The Privileges of War? A Green Beret's Story of American Service in Vietnam
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
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Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Tom Ross, a former Green Beret and intelligence officer during the Vietnam War, shares his powerful story of American service in 1968 South Vietnam. As part of a Special Forces “A” Detachment—an elite Green Beret unit—Ross witnessed the realities of war firsthand. Today, he's the President and CEO of The Ross Jewelry Company in Atlanta, Georgia, and the author of Privileges of War: A Good Story of American Service in Vietnam, a memoir that explores sacrifice, service, and life after combat. We'd like to thank the Atlanta History Center for allowing us access to this audio, originally part of their Veterans History Project.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
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| 0:11.1 | I'm Bridget Todd, host of There Are No Girls on the Internet. |
| 0:13.9 | And this season, I'm digging into the tech stories we weren't told. |
| 0:17.4 | Starting with Stacey Spikes, the black founder of movie pass who got pushed out of the company |
| 0:21.6 | he built. |
| 0:22.8 | Everybody's trying to knock you down and it's not going to work and no one's going to like it. |
| 0:27.3 | And then boom, it's everywhere. |
| 0:29.3 | And that was that moment. |
| 0:30.7 | Listen if there are no girls on the internet on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. |
| 0:44.6 | Yeah. or wherever you get your podcast. This is Lee Habib, and this is our American stories. |
| 0:48.5 | And we tell stories about everything here on this show, |
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| 0:55.9 | in between, including your stories, send them to Our American Stories.com. They're some of our |
| 1:02.1 | favorites. In 1968, Tom Ross was the intelligence and operations officer of a unique |
| 1:08.7 | special forces aid detachment in the Republic of South |
| 1:12.9 | Vietnam, the elite unit also known as the Green Berets. In 2004, Tom brought a unique perspective |
| 1:20.8 | to the view of American service during the Vietnam War with his book, Privileges of War, |
| 1:27.3 | A Good Story of American Service in Vietnam. |
| 1:31.3 | Today, Tom is the president and CEO of his own successful custom-designed jewelry firm, |
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