Our guest today is Kansas native-turned-West Texan Kelly Crager. Kelly is Head of the Oral History Project at the Vietnam Center and Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University, where he is also the Associate Archivist. Before coming to Texas Tech, Kelly was a visiting assistant professor at Texas A&M University. He holds a BA and MA degree in American history from Pittsburg State University and earned his PhD in from the University of North Texas.

Kelly is the author of Hell under the Rising Sun: Texan POWs and the Building of the Burma‐Thailand Death Railway (Texas A&M University Press). His articles have been published in the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Military History of the West, and Southwestern Historical Quarterly, and he curated physical and online exhibits on The Tet Offensive and the Helicopter War in Vietnam. His current research focuses on myth and memory in the Vietnam War. Kelly is the Book Review Editor for Military History of the West, an advisor to the Dartmouth Vietnam Project, and has appeared on C-SPAN’s American History TV.

Join us for a relaxed and very interesting chat with Kelly Crager. We'll talk adolescent missteps, working in a hot dog factory, the impact of that special history teacher, doing oral history, George Strait, Shiner Boch Beer, and much more.

Shoutout to Hard Eight BBQ in Stephenville, Texas, and The Shack BBQ in Lubbock!

And a very special shoutout to our listeners - this is our 100th-numbered episode! Congrats to us and to all of you for supporting Military Historians are People, Too!

Special Discount for our listeners from the University Press of Kansas - 30% off any book purchase! Use discount code 24MILPEOPLE at the ⁠UPK website⁠!

Rec.: 03/14/2024