Thad Forester, Author at

Ep 079 | Rhonda Jimmerson – The Fight to Bring Her Brother Home

February 22, 2021 By Thad Forester

Rhonda Jimmerson’s brother, Major Troy “Trojan” Gilbert was an F-16 pilot with over 1000 flying hours.

On November, 27, 2006, his plane crashed in Iraq while he was protecting Americans whose helicopter had crashed. His body was ejected from the plane upon impact and immediately found and taken by al Qaeda–rolled up in a carpet and placed in a truck.

They made videos in celebration and kept his body as a trophy for 10 years.

Finally, on October 3, 2016, his body was returned home.

He was married with five children. Troy graduated from Texas Tech in 1993 with a degree in International Economics.

This interview with Rhonda is about her fight to get all of her brother’s remains home. She shares her struggles as a sister to support her parents and to support Troy’s wife Ginger, and children.

We finish up with her faith and how she persevered through one disappointment after another.

Note: since it became known that Troy had been killed, he was not considered “missing”. We discuss this but didn’t go into depth about what is considered “missing”.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Ep 078 | Stan Staheli, Patton’s Third Army, WWII POW – Replay

January 11, 2021 By Thad Forester

Please enjoy this replay that originally aired in Feb of 2017.

J. Stanford (Stan) Staheli was only 18 years old when drafted. One year later he was a member of Patton’s Third Army, 4^th Armored Division, liberating France from the Nazi’s. It was here that he was captured in 1944 during a German counter-attack near Rimsdorf, France. The Germans immediately said “The war’s over for you.” Stan thought surely, they were going to be killed; but that wasn’t the case.

He and the other prisoners walked three days to the camp in Frankfurt. They then traveled by rail in a standing-room only conditions to East Germany. Then eventually to another location where they were held for five months. Even though he said he was treated humanely, he was stripped of his clothes each night and only had a small throw blanket for cover, during the coldest recorded winter in German history at the time.

Stan said life in the prison camp wasn’t that bad. The guards told them “if you don’t work, you don’t eat.” Having grown up in the depression, this wasn’t a new concept to him. He learned to love to work long before the Army. They built bomb shelters and repaired railroads for the German Army. However, many of the guards were disabled from the front lines and would show the prisoners pictures of their captors’ families when their superiors weren’t around.

Staheli said his mom never lost faith that her son was alive. Even though he was officially “missing in action”, many presumed he was dead. After being released, he was finally able to write his family and then surprised them on a Sunday morning in Cedar City, UT.

Today, Staheli is 91 years old (as of Feb 2017) and has a noble posterity – 10 children (2 have passed), 53 grandchildren, and 60+ great-grandchildren. Quoting Will Rogers, he said “I never met a man I didn’t like.”

This hero, with only an 8^th grade education, was presented an honorary diploma from Enterprise High School in May 2016.

Music courtesy of Soundroad – Believe.
Copyright 2021 Thad Forester
www.patriottothecore.com
email questions to thad@patriottothecore.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Ep 077 | My Interview on “The Game” | Throwback from 2012

November 9, 2020 By Thad Forester

Throwback to my interview with Mick Gillispie and Ryan Fowler on “The Game” radio show in February 2012.

Mick has been a big supporter of The Mark Forester Foundation since its inception. And in this interview we cover many topics surrounding Mark’s education, time in military, final battle, The American Fallen Soldiers Project, fundraisers and Mark’s foundation.

As you’ll hear in my intro, I’m having a difficult time interviewing lately, but have people with compelling stories lined up. It’s all a matter of time, and right now, our family is having to constantly “recalibrate”.

Here are links to what we discussed today:

Bama Gone but Not Forgotten – Thomas “Jake” Jaichner

An American Hero Comes Home – Major Troy Gilbert

The American Fallen Soldiers Project – Univ of Alabama

Lifetime’s “Coming Home”

Tennessee Smokies Honor Mark

JAG 28 Memorial Birthday Walk

Follow Mick at:

Bama Insider

Cubs TV

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Ep 076 – Special: Brig. Gen. Gwyn Armfield | Behind the scenes of our Next-of-Kin notifications

September 29, 2020 By Thad Forester

Sept 29, 2020 is the 10th anniversary of Mark Forester’s death in Afghanistan. The picture in this post is Mark’s body being taken from the C-17 at Dover AFB for the Dignified Transfer.

My guest is General Robert Armfield who was Mark’s group commander in 2010. Armfield was also at Dover when Mark’s body arrived, he visited our home to provide additional details of his death, and was in the background helping lead the notification activities.

We discuss how they arranged simultaneously notifying our family, how they watched Mom and Dad’s home until Dad got home from work. Why they called the sheriff before they delivered the news and how they prepare to bring this news that rocks someone’s world instantly.

He also shares the purpose of that last big mission Mark and his team were on. It was great to have this experienced, American warfighter on the show and we appreciate him reflecting on Mark’s death from Gwyn’s unique perspective.

“I cannot think of another Air Force general who has more combat time than Brig. Gen. Armfield,” said retired Lt. Gen. Eric Fiel, former commander of Air Force Special Operations Command and officiant of Armfield’s retirement ceremony.

Learn more about Brig. Gen. Armfield here

Mentioned in this show:

HBO original movie: Taking Chance

*PTC is on Patreon. If you like what you’re hearing please check out how you can help the cause so I can provide quality content and keep on keeping on!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Ep 075 – Dan Skidmore | Former CCT, GORUCK Dir. of Training

August 24, 2020 By Thad Forester

Dan Skidmore spent nine years as an Air Force combat controller. As a member of this elite group, he deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other locations across the globe.

He is a member of Force Blue , which unites the community of Special Operations veterans with the world of marine conservation for the betterment of both.

Dan is also the Director of Training for GORUCK – a gear, apparel, footwear, and events company that I’m a big fan of.

In this episode we cover three main topics: CCT, GORUCK and one of his businesses, Ruck Wrap, which promotes recovery and injury prevention by compression and teaches how to “maintain your machine.”

At the end, I got his opinion on professional athletes kneeling for the National Anthem.

I hope you enjoy this hard-charging, health and fitness advocate that I enjoy following on Instagram.

Follow Dan on Facebook below:

https://www.facebook.com/daniel.skidmore.5

*PTC is on Patreon. If you like what you’re hearing please check out how you can help the cause so I can provide quality content and keep on keeping on!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download