In the Pacific, it flew only feet off the ground at more than 200 miles per hour, and strafed and skip-bombed Japanese ships and fixed targets. In Europe, it roared at 12,000 feet through intense German anti-aircraft fire, dropping 500 pound bombs on rail lines and bridges. The plane was the B-25 Bomber, considered the most versatile plane of World War Two.
In this episode of Save Our History, host Steve Thomas uncovers the story of how the B-25 played a crucial role during the war. He sees up close how several B-25s are being restored today, meets six veterans who flew them in intense combat and takes them all up in a B-25 one more time.
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Since the War of 1812, the Battle of the Aleutians in 1942-43 was the only armed conflict with foreign troops fought on American soil. In this episode of Save Our History, Steve Thomas journeys through the Aleutian Islands to Attu, the westernmost island in the Alaskan chain, accompanied by Dean Galles, an 85 year-old veteran of this little-known but bloody WWII battle.
His jumping off point is Kodiak Island, which was, during World War II, the U.S. Navy's headquarters in the North Pacific. With Joe Stevens, a local military expert, Steve sails out to Long Island six miles away to explore Fort Tidball, an Army ghost town with Quonset huts, bunkers and artillery guns.
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Thomas Jefferson was a busy man. He drafted the Declaration of Independence, was the U.S. Minister to France, Secretary of State, Vice President, and America's third President. In the midst of a prolific public career, Jefferson maintained a vibrant private life: father, friend, farmer, inventor. And America's first great architect.
In this episode of Save Our History: Jefferson's Other Revolution, host Steve Thomas explores the private vs. the public Jefferson as reflected primarily in the restoration of Poplar Forest, his hideaway retreat. He also travels to two of Jefferson's other monumental achievements: the Virginia State Capitol and the University of Virginia.
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Centuries from now, people will look back at key moments during the 1960s and 70s, when 12 American astronauts first left planet Earth and walked on the moon, as some of the most pivotal events in world history. In Apollo: The Race Against Time, Save Our History host Steve Thomas explores how significant artifacts of NASA's Apollo missions are being restored and preserved.
In this one-hour special, we discover how the only remaining Saturn V rocket that was specifically built to launch an Apollo mission is being restored at Johnson Space Center in Houston; we find out how a lunar rover test vehicle is restored at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center; we see how Apollo spacesuits, including the one worn by Apollo 11's Buzz Aldrin, are being carefully preserved at the National Air and Space Museum.
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Host Steve Thomas travels to Montana and northern California to bring to life the gold rush era of the mid-late 19th century. He'll explore these lawless towns that boomed and went bust, where fortunes were made and where killings and robberies were almost daily events. By a river's edge, deep in a mine shaft or in the last water-powered iron foundry in America, we'll see Steve panning for gold, running huge mining drills, even setting off dynamite in a tunnel, as he finds out how gold was mined, what challenges prospectors faced and what tools and technology they used to hit paydirt.
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