On November 24, 2003, John appeared as a guest on “The Burt & Kurt Center for Common Sense,” the no. 1-rated midday radio talk show in Alabama. The following are some of the highlights:

BURT: 
It sounds like a fascinating story, tell us how you got this story and what piqued your interest?

JOHN: 
Well, I moved to Birmingham about six years ago from New Orleans, and I was interested in doing some writing—that was sort of the career path I was hoping to embark on—and as it turned out a friend of my uncle’s was interested in putting his war stories together. And that friend, of course, is Bill Shanahan, who lives in Pelham. And we met, we got together and talked for several different occasions, and he had some notes that he had put together, about 30 pages worth of notes and stories that he experienced while he was in Vietnam—which he was there for two years, from 1968 to 1970. And he served with the Rangers, at the time they were referred to as the Lurps, doing small-team reconnaissance work, and I just thought it sounded like a really promising project. I didn’t have anything else quite frankly in the works, and so it seemed like a good direction to go in.

BURT: 
So you actually did a lot of research on this book—traveled to Washington, Vietnam?

JOHN: 
Yeah, that’s right. The core material, of course, came from the interviews with Bill himself, but in addition to that we interviewed many of the other people that appear in the book. I guess all of the team leaders that are still with us. Interviewed all those guys. And went up to North Carolina and met with one of them for several hours. We went down to Ft. Benning and met with one of the guys, who actually lives in Illinois but was down there for a ranger reunion—at Fort Benning they have an annual event, it’s called the Ranger Rendezvous, down there at the base just outside Columbus—we went down and met with him. And had a good time. And he actually is one of the guys that we went to Washington, DC with. He accompanied us on that trip. We went to the National Archives, which was fascinating honestly from my perspective. I don’t know if you’ve ever been there or know much about it, but it literally houses the original documents that those guys had—like their After Action Reports and things of that nature. And so we were literally able to go in there and look at the things, the very documents that they had written on and reported on after their missions. So that was very unique and very helpful.

KURT: 
Probably had mud and blood on some of that paper. 

[Laughter]

JOHN: 
That’s exactly right.

BURT: 
How did their 32-year-old memories come out?

JOHN: 
From my perspective, I think it went really well. Now to be candid, there were some things people couldn’t remember. There were names—people would forget names and things of that nature—and specific locations. But I think the heart of the material, which was the experience, and with the guys, specifically the guys that Bill ran with, and what their missions consisted of were, like I said, small-team reconnaissance, so they operated in very small teams, and part of the point of the book actually emphasizes how closely those guys worked together, how close they became in terms of their friendships, and the camaraderie, and those experiences I think come through pretty honestly and accurately.
     But like I said, as you alluded, it was many years in the making, and I think—I can’t speak to this personally—but I think for a lot of those guys, a lot of them actually suppressed a lot of that for a long time until they got into later stages of adulthood and were able to reflect back on that and maybe appreciate the experience better in retrospect. But, yeah, it has been a long time, but I think Bill is pleased—most of the veterans that we’ve spoken with have been real pleased with the way the book itself turned out. I, of course, as the coauthor am pleased with it. I feel very comfortable with the resulting product.

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