Show Notes
In this episode of the We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast, host Adam Williams talks with Les Messamer, a 96-year-old World War II veteran who one might swear has lived multiple lives simultaneously. Adventurous ones and otherwise.
Les tells about his upbringing in a fundamentalist religious farm community in Iowa, and why he defied its wishes and enlisted to serve in World War II, only to be shunned when he returned home.
Adam talks with Les about his post-war adventures as a sea-going cowboy taking several hundred heifers across the Pacific to Shanghai, China, and surviving near-death experiences along the way. Among other big moments from a life full of stories.
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The We Are Chaffee: Looking Upstream podcast is a collaboration with the Chaffee County Departments of Public Health and Housing, and is supported by the Colorado Public Health & Environment: Office of Health Disparities.
You can see show notes, read the show transcript, and learn more about the Looking Upstream podcast (and related storytelling initiatives) at wearechaffee.org, and on Instagram and Facebook @wearechaffee.
We Are Chaffee (wearechaffee.org) partners with KHEN radio (khen.org) in Salida, Colo., for local broadcasting of the Looking Upstream podcast.
Credits
Adam Williams, host; Jon Pray, engineer and producer; Heather Gorby, graphic and web design; Lisa Martin, producer and We Are Chaffee Community Advocacy Coordinator; Andrea Carlstrom, Director of Chaffee County Public Health and Environment, and Becky Gray, Director of the Chaffee Housing Authority.
