Our epic, 3-part series chronicles Oklahoma’s colossal role, on the battlefield and on the home front, in history’s greatest conflict—World War II. Some of the greatest Patriot warriors in American history left Oklahoma to defend their country against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, many at the cost of their life.
Join John and KTOK/iHeartRadio star Gwin Faulconer-Lippert and be astounded at how little you know of lionhearted Oklahomans’ leadership on land, air, and sea in this titanic odyssey. These are the 97th, 98th, and 99th episodes of our original OKLAHOMA GOLD! radio program! Thank you Atwoods Stores for making it possible! Go HERE to listen to them all! Future episodes explore more great heroes, events, and movements of Oklahoma History.
Forty-fifth Infantry Brigade Combat Team “Thunderbirds,” comprised largely of Oklahomans, bow for prayer led by 1st Lt. and Chaplain Harvey Floyd Bell before eating dinner on Christmas Day 1943, near the Italian front. Photo Harvey Floyd Bell, 163rd Signal Photo Com- pany. Colorization Jakob Lagerweij. (@colourisedpieceofjake) Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration..
Oklahoma artist R. T. Foster’s Siege of Battleship Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor depicts the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on American Army, Army Air Corps, and Naval installations at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Courtesy Foster and the Oklahoma State Senate Historical Preservation Fund, Inc.
This powerful, full-page John A. Brown newspaper ad ran in the Daily Oklahoman the day before the first anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. Oklahoma Publishing Co. and Oklahoma Historical Society.
Phillips 66 signs, familiar to drivers across America, both modeled after the Route 66 signs that marked the heart of “Phillips Country” and near which the famous road test of a potent early Phillips gasoline occurred. The orange and black sign sprouted up in 1930, the modern red and white one in 1959. Former President Dwight Eisenhower’s painting of his good friend, innovative Phillips Chairman Kenneth S. “Boots” Adams. Crucial Phillips trailblazing research and product development of both synthetic rubber and high-octane aviation fuel helped Ike and his American and Allied armies win World War II. Courtesy Steve Adams.
“Angels of the Airfields” is what American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines called First Lieutenant Erneze Pope and her military colleagues on nurses’ evacuation units. They risked their lives to escort wounded warriors from the worst World War II battlefields to forward operating hospitals. Left to right with Pope are Virginia Lowe of Wesley Hospital in OKC, Maxine Metzger of an Enid hospital, Beatrice Hardwick of OKC’s St. Anthony Hospital, and Kedrann Wood of Oklahoma City General. Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society. According to one military historian, “Flight nurses served as the military equivalent of Dante’s Beatrice, (who) in the allegorical poem The Divine Comedy, is a symbol of hope who guides the author/protagonist through purgatory and hell to heaven.”
Oklahoma’s Ruben Rivers, the real “Black Panther,” whose legendary feats against the Nazis were the first to ever garner a black American the Medal of Honor.
Many thanks to Atwoods Stores, a farm and ranch supply company based in Enid, Oklahoma, for their support of the Red River Institute of History and OKLAHOMA GOLD! Please support them as you are able! Wherever you are, you can order online from thousands of quality products on their terrific website HERE. Atwoods also has 66 stores in 5 states: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. In addition to farm and ranch supplies, Atwoods stores sell clothing, lawn and garden items, tools, hardware, automotive supplies, sporting goods, pet supplies, firearms, and seasonal items.
Read the full story at Oklahoma and World War II - Podcast,
from Oklahoma History, with John Dwyer
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