From WNYC, I'm Brian Laird. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Thursday, June 4th.

On September 11th, 2001, that's 25 years ago in just a few months, a naval officer named Kevin Schaefer was working

at his desk inside the Pentagon when American Airlines Flight 77 tore through the building.

Though his injuries were severe, he survived and went on to dedicate the next decade of his life

to hunting Osama bin Laden. A soldier named Mark Little survived not one

but two IED explosions in Iraq, led his men through the second one while still in shock,

and later founded a non-profit to help other wounded veterans. And a pilot named Danielle,

nicknamed Purple, Therio, climbed into a cockpit for the first time

and knew that this was what she was doing, her life's work.

These are some of the heroes next door, the American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who went to war,

whom Martha Raditz, ABC News, chief global affairs correspondent

and co-host of ABC this week on Sunday mornings, profiles in her new book. I think it's fair to say

most Americans, civilians who don't serve in the military increasingly don't know anyone who does,

have only an abstract sense of who these people are. Martha Raditz, while also covering global and Washington Affairs at the highest geopolitical levels,

also wants to make sure some of their stories are known to the broader public.

Again, Martha Raditz is ABC News, Chief Global Affairs correspondent and co-anchor of this week.

She covered every major military conflict of the post-9-11

era from the front lines. And some of you know, she began all of it right here in public radio

as NPR's Pentagon correspondent from 1993 to 1998. Her new book, The Hero Next Door,

Stories of Patriotism and Purpose,

is a dozen portraits of servicemen and women drawn for many years of reporting.

Martha Radich joins me now.

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