This inaugural episode of the Four Brothers of World War II podcast, entitled “The South Pacific”, was written by Master Sergeant Lyle (Dod) Quant in 1998. He was the second oldest of the four Quant brothers of little New London, Wisconsin who each served in either the United States Army or the United States Army Air Corps (now known as the US Air Force) during World War II. Fifty-plus years after discharge from military service, I asked Lyle and his brothers to write their WW II memoirs looking back on each man's military experience from the perspective of a small-town teenager from their very first days in which they enlisted or were drafted until the very last day of military service.
This inaugural episode begins in a small town in central Wisconsin and takes us to various air bases around the United States (Illinois, Virginia, California, Hawaii), and then eventually down to Australia and New Guinea in the South Pacific. Included in this very well written memoir will be anecdotes of death, disease, Aborigines, crocodiles, Prisoners of War, torpedoes, sunken ships, dogfights with Japanese Zeros, and many other daily challenges and war atrocities.
In addition, this first podcast episode will also share some lighter moments such as interactions with some celebrities, and a true life (better than fiction) love story.
This entire episode lasts approximately one hour, but it will be well worth the listen. Even if the listener feels the need to take breaks on occasion, he/she can simply pause if necessary, and then continue on to hear the rest of the story through to the very end.}
This nonfiction inaugural episode of the "Four Brothers of World War II", podcast is nothing less than riveting.
Incidentally, there were actually nine members of the Quant family. Father, Elmer Ellsworth Quant served in the United States Army Artillery (86th Blackhawk Division) in Europe during World War I, but, he passed away just prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941. That left his wife, Alice, to be a widowed single mother of seven children (including the four brothers in this story/podcast along with their sisters, Lucille, Arlene, and Marian. All are now gone, but their legacy shall last forever.
- David Whitney, Ph.D.