War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Music host, James Early. Hello, listeners, and thank you for tuning into this compilation episode that I created

specifically for my partners in crime here at the Parthamnon Podcast Network.

I am Josh Cohen, host of the eyewitness history podcast.

Today I want to showcase nine different interviews I did with an incredible range of people.

This first interview I want to present was my interview from last year with Frank DeAngelis,

former principal of Columbine High School.

He was present during the infamous Columbine Massacre, and here I ask him to take me back

to that fateful day of April 20th,

1999.

So when I ran out of my office, Kiki went down one way, I went the other, and as soon as I came out

the office by my office doors, my worst nightmare became a reality because I encountered the

gunman. And I remember it so vividly and everything just seemed to slow down. And later, what I

learned was you go through something called flight and freeze. And I went through and I thought

I walked out very calmly, but I remember very distinctly what the gunman was wearing, baseball cap,

turned backwards, white cut off T-shirt, black vest, boots. And I just remember the shots being

fired and glass breaking behind me. And all I kept thinking about, and it just slowed down,

...