153 — The Vietnam Tapes of Lance Corporal Michael A. Baronowski

In 1966, a young Marine took a reel-to-reel tape recorder with him into the Vietnam War. For two months, Michael A. Baronowski made tapes of his life and his friends, in foxholes, in combat and sent those audio letters home to his family in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Then he was killed in action.

Thirty-four years later, Baronowski’s friend Tim Duffie, shared these tapes which were used to produce this story as part of the NPR series, “Lost & Found Sound,” created by Jay Allison and The Kitchen Sisters.

This episode also features Jay Allison and The Kitchen Sisters talking about the creation of the Peabody Award winning series Lost & Found Sound and about the production of Baronowski’s story produced by Tina Egloff and Jay Allison. The piece won the first Gold Award at the Third Coast Audio Festival and was one of the most responded to stories ever to air on NPR’s All Things Considered.

“The Vietnam Tapes of Lance Corporal Michael A. Baronowski includes live field recordings from the war that are incredibly honest, genuine, unrehearsed, visceral, funny, devastating…. In short, they’re remarkable.” Transom.org

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