New podcast featuring Coast veterans tells the story of Mississippians involved in WWII

Multiple South Mississippi veterans are part of a new podcast series about their experiences in World War II.

The podcast’s first episode will be made public Monday.

The Center for Oral History & Cultural Heritage at the University of Southern Mississippi produced the series, called “Voices of Our People: World War II,” a longform podcast that tells the war’s story through the voices of Mississippians who lived it.

LaMont Martin and Charlie Odom, both World War II veterans from Gulfport, are featured in episode two.

Veterans Taylor Howard and Bidwell Barnes, also both from Gulfport, are in later episodes.

In telling the story of World War II through the first-person voices of Mississippians, the Center for Oral History & Cultural Heritage mined hundreds of oral histories conducted with World War II veterans from Mississippi during the last half-century-plus.

All branches of the military are represented, and the stories come from each major World War II theater — from Europe to the Pacific to Africa and beyond. The series also tells the stories of Mississippians who experienced the war from the home front.

The first episode focuses on the Pearl Harbor attack and U.S. entry into World War II. A new episode will be released each subsequent Monday through Dec. 2 — five days before the 83rd anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.

The series can be accessed at the Center for Oral History & Cultural Heritage internet website at COHCH.org.