‘From the Front to the Home Front’ Highlights Broadcasting in WWII and Vietnam | News, Sports, Jobs

TR PHOTO BY MIKE DONAHEY – Waterloo author, broadcaster and historian Jeff Stein is featured Sunday at the Marshalltown Public Library during his presentation of his documentary “From the Battlefront to the Homefront.”

From the Revolutionary War through World War I, the bravery and sacrifices of the American military were reported in major metropolitan newspapers and by historians.

Technological advances prior to World War II changed that dynamic, including radio broadcasting. Several Iowa broadcasters played a leading role in that conflict, helping to stop the threat of fascism and establish the U.S. as a global power.

Among the colleagues who joined famed broadcast journalist Edward Murrow from CBS were WHO Radio correspondents Jack Shelley and Herb Plambeck, both of whom became legends for the Des Moines station.

Author, presenter and historian Jeff Stein fittingly explored the important contributions of Shelley and Plambeck during a thorough and engaging presentation to 45 attendees on Sunday afternoon in the community room of the Marshalltown Public Library (MPL).

Shelley and Plambeck also played key roles in Stein’s documentary ‘From the Battlefront to the Homefront.’

Shelley and Plambeck not only reported on the war in Europe and the Pacific theater, but also aggressively sought out Iowans on the battlefields or at the airfields to hear their views and to greet their families and friends back home.

“The important thing is that they and the WHO let people at home know that their sons were alive,” Stein said.

Plambeck, an agricultural reporter for the WHO, always carried a corn cob with him during his assignment in Europe and gave a kernel to the Iowans he met.

By the end of his tour, his corn cob was bald.

Stein said military censors read all news reports and had to approve them before they aired.

This led to Shelley regularly saying that he was reporting from ‘somewhere in Holland’.

In addition, radio broadcasters were only allowed to stay in Europe for three months during the war and only one month near the front, which made their work challenging, Stein said.

Stein said that during the conflict from June 1950 to July 1953, there were no broadcasts from Korea because many radio stations had switched to television broadcasting, which was still in its infancy.

About 15 years later, television reporters and newscasters brought the Vietnam War into millions of American homes.

Once again it was the Iowa television networks that led the way. Plambeck was now on television at WHO and was joined by Dean Borg of WMT-Television in Cedar Rapids.

In the documentary, Borg said that for the first time, Americans could see planes dropping napalm, wounded GIs injured in battle, destroyed villages and political unrest among South Vietnamese leaders on their television sets. That in turn had a profound impact on public support — or lack thereof — as the war dragged on.

Stein reported on the equally heroic efforts of several members of the Iowa State University Extension Offices who went into South Vietnamese villages as part of pacification efforts. Their job was to reduce Viet Cong influence, help farmers grow better crops, and raise more productive livestock.

In recorded interviews in the documentary, Borg, Plambeck and Shelley emphasized that they were reporting on the war alone and that the struggle and, in many cases, the ultimate sacrifice were made by the airmen, sailors and soldiers.

Garry Brandenburg of Albion, a U.S. Air Force and Vietnam War veteran, said Stein’s program was “excellent to excellent-plus.”

Brandenburg, a TR employee, served for one year, from April 1965 to April 1966, at Korat, a Royal Thai Air Force base.

His job was to supply ammunition to the crews who armed the American planes.

“I’m pleased with the turnout,” said Katie Fink, manager of public services and technology at the Marshalltown Public Library, before Stein began his presentation. MPL sponsored the free program.

Director Sarah Rosenblum previously told TR that history-related programs are among the most popular programs at the library.

Stein said before his presentation that he had written a number of columns that were once published by the TR and that he had done legal work for the newspaper as a lawyer.

Stein is currently news and program director for News/Talk 1540 KXEL Radio in Waterloo.