How My Dad's Wounds of War Fueled My Drive to Serve Vets

Our American Stories

iHeartPodcasts

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 817 Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of Our American Stories, Diane Hight’s father was a war hero, but he also struggled with alcoholism due to his PTSD from World War II. To honor him, she founded Forever Young Veterans, an organization originally focused on taking WWII veterans to the memorial in Washington, D.C. It soon grew into a mission to take them back to Normandy and beyond. Here's her story.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:14.2	And we return to our American stories.
0:17.1	Up next, a story from Diane Haight of forever young veterans, an organization in Memphis,
0:22.7	Tennessee that grants wishes for World War II, Korea, and Vietnam veterans. He does it out of love
0:29.1	for one of the most important men ever to be in her life. Let's get into the story. I think
0:35.7	I do it for my dad.
0:42.3	He loved people.
0:43.3	He was very outgoing.
0:45.3	He was handsome and people liked him.
0:49.3	And I liked him.
0:52.3	He was playful. and I liked him.
0:57.5	He was playful.
1:00.1	He loved to go swimming.
1:02.8	He liked to play games.
1:05.3	I remember him riding my bicycle.
1:09.4	He owned his own barbershop.
1:11.3	He was very talented.
1:17.2	He would have people that would come from long distances to get their haircut by him.
1:18.5	He was an artist.
1:19.6	He really was.
1:22.1	I enjoyed that part of him.
1:28.3	But my dad was known as an alcoholic. It was very humiliating.
	...

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