![Best Days Podcast](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/anchor-generated-image-bank/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Best Days Podcast
By Best Days Podcast
![Currently playing episode](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
![Grief Life, Episode 3: Coping through the Holidays](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded/16237670/16237670-1645471173850-685d4fc285b62.jpg)
Grief Life, Episode 3: Coping through the Holidays
This podcast aims to help bereaved people and their family members get through the holidays without their lost loved one.
If you or a loved one need support this holiday season or have questions for Sarah or Ashlee, please reach out to Ashlee at apendleton@vnanwi.org or Sarah at skingsbury@vnanwi.org.
![Grief Life, Episode 2: How to support bereaved family members during the holidays](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded/16237670/16237670-1645471173850-685d4fc285b62.jpg)
Grief Life, Episode 2: How to support bereaved family members during the holidays
This podcast aims to help bereaved people and their family members get through the holidays without their lost loved one.
If you or a loved one need support this holiday season or have questions for Sarah or Ashlee, please reach out to Ashlee at apendleton@vnanwi.org or Sarah at skingsbury@vnanwi.org.
![Grief Life, Episode 1: Attending Holiday Family Functions while Grieving](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded/16237670/16237670-1645471173850-685d4fc285b62.jpg)
Grief Life, Episode 1: Attending Holiday Family Functions while Grieving
This podcast aims to help bereaved people and their family members get through the holidays without their lost loved one.
If you or a loved one need support this holiday season or have questions for Sarah or Ashlee, please reach out to Ashlee at apendleton@vnanwi.org or Sarah at skingsbury@vnanwi.org.
![Salute to Veterans Special Edition - Robert Lee Emery](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded/16237670/16237670-1645471173850-685d4fc285b62.jpg)
Salute to Veterans Special Edition - Robert Lee Emery
Robert Lee Emery of Valparaiso died with honor on October 15, 1950 in the Korean War. He lived on Blackhawk Beach on Flint Lake in Valparaiso and attended Central Junior High before going to work at Carnegie-Illinois at US Steel. He enlisted in the US Army in 1949 and by September, 1950 after nearly a year in Japan was in Korea in the thick of a confusing war. July 27 is National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day, so we want to recognize and honor the nearly 50,000 Americans killed in that war.
![Salute to Veterans Special Edition: Keith Young, In His Own Words](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded/16237670/16237670-1645471173850-685d4fc285b62.jpg)
Salute to Veterans Special Edition: Keith Young, In His Own Words
Join Volunteer Services Coordinator Erica Kerkes and VNA Hospice Chaplain Ben Polhemus as they speak with Northwest Indiana native, Keith Young, about his time in the United States Navy. You'll hear Keith speak in his own words about his service, family life, and career after the military.
![Salute to Veterans - Stand Down edition](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Salute to Veterans - Stand Down edition
We express our gratitude for those who work tirelessly to support our veterans.
![Salute to Veterans - Marvin Soderstrom](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Salute to Veterans - Marvin Soderstrom
We begin a brief series on Sons of Porter County lost in the Korean Conflict. This is an oft forgotten war in our nation's history where not a lot is taught or understood in modern times. But for 50,000 families who lost a loved one in the conflict, it is anything but forgotten. Today we meet Marvin Wilbert Soderstrom of Portage who was KIA while defending an outpost in a hostile area in Korea on September 9, 1951 during the "Punchbowl campaign." Marvin moved to Portage right before his senior year in high school having spent his first three years of high school at Lew Wallace in Gary. He was 21 at the time of his deployment and was declared as MIA immediately following the attack on his outpost by Chinese militants. An incoming shell exploded directly next to him; subsequent searches by his company were unsuccessful and he was finally presumed dead in February, 1954.
![Salute to Veterans special edition - A look back on our WWII stories](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Salute to Veterans special edition - A look back on our WWII stories
It's Christmas, 1943.
Over 9 million men and women are enlisted and either on their way to camp, in training or already deployed to fight the Nazis or Japanese. America factories are no longer producing goods and cars - they're making planes, tanks, trucks, jeeps and ammunition. Families across middle America are starting to migrate to cities to be closer to the factories. German and Japanese propaganda efforts are fueling huge amounts of fear and terror as reports from the front describe mounting casualties and describe what most people could only compare to hell. Tensions rise across the country; race riots ignite in LA, Detroit and Texas as even with a common enemy (two in fact!), America can still not get beyond its past. We met 13 people from Porter County over the last three months; one was already gone and his family was experiencing its first Christmas without him. The other 12 were all already deployed as well - 6 to the West, 6 to the East. Within a year seven of them would be dead. 17-year-old Louis Siddell was spending his first Christmas from home; his next Christmas in 1944 would be his last as he would never return home again. Louis Auble was spending his second Christmas away from his wife and three young sons; he would be dead in a month. A new song came across the airwaves that season, a song of deep yearning and longing written from a soldier's perspective alone in a bunk far, far from home. Knowing all of this and putting yourself into the time of Christmas, 1943, you'll never hear Bing Crosby's I'll Be Home For Christmas again the same way. Nor should you - may we NEVER forget the pain and longing our soldiers and their loved ones felt, and may no one ever spend another Christmas like the way so many spent it in 1943.
![Salute to Veterans special edition, Connie E. Minton](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Salute to Veterans special edition, Connie E. Minton
The Minton family of Kouts was one of 22 Pleasant Township families to have two or more sons serving during WWII at the same time. Connie E. Minton was aboard a LST amphibious landing ship just offshore of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945 - just a few days before the famous iconic USMC flag raising during that costly battle. A massive US Navy presence surrounded the island early that morning bombing it from sea and air preparing for the landing on that heavily fortified and well-defended volcanic rock in the ocean. Seaman First Class Minton was topside likely taking place in the bombing and defending the air around the ships when a Japanese kamikaze pilot targeted his LST-477 - striking it near the forward gun placement and killing 8 shipmates instantly, including SFC Minton. Hear his story and how his two brothers, Marshall and Ivan fared in the war and take a moment to thank the Minton family - especially Connie - for their ultimate sacrifice.
![Salute to Veterans special edition, Charles W. Smalley, Jr.](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Salute to Veterans special edition, Charles W. Smalley, Jr.
"Then came Montelimar" is the bone-chilling 3-word sentence to start a chapter in the memoir of the 141st Infantry Regiment 36th Infantry Division during WWII - described as a unit that fought for 5 years, 5 countries and 5 campaigns. Montelimar is a commune village in the Rhone Valley in the south of France, an otherwise beautiful area of the world. In the last week of August 1944, though, it was anything but. Chesterton's Charles Smalley, Jr. was embedded with the 141st after marching across Italy and most of southern France as the Allies encountered a determined German 1st Army including a feared Panzer Division. For 168 hours in the hills, fields and clustered towns in that scenic valley, a firefight bloodbath of explosions and close combat took place. Sometime in those 168 hours, Private Smalley lost his life. A former Methodist church youth group leader, Boy Scout and big brother to Jack and Ronald - his remains were never recovered in the carnage that was left. The Germans limped out in retreat defeated, vastly weakened and disorganized - a victory for the Allies, but at a steep, steep price.
![Salute to Veterans special edition Louis Paul Auble](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Salute to Veterans special edition Louis Paul Auble
Valparaiso's Louis Paul Auble said goodbye to his wife, three young sons and father just before Christmas, 1942 as he left for Camp Gordon in California to serve his country. He was 29 at the time and just hitting his stride as a family man and professional painter and interior decorator. He fought with General Patton's army across north Africa and into Italy as a mortarman with the 83rd Chemical Battalion. By late 1943 Italy was fractured in half with the lower part of the "boot" aligned with the Allies, while Hitler and Mussolini desperately tried to hold the north - including Rome - and retake the south. Running the Germans out of the north would create a wide-open path directly to Germany and provide vital ground operations for air attacks. Hitler established a series of defensive fronts across the central Italy that would collectively be known as the Winter Line. Private Auble was aboard LST-422 in the early-morning hours of January 26, 1944, part of a 13-ship convoy sailing into the port city of Anzio - behind the Winter Line. The ships carried tens of thousands of men, tanks, trucks, ammunitions and fuel needed to dislodge the Germans from Italy once and for all. A fierce winter storm kicked up over the Tyrrhenian Sea with gale force winds, 30-foot waves, and ice, snow, rain and hail. As the ships anchored at sea a few miles off the coast waiting for their calls to port the storm intensified. The LST-422 was blown from its anchor and was tossed into an enemy underwater minefield that until that point no one knew was there. The explosion ripped a huge hole into the starboard and bottom of the ship allowing the sea to rush into the below decks where the entire 83rd Chemical Battalion was encamped - they never stood a chance. Private Auble died in those icy waters that night; he was never recovered. He would never learn of the challenges his youngest son Ray "Buddy" Auble would endure with an often fatal heart condition and how the whole city of Valparaiso rallied around "Blue Baby Buddy," the son of a dead war hero. We learn how Lucile, Louis's wife would die young as well - at the age of 38 - making orphans out of the three boys who would live with other family members. We learn of Buddy's triumphant recovery from so much tragedy.
![Mental Health Awareness Month: Self-Care](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Mental Health Awareness Month: Self-Care
Join VNA Hospice NWI Bereavement Coordinator Sarah Kingsbury and Volunteer Services Coordinator Erica Kerkes as they discuss self-care habits and the benefits of creating a self-care routine.
![J Frank Brunk Salute to Veterans special edition](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
J Frank Brunk Salute to Veterans special edition
By all accounts Frank Brunk grew up in an idyllic time and place, a quiet Chesterton between the great world wars. It was a Norman Rockwell painting in real life. The scrapbook of his youth is filled with newspaper clippings of being an accomplished musician as an 8-year-old, a Boy Scout, an outstanding youth leader at the First Methodist church. He was a busy thespian appearing in a number of high school and community productions, sung in the chorus and played in the orchestra. His father JC Brunk was in the Lions Club and owned a business in town where young Frank helped out. Slight of build at 5'9" and 125 pounds, Frank graduated with recognition from Westchester High School in 1941 and in September of that year was at Purdue rooming with a new friend, James, from Pittsburgh. How quickly things change. His selective service number #12358 was soon called and in June, 1942 he left Purdue and was at Sheppard Field in Texas as part of the US Air Corp. Two years later on June 8, 1944 he was part of a six-man crew in a B-25 Mitchell bomber attacking a Japanese convoy of 8 ships off the coast of New Guinea; Staff Sgt. Brunk was the radioman and gunner, and on this day 10 bombers and 24 P-38s were taking relentless antiaircraft heat as they tried to sink the ships. Sgt. Brunk's pilot, 2nd Lt. Howard Wood, dove the bomber to make a second run when the plane was shredded by Japanese shells sending it crashing into the sea. No one survived or was recovered. Staff Sgt. Brunk and the crew is memorialized on the Tablets of Missing in the Manilla America Cemetery. A painting of Robert Woods' "Coast of Monterey" was donated to the school in 1947 by Frank's parents in his memory and hung in the library - I wonder if it still does?
![PFC Laurence Siddall Salute to Veterans special edition](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
PFC Laurence Siddall Salute to Veterans special edition
Laurence Siddall was a tall lanky high junior at Valparaiso High School in 1943. One of seven children to father William - a local postman - and mother Genivieve, Laurence was often pictured in his high school photos with moppish hair and a shy - if not sly grin. He participated in the Glee Club and Tumbling Club - maybe not the lineage one might expect for a future US Marine. The tumblers though, seemed to have some mettle. They performed at halftime of basketball games, and as the WWII raged on, they learned more physical routines that drew from combat training that servicemen were learning in the military. In fact in the fall of 1943, just as Laurence was beginning his junior year, the club disbanded as too many participants had left for active duty, including Laurence and team captain Malcom Varner. We heard Malcom's name in a previous salute to classmate Joe Long as they were both stationed together in Norman, OK. By 1945, now Private First Class in the USMC, Laurence was in the Pacific as a mortarman aboard a LVT - an amphibious landing craft. On February 19, 1945 the order to take Iwo Jima was given - we've all seen the famous flag raising that would occur three days later, but even on that date, the battle was far from over. But back on Monday, Feb 15, as dawn broke at 0640 across the south Pacific it was already a humid 68-degrees while PFC Siddall and his crewmates had a quick breakfast of bacon and eggs below deck. Overhead canons from the dozens - if not hundreds - of ships started booming as the bombardment of Iwo Jima started. A couple of hours later PFC Siddall was only 400 yards from shore in fierce fighting - bullets and rockets and grenades exploding all around. A Japanese mortar shell from high above found its mark in the LVT sinking it instantly - 8 crewmen never resurfaced, including PFC Siddall. Later that day SFC Connie Minton also of Valparaiso would be killed on LST-477 when a kamikaze pilot crashed into his ship. The US Marines would finally secure Iwo Jima 34 days later after some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific ended.
![Salute to Veterans special edition, Cpl John T. McBride, Jr.](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Salute to Veterans special edition, Cpl John T. McBride, Jr.
John McBride was a standout student and athlete a Valparaiso High School, graduating with the class of 1934, and after lettering four years on the basketball team. He enlisted with the US Army in April, 1943 and was soon with General Jacob Devers' 7th Army marching across southern France liberating towns and villages along the way. The 7th joined Patton's 3rd Army at the Battle of Bulge where some of the most fierce and intimate trench battles during the war occurred. Hitler was on the brink and desperately needed to defeat the 7th Army or risk the defeat of his entire military and lose the war - a win against the 7th would reinvigorate his army and push the Allies back toward the shores. The Allies, though, were up to the challenge and won the battle which forced the Germans into retreat and ultimately paved the way to Berlin for the Allies. Corporal McBride lost his life on January 24, 1945 - the last day of fighting as the Germans retreated the next day. He rests eternal in the Epinal American Cemetery in France.
![Salute to Veterans special edition - Sgt. Milton Yost](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Salute to Veterans special edition - Sgt. Milton Yost
Learn how Valparaiso's own Sgt. Milton Yost stormed across France and Germany with the 82nd Airborne, likely landing with troops on D-Day in Normandy. Learn some neat history about a large factory that no longer exists where Sgt. Yost was employed.
![Lt. Magdelene Kubeck Salute](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Lt. Magdelene Kubeck Salute
Magdelene Kubeck came to the United States as a 2-year-old through Ellis Island and settled in Whiting, IN with her family. She graduated from Whiting High in 1927 and soon began her studies to become a nurse. The bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, awoke something in Magdelene and she answered a call to serve. Right after Christmas, 1941, she was in Seattle and soon deployed to the Pacific Theater. She was killed on February 15, 1945 in a violent car accident on Guam. Her death serves as a reminder to us all on the importance of nurses in battle - throughout our history. The most famous nurses - Florence Nightengale, Clara Barton, Dorthea Dix - were all battlefield nurses risking their lives to serve. We can't do enough to thank and recognize them - so honoring Lt. Kubeck and her strength, resolve and bravery is the least we can do to start.
![Salute to Veterans special edition - August "Joe" Long](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Salute to Veterans special edition - August "Joe" Long
August "Joe" Long of Valparaiso died heroically in World War II serving his country in the Pacific theater. He was part of a bombing mission aboard a B24 Liberator on Mothers' Day, May 9, 1945, with a task to destroy an airfield and recently arrived Japanese planes on the vital outpost. His plane came in under heavy fire as she had to dive low and slow to deliver its payload on the tiny island - it was like dropping ping-pong balls into a cup from a car going 150 mph. The 12-man crew as able to deliver its 20 100-pound bombs and destroyed three Japanese planes getting ready to taxi for takeoff. However as the plane tried to accelerate and lift, she was strafed with terrific ground fire, ripping her apart in flight, and sending her hurtling into the sea. No wreckage or survivors were found by planes or ships who returned for rescue attempts. Joe received the Air Medal posthumously from Secretary of Navy James Forrrestal on November 25, 1946.
![Robert Franklin Ruge - Salute to Veterans Edition](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Robert Franklin Ruge - Salute to Veterans Edition
The VNA Hospice is proud to salute Robert Franklin Ruge of Valparaiso for his valor and bravery during WWII where he served in the Pacific Theater. Lt. Ruge fought on the island of Corregidor in 1944, was taken captive as a POW for over two years before being lost at sea as the Imperial Japanese "hell ship" Arisan Maru - a POW transport - was sunk by an American submarine.
![Paul S. Biggart Salute to Veterans Special Edition](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Paul S. Biggart Salute to Veterans Special Edition
Staff Sgt. Paul S. Biggart was born in Valparaiso in 1921 and served in the USAF during WWII in the European Theater. He was a waist gunner aboard the "Pistol Packin' Momma," a B24 Liberator that flew multiple missions over Germany. The bomber completed her last mission on February 25, 1944, delivering her payload over a plane factory deep in Germany before being slowly picked apart by German defenses, and finally downed just after crossing into safe airspace in Italy. Staff Sgt. Biggart was killed as the plane approached her target, and in fact was credited with taking out four German fighters himself - all told the Momma knocked out 15 German fighters that mission, a Bomber Group record. We salute Staff Sgt. Biggart's heroics and thank him and his family for his sacrifice.
![Salute to Veterans: National Vietnam Veterans Day](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1645471175112-0b994ddf2d25d.jpg)
Salute to Veterans: National Vietnam Veterans Day
Join your host, Erica Kerkes, as she speaks with 2 local Vietnam Veterans about their service in recognition of National Vietnam Veterans Day, March 29th.
![Salute to Veterans: Sgt. Wallace Victor Koselke](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1634924842544-e3ea3e79168c3.jpg)
Salute to Veterans: Sgt. Wallace Victor Koselke
Join us this week as we hear the story of 21 year old, Wallace Victor Koselke of Wanatah, Indiana. We'll learn more about Sgt. Koselke's sacrifice for our nation and his ultimate sacrifice. #WeHonorVeterans #BestDaysPodcast
![Salute to Veterans: Freddie K. Affeld](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1634924842544-e3ea3e79168c3.jpg)
Salute to Veterans: Freddie K. Affeld
In this week's episode we remember the life of US Army Air Corps Staff Sgt Freddie K. Affeld. We salute Freddie and his family for his service and sacrifice for our country. #WeHonorVeterans #BestDaysPodcast
![Navigating Veteran Benefits: Panel Discussion](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded400/16237670/16237670-1634924842544-e3ea3e79168c3.jpg)
Navigating Veteran Benefits: Panel Discussion
Join us as we talk to Jim Atkinson, former Porter County Veteran Service Officer and current VNA Hospice Volunteer, Angelica Schultis, Member/Partner at Blachly, Tabor, Bozik & Hartman and Jeff Imhof, current Porter County Veteran Service Officer, about benefits available to veterans and their families.
A downloadable resource guide is available at VNANWI.org
![Salute to Veteran's Day](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_episode400/16237670/16237670-1634934223971-d108afb683aba.jpg)
Salute to Veteran's Day
In this episode we talk to John Gorski and Jim Atkinson about their military service and find out why they chose to become VNA Hospice volunteers.