise. Well, you might even tear it
off some people. And we hope it'll also attract
all the fans of Jake Grafton and Tommy Carmelini
through the years. Yes, well, I just have to
say I've been just so impressed with the story.
I think it took me about eight hours of straight
reading to do. Well, I think Stephen Hunter called
it the one -sit read book of the year. And it's
not a huge book, but it's hopefully an action
adventure that will appeal to today's readers
who are looking for a light reading and something
to divert them from the problems of the everyday
world. Yes, indeed. Now, you served in the military,
correct? Yes. Total of 21 years active in reserve,
retired from the Navy and flew A6s in Vietnam
and did a couple of cruises off the Enterprise
the last two years or three years, the Vietnam
War. And then I was a flight instructor on A6s
and various other things and then went to law
school and became an attorney and stayed in the
Naval Reserve. And I finally got into writing
in the mid -80s and I've been a full -time novelist
since about 1986. So I think this has turned
into a career. Wow. So what's your next project?
Well, the next project is already in the can
and it's done. It's the third of the Saucer series.
I wrote a light sci -fi series called Saucer
and then Saucer the Conquest. This is the third
and last of the trilogy, and it'll be published
next winter by St. Martin's Press. Back by popular
demand, I've been inundated with emails through
the years by people that read the first two saucer
books and demanded a third one, and that finally
persuaded me to sandwich it in between thrillers.
the aliens arrive in the last one. So I've had
a lot of fun with that and I think it's going
to captivate the readers because I had to find
a completely new and different way to do aliens.
We've had everything from H .G. Wells' War of
the Worlds to zombies and aliens who take over
the White House and all this other stuff. So
I had to do something different and I think this
is different and the readers will enjoy it. Well,
tell me a little bit about the research that
you do, because like Pirate Alley, for example,
I really felt like I was there, even in that
Somali town. Very vivid. Well, you know, the
Somali town, I altered it slightly, but I looked
at satellite photographs of Isle Somalia and...
and read a lot on the current U .S. Navy and
allied Navy ops to try to protect ships. Read
everything I could find on the pirates and how
the Somali pirates actually work and the situation
in Somalia. And then ran various portions of
the book by experts. For example, my former BN
is a retired admiral and he read the military
portions. suggested changes which were made to
try to simulate reality and get a little verisimilitude
in there. I'm not writing books about how the
military does it. I'm writing thrillers. But
it still had to be close enough to reality that
the people had a good read. Yes, indeed. Well,
I'm talking here with Stephen Koontz, whose latest
book, Pirate Alley, is an absolutely fascinating
read. And Stephen, if you could, again, tell
our listeners, because the book is going to be
out soon, when it will be released again, please?
It will be released on May 7th. It will be on
sale in all the nation's bookstores on May 7th.
It is currently available for pre -order online.
and pre -order in bookstores. And I might also,
Dwight, tell readers that they can read an excerpt
from it on my website, which is www .koontz .com.
And you've got to spell my name right, c -o -o
-n -t -s dot com. Indeed. I just wanted to jump
in here because I am reading the book on his
website right now. Stephen, I want people to
realize that you also wrote Flight of the Intruder,
which many of us saw in the movies and have read
often. Your story is just fascinating. I wanted
to make sure that our people know that you write
such a wide variety of books. Well, I've tried,
you know, I've tried to keep the juices flowing
by doing different things. I've written, let's
see, this is the 16th thriller. And then there's
three saucer books. There's five anthologies.
Some of them contain original fiction, some of
which I wrote. And then there's nine co -authored
books that appear, eight of them in paperback
and one hardcover, the Deep Black series. I've
been busy scribbling. I think I've got 32 or
33 books in print. And as I say, Saucer 3, the
title is Saucer Savage Planet. It'll be out next
winter. And meanwhile, I've got to get busy on
another thriller, Jake and Tommy, and hope to
turn it in about the first of December for publication
in 2014. You don't want to get these guys just
sitting around not doing anything, right? Yeah.
Well, writer's right. It's an incomplete day
if you don't spend three or four hours at the
computer making pages. I wanted to jump in here,
remind our audience, if you'd like to talk with
Stephen, give us a call here at 877 -573 -7825
and don't forget you need to answer that question
about the Medal of Honor. I was just fascinated
because I just recently was at the airport in
Phoenix and going through the little bookstore
and you've got yourself a whole little section
there. Well, thank you very much. I've been very
fortunate. I've been a professional writer. I
managed to stay in this game for about 27 years
now, and that is rare. So I thank my lucky stars
and also thank the American public, which is
I read these books in numbers sufficient to keep
me eating. I hope they continue to do so. Yes,
indeed. Well, the way you keep writing here,
I can see you'll definitely keep an audience.
Dwight, we've got some of your other guests on
the line, so if you'd like to, we can say goodbye
to Stephen and move on. Let's do that. Stephen,
again, thank you so much for being on At Ease,
and good luck with Pirate Alley. and your other
projects. Well, thank you very much, Dwight,
for having me on your show, and good luck. Have
a great day. You too. Okay. Bye -bye. Wow, Dwight.
I didn't know where you find these guys. That's
pretty amazing. I mean, it was amazing when I
saw the list of authors that you had on today,
and I wasn't kidding. I was in the airport, and
I was looking at one of those bookstores, and
I'm going, oh, there's that name. I know that
name. And it's only because that you've been
able to bring these on and can you talk just
real briefly? Stephen mentioned, you know writers,
right and that You know, you must have to sit
down and write a little every day. Don't you?
If I'm not physically writing Then I'm doing
research because as you know, I do nonfiction
stuff and the amount of research Involved, you
know, even in the short articles that I do a
lot of You have to read, read, distill, and then
sit on it. There are times where I'll just sit
down and physically be writing away. Other times
it's doing the research. It is seven days a week
type of work. Now I do have to say that I'm not
constantly writing with respect to doing an eight
or 10 hour day. I used to, but now the actual
writing is, as Stephen said, about three to four
hours. But then the other times I'm doing research,
reading books, reading articles on the internet.
Yeah, it is what we do. It sounds like a glamorous
life, but it's a lonely one. It is a lot of work,
and I just wanted our audience to know how much
work is involved with this. And also, you're
working with the Military Writers Society, and
you have, what, 900 members of that organization
now, and every time I've met all of them, other
than breaking for the conference, they all try
to sit down and write X number of hours every
day or X number of words every single day. Yeah,
everybody has his or her own system, but yet
you do have to be very disciplined, regardless
of how you approach it, because you have to be
alone. Sometimes writers are their own worst
enemies because they can always figure out a
distraction to avoid writing. Yeah, the only
way that you can actually get something done
is to just sit down and do it Well, we've got
another guest for you that sat down and did it
and this is your author on the trident canine
warriors And why don't you introduce Mike? Okay,
Mike, are you there? Okay There there you are
welcome Mike, thank you appreciate it. Yes and
Mike Ritlin has written with Gary Brozek the
book Trident Canine Warriors about elite Navy
SEAL military working dogs. And first, Mike,
I have to apologize. The book arrived just a
couple days ago. This is apparently an earlier
copy. It had gotten lost in the mail. So I'm
still in the middle of reading this, but I have
to say you have written a fascinating story here.
It's packed with a lot more information than
I expected. Well, good. You know, my intention
was in fact to do just that. I had seen a lot
of different reports out, you know, especially
after the Bin Laden raid. There seemed to be
a lot of perpetuated myths and just factually
incorrect statements that were out. regarding
the use of canines, most specifically in special
operations. But there also seemed to be a great
lack of knowledge and understanding that they
even existed. You know, when I saw how much interest
there was in that specific dog just by himself
and how many people wanted to know more about
it and how few people knew a lot about them,
you know, it made me... realize that number one,
somebody with credibility and the knowledge to
be able to put that out there needs to do just
that. But also I thought it was important to
highlight just exactly how fascinating and incredible
these dogs are and how much they do help us overseas.
Indeed, and I'm completely captivated by what
you've written here. So if you could tell our
listeners Mike, your background, your military
background, and how that led you to become involved
with the military working dogs. Sure. I guess
taking a step back, I actually grew up with working
dogs my entire life. I had bird dogs growing
up and then I got into to catch dogs, hogs, dog,
hog dogs years after that. And then when I was
on deployment, combat deployment in Iraq as a
SEAL, there was a Marine working dog. And a group
of Marines, the dog was out front. They were
getting ready to enter a cave complex that had
a very small opening that they could just barely
fit through. And the dog was out front. And he
went out and searched and indicated that there
was explosives right inside the doorway. And
as it would turn out, there was a grenade booby
trap right inside the door. And had that dog
not been there, without question, the first one
in the three guys would have been either killed
or severely injured. And for me, that was a very
stark realization in my mind that that could
have just as easily been our group. It could
have just as easily been me. And why aren't we
using these dogs everywhere we go? And for me,
it just... It was a light switch moment. From
that day forward, I inundated myself with all
the best trainers I could find. I read as many
books as I could get my hands on, trained with
as many dogs as I could. And then when the dog
program out on the West Coast, in the West Coast
SEAL teams where I was stationed, when that was
stood up, I played a... a small role in that
as I was getting out and separating. And I was
offered a position as a handler but turned it
down to start my own company and provide dogs
and trainers and training for that same unit.
So it just, it meshes the two things that I feel
most passionately about, which is dogs and the
special operations community. How many years
have you been doing this business? I'm going
on four years now. So, you know, from early 2003
until 2009 is when I, you know, just trained
as much as possible and worked with as many groups
as I could and, you know, kind of got my knowledge
base where it needed to be and then started my
own company and have been doing it for the last
four years. Do you say that the breed that you
prefer is the Malinois? Why is that? I guess,
you know, I don't know that I'd necessarily say
I prefer it. What ends up happening is that,
you know, we have a very specific set of standards
that we really won't compromise on in terms of
what we look for in a work of dogs. And overwhelmingly,
the Belgian Malinois successfully passes that
selection criteria. And so while I would happily
take any breed of dog provided it checks all
the boxes of what I'm looking for and what I
need in a good working dog. The reality of it
is the Belgian Malinois Dutch Shepherd and German
Shepherd, which are all very, very similar. I
mean, it's kind of like the difference between
a yellow lab and a chocolate lab, honestly. It's
almost the same breed. But the fact of it is
that those three breeds are without question
the dogs that overwhelmingly pass that selection
test. Okay, well we're approaching the break
right now, so stay with us there Mike. We are
talking with Mike Ridland about his book Trident
Canine Warriors and we're going to take a little
break here and be right back to finish our discussion
with Mike. And you're back on Veterans Radio
and we're listening to Dwight Zimmerman with
this... months issue of At Ease with his guest,
Mike Ridland, and Dwight, you're on. Okay, thank
you, Dale. Okay, as Dale said, I'm talking with
Mike Ridland here, whose book just came out,
Trident Canine Warriors, about some very special
military working dogs. These are trained to work
with the elite units in the U .S. Special Operations
Community. And Mike, again, could you tell our
listeners where they can get copies of your book?
Sure. The book is available through all major,
you know, retail book outlets, whether it's Barnes
and Nobles. You can order it online with Amazon.
It's at Walmart and Target. It's at Hastings.
really any major bookstore. You can find it even
in the airport bookstores that's available. So
there's a multitude of places to pick it up at.
The thing I found fascinating was that basically
what you're writing in here is that you have
these canines that are essentially special operations.
members, that they are elite dogs over and above
what we would normally think. And I have to say,
that took a little getting used to. Sure. The
thing of it is, is that the dynamic nature in
which we operate, it requires that if we do bring
dogs on operations such as those, those dogs
have to be at the absolute elite level in every
regard. There's not an environment that we operate
in that we can't or don't take these dogs, with
the exception of diving underwater. Everywhere
else, these dogs accompany with us or are accompanied
with us almost exclusively. So by nature of what
we do and how we do it, those dogs have to be
just at the absolute highest level possible.
I would equate it to the Michael Jordan's and
the Kobe Bryant's of the working dog world because
you need every characteristic and aspect of these
dogs has to be at just an over the top level.
Mike, this is Dale Thromberg. I just question,
how long do you have to train these dogs before
you turn them over to the seals? Well, it's several
years, you know, from the time that the dog is
born until he's really ready to even start training
for this type of work, which is a little bit
semantics. The minute the dog starts training,
you know, the third day they're alive. So, you
know, it's a very encompassing process, and the
dogs do, you know, several years of training
before they're... at the point where they are
seasoned enough to do the type of work that we're
asking them to do. So once I get them, it can
be anywhere from the better part of a year or
sometimes even longer. So there's a lot of variables
that dictate how long we work with them, depending
on how much training they've already had, who's
getting them, and what their experience level
is. You know what the what the specific operations
of the dogs are going to be going on are but
generally speaking it's it's a Several years
of training before the dogs are are able to do
the type of work that we need them to do for
real Do you do you breed the dogs yourselves
or do people bring them to you or you go out
and look for them? Or how does that work? It's
a little bit everything you know I do breed some
of the animals I do buy them As young dogs from
private individuals, I do import them from overseas,
you know, as grown adults that have a lot of
training on them and everything in between. So,
you know, there's such a need for these types
of dogs that what I look for is genetics. The
training is what it is. Personally, I'd prefer
they have the least amount of training on them
possible so that I can do it from scratch the
way that I want it to be done. However... Because
that combination of genetics that is required
to do this type of work is so incredibly rare,
I'll take any dog that has all the things that
I look for and when I say genetics, the certain
type of testing requirements that we put them
through, we're looking for what their genetics,
what their inherent given traits allow them to
do and makes them behave. So regardless of how
much training they've had. you know, we can kind
of see into the, you know, into the genetic eyes
of the animal and then be able to know what exactly
we're working with from other nature. So that's
what we look for. And when we find it, we snatch
it up and work with it. Okay. Mike, I would appreciate
if you could tell us a little bit about one of
the dogs and a mission that it would... he and
his handler were on. And because I'm sure that
our listeners would love to know what kind of
missions and what they do. Sure. Absolutely.
There was a specific operation in the mountains
of Afghanistan where the SEAL team platoon was
on patrol. They inserted via helicopter. They
fast roped down with the dog. They started their
patrol and got a few kilometers into it and the
dog is out front sweeping for explosives out
ahead of the group. And then he indicated that
they were in fact not alone. He gave off some
body language that the handler recognized from
having done it so many times through training
that the dog was saying, hey, there's somebody
else out there nearby and it's not good. So they
halt the patrol. The dog is released. He ran
up a couple hundred yards up ahead and crashed
down into a culvert on the side of the route
that they were patrolling on. And there were
a handful of insurgents there set up in an ambush
formation, getting ready to ambush the unit walking
by. They grouped in, swept in, neutralized the
threat, got the dog back with them, and continued
patrolling. To me, that's one of hundreds or
even thousands of examples of how these dogs
regularly and routinely save our guys' lives.
The fact is that their nose and their hearing
is so much better than ours or any equipment
that we have that it's just an incredible augment.
And when you combine a dog at that level with
those sensory capabilities combined with special
operations groups that are all on... pretty high
-speed communications and night vision devices.
That combination is pretty effective. So it's
a veritable perfect storm of what we need to
do overseas. I can't say enough praises about
them and the work that they're doing for us.
I echo those praises too. Mike, I want to thank
you for being a guest on my program. I've been
talking with Mike Ridland. and his book Trident
Canine Warriors that is available at all fine
bookstores and internet outlets. Mike, good luck.
Could I add one thing? Sure. I started a non
-profit called the Warrior Dog Foundation and
we retire these dogs when they're finished with
their service. And you can go to warriordogfoundation
.org. and check out what we're all about. Any
and all support is greatly appreciated. Yes,
indeed. Okay, again, Mike, thank you so much
for being a guest, and good luck with you and
your foundation. All right, thank you, sir. I
appreciate it. Well, there you go, Dwight. You
know, people love these... these programs about
dogs and the dog handlers that train them and
utilize them. And we've talked to a couple of
other people about these warrior dog foundations
that are out there to place these dogs once their
military careers are over. Yeah, it's really
amazing that especially the dogs that have been
wounded in action and essentially have to be
retired. I have yet to get into that section
in Mike's book, but when I was scanning it, he
does mention post -active duty fates of these
dogs. So I can't wait to get into that section
and find out really what he did there. I think
you're going to find it an amazing story. I'm
sure that his is very similar to the other guests
that we've had on Veterans Radio. I want to remind
people, you know, you haven't answered his question
yet, so is the Medal of Honor designed by the
Army? Is that the original Medal of Honor or
not? True or false? Give us a call at 877 -573
-7825. You got to do that. And Dwight, your next
guest is on the line and ready to go. Okay. Well,
welcome, Wayne. How are you there? Oh, hey. My
last guest today is writer, artist Wayne Van
Zandt, and he's going to be talking about his
latest book, The Graphic History of Gettysburg.
Now, Wayne and I go way back. You bet. Yeah.
Wayne was my artist on... graphic history of
the Vietnam War that we did and also last year
a graphic biography of the Hammer and the Anvil
about Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.
We also go back to you as an editor for me and
several things before that. Oh yes, we've got
a long career stretching back to our Mario years.
That's right. Okay, so Wayne, tell us a little
bit about this book. Okay, well the full title
is Gettysburg the graphic history of America's
most famous battle and the turning point of the
Civil War Which is quite a mouthful, but we got
all that on the cover But it's published by Zenith
Press and of course there's a lot of books about
Gettysburg But I have written and illustrated
a lot of Civil War stuff plus You know Vietnam
War two other things, but I thought with the
anniversary 150th anniversary coming up. It would
be a good idea for a graphic you know, graphic
illustrated version of it. So that's what I pushed.
You know, you can, there's a lot available on
Gitties, where there are a lot of photographs,
but it's hard to kind of see actually what it
was like in the battles. I've tried to do that
with this book. Well, it's an amazingly rich
story that you did in just 96 pages, and also
this is 96 full -color pages. I was really impressed
with the level of quality here in the research.
Tell us about this research and the accuracy.
Well, I tell you, I knew a lot about the battle.
My primary interest has been World War II and
the Civil War, and just about everything between
and after. I love history in general. But I had,
of course, read a lot about the battle before
I had been to Gettysburg, and that was a big
help, because to me the ground is, although you
have high points and all that, it's very subtle.
If you look at photographs, you don't get the
elevations quite as much. I tried to convey that
as best as I could, because just a simple rise
in land made a great difference in the battle.
But I had read a lot of books on it. I researched
the uniforms and the weapons as best I could.
Of course, photographs of officers, most Union
and Confederate, are easy to find on the internet,
as we know. I imagine any union officer of any
rank, just about you can find this picture, which
is a great advantage. Wayne, I'm sorry to interrupt,
but we're coming on our break right now, so let's
just hang tight with that thought. I'm talking
to artist writer Wayne Van Zandt about his graphic
history of Gettysburg, and we're going to take
a break right now. and stay with us. And we're
back on Veterans Radio with this month's installment
of At Ease with award -winning author Dwight
Zimmerman. And Dwight and his guests are ready
to resume their conversation. Dwight? Thank you
Dale. I'm talking with writer -artist Wayne Van
Sant about his graphic history of Gettysburg.
And Wayne, before we continue on, I'd like you
to tell our listeners where they can get this
book. Okay, as I say, it's in Gettysburg, the
graphic history, America's most famous Bible.
It's published by Zenith Press. And you can get
it through zenithpress .com or amazon .com or
barnsandnoble .com and probably in the Barnes
and Noble stores. I know some of my other books
people have picked up there. So it's pretty well
available. That's good. And by the way, congratulations
on getting a nice quote from James McPherson.
Yeah, that was a thrill. I would say. I felt
the same myself when he said some good things
about... Absolutely. Absolutely. You know you're
on the right track. Yes, indeed. So tell us,
as you were putting this story together, was
there anything that you... discovered new about
the battle? Just, you know, just, I guess, additional
detail, not in the general, you know, about itself,
but little things about the individual, some
of the Union generals, some of their, you know,
physical attributes and that sort of thing. But
as I say, the one thing I have to do in something
like that is not just research the story, the
narrative itself. But I have to research what
things look like, you know, try to get pictures
of all the buildings that's going to be shown.
Of course, the uniforms and equipment is absolutely
important and the ground. The weather, you know,
what kind of day it was. All of that is important
in this kind of thing because you can maybe visualize
that in your mind in just a written book. But
I have to show the details all I can find anyway.
Yes, and now, you only had 96 pages to work with
here. Tell us about the challenge of condensing
a paper panel. Well, that's true. I tell you,
the people at Zeenoth Press have done such a
great job of, well, I basically, I don't do the
book like you would do like a comic book like
you used to do with Marvel with full pages. I
do individual panels. And then again, we'll throw
maps in. And the people at Zenith have been so
good at putting this together. When I finally
get the finished product, I think, this is better
than I thought it would look like. They really
have done a wonderful job at that. My editor,
Eric Gilge, has really been good at pulling things
out and saying, work on this point here, work
on this. As I say, you have to know when to stop.
You have to know what to include and what not
because you are limited in space. I could go
on and do a 200 page book, but hey, that would
be too much. Yes, indeed. I remember when we
were doing our projects and they were 146 pages.
Oh, gosh. Well, you did a great job on the writing
on the hammer and anvil book because That was
a very difficult book to do because there wasn't
a whole lot of natural action as there would
be in a battle. Sometimes people have an odd
idea of what we do, particularly in something
like this, because I've had people request some
really odd subjects like the Liberty Bell, which
is just more of an idea as it is than anything
else, or the Federalist Papers. How could you
do a graphic album on that? I guess you probably
could. But it's a lot easier to have action,
to have movement, that you can show. Oh, yeah.
It wouldn't work. Yes. Well, let's talk about
that, because it is a different approach to telling
stories, especially since we're talking nonfiction
here. Right. Since it's a graphic medium, there's
nothing more boring than when the action is basically
a bunch of people standing around giving speeches
on a stage. That's right. You have to try to
make it, have to make it interesting. And that's
just, if you want people to read it, you're going
to have to do that. And you're going to find
some way to do it. And there are ways even to
make things like that interesting. But it's always
a lot better if you have like big armies charging
each other and that sort of thing. It's a lot
easier. Yes, indeed, but that was the challenge
there of me trying to figure out, you know, in
our Hammer and Anvil book. Right. Little scenes
here and there and you're just staging. Oh, yes.
That's true. So at least here you had a lot of
action, a lot of movement, and then you could
break things up by your close -ups with the generals
or these little vignettes to pause. And you even
in those because just the nature of what was
going on it could be very dramatic. I mean Just
sometimes sometimes the words take over I know
particularly I remember think of the incident
when James Longstreet tried to talk Robert E
Lee out of you know out of attacking the cemetery
Ridge And it just almost the stillness of that
in the middle of all this action To me was very
dramatic Yeah, yeah I was very impressed with
the whole package that you produced here, because
you also did the coloring too, correct? Oh, yes.
Yes, I pretty much do the research, the writing
and the illustration and color. And as I say,
the Zenith has been a great publisher. We've
already come out with a Normandy book that came
out last summer. We've got a lot of things coming
out. They've been very happy with this. this
media, and we are doing really good things. I'm
working on a book about the Red Baron right now,
and I'm going to be doing one on the Battle of
the Bulge, but we have coming out late summer,
I believe it is, a book called Grant vs. Lee
about the last year of the war in Virginia, and
also a book called Bombing Nazi Germany about
the bomber campaign against Germany. They're
bringing in other artists and writers, I understand,
to do some of these projects too. Okay, well
Wayne we're coming up at the close here and so
I would like you to again tell our listeners
where they can get your you know fine graphic
history of Gettysburg. This is writer artist
Wayne Van Zandt. Yes, you can get it at Amazon
.com or Zenithpress .com or Barnesandnoble .com.
I can't let him go away yet. No, we can't let
him go away. We've got a couple of minutes. This
sounds to me like, Wayne, this is Dale. This
sounds like those old classic illustrated comics
that got me through English Lit. But, you know,
what is the audience for this? It seems very
appropriate for high school and college kids,
and of course for adults too, I'm sure. Well,
yeah, I don't try to write down to anybody at
all. I just tell the story as best I can. But
a lot of schools have been used, and I know there's
been a college in southern Florida that used
our Vietnam book and a course. And there's a
teacher in New Jersey that over the years has
bought a lot of the books from me that I do.
I have a Korean War book I did several years
ago. He has bought a number of those for his
classes, and he's getting Gettysburg, and he's
got Normandy, and he's using these in his classes.
And I think history can be very dry to some people.
I've always loved it. I've always loved reading
history. But you have to excite some people a
little bit more about it. This might be the way
to do it. or at least make it a little bit more
accessible to them. I think so. Your guys' illustrations
in all of your books that you've done have just
been so fascinating that they draw you in so
that you want to know more. After reading one
of your books, if you need more details you can
always go and get that, but at least you get
some sort of idea of what was going on because
unfortunately today many of our kids are not
getting these stories. Well, there's so little
time to teach. And from what Dwight was saying
earlier, the time he sits in writing these, I
spent a lot of hours on these things. But it's
my passion. It's something I love to do. And
I work hard at it every day. I try to get better.
I try to get better at my writing. I try to get
better at my drawing. So that's something to
look forward to. Before you go, Wayne, you served
in the Navy, correct? Yes, I was in the Navy
in the late 60s and the early 70s. I guess you
kind of wonder, how does this affect what I do?
Of course, I loved history before then, of course.
But I think being in the military, even in the
Navy at that time, gave you a little bit of idea
of military life and the general idea many times
that people that are there don't want to be there.
I think it gave me a little bit more of an understanding
of what military life was like. I think you've
done a great job. Well, thank you. I appreciate
that. As a veteran and a teacher, I just love
your books and I like to use them myself, so
it's a great thing. Thank you. Well, thank you
very much. So we've been talking with Wayne Van
Zandt about his wonderful book, The Graphic History
of the Battle of Gettysburg. Wayne, good luck
on it and future projects and I hope that you
and I can work again sometime in the near future.
I have no doubt that we will. Okay Dwight, well
we do have a winner for your book and that is
our good friend Vance who called in and said,
false, it's the Navy that designed the Medal
of Honor originally and that is true so we got
to get a copy of your book out to Vance McCrum.
Oh, great. Congratulations, Vance. The fascinating
thing, it was a member of the Army that actually
came up with the idea, but the general who was
the head of the Army, Winfield Scott, he didn't
like the idea, so he shot it down, but the secretary
of the Navy loved the idea, so he said, well,
the Army doesn't want it, we'll do it. All right,
Dwight, well thank you again for another great
installment of At Ease, and we're looking forward
to another year of you bringing on these most
amazing authors in the history of military writing.
Thank you, Dwight, very much. And until next
week, you are dismissed. Veterans Radio is a
production of Veterans Radio.