On September 22, 1988, not long after the release of the film Full Metal Jacket,  I sat down in a Los Angeles recording studio with actor R. Lee Ermey. He graciously agreed to record voiceover elements that could be used in videos I was producing for Marine Corps birthday celebrations. This was one: a recitation of the Marine Corps verse of Eternal Father, the Navy Hymn. Lee's death April 15, 2018 reminded me of our work together. I retrieved the reel-to-reel session tapes from a dusty box in the basement, digitizing them in the CBS Eye on Veterans studios, and mixed Lee's thoughtful reading of the lyrics -- quite counter to his well-known drill instructor shout -- with an instrumental performance of the hymn by the president's own U. S. Marine Band.

R. Lee Ermey recites Marine Corps stanza of the hymn Eternal Father

On October 19, 1979 — along lower slopes of Japan's Mount Fuji — the largest, most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded propelled 5,500 gallons of gasoline into corrugated steel huts filled with U. S. Marines. The gas ignited, injuring 73 — 13 fatally. One week later, General Robert H. Barrow, commandant of the Marine Corps, visited 37 of the injured Marines at an Army burn center in Texas. On December 17, 1991, interviewed by Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons, a Marine Corps historian, Barrow — a veteran of combat in World War II, Korea and Vietnam — recalled that he had been stunned as he met scores of horribly-burned survivors.

Marine General Robert Barrow on Meeting Marines Burned at Camp Fuji, Japan

Immediately after the 9/11 attacks on NYC and DC, U. S. and Canadian surveillance aircraft began a constant watch over Washington. When other areas needed similar protection — no one was certain if more attacks would follow — the U. S. sought the help of additional allies. On October 9, 2001, NATO AWACS aircraft began “flying shotgun over Washington.” I flew to Oklahoma to accompany one of the first such missions back into skies over America's capital city. For WTOP radio, I reported on aircrew members from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Turkey undertaking one of the first such missions. The NATO teams continued Operation Eagle Assist until mid-May 2002.

Flying Shotgun Over Washington

On Memorial Day weekend 2025, Washington, D. C.'s all-news radio station WTOP featured two interview segments with author Chas Henry about his just-published book Fuji Fire: Sifting Ashes of a Forgotten U. S. Marine Corps Tragedy. The book details a deadly 1979 typhoon, fuel spill and fire at a then-ramshackle Marine Corps training camp on the lower slopes of Japan's Mount Fuji. The incident left 73 injured at the camp, 54 of them burned. Thirteen would die of their injuries.

WTOP Radio Speaks with Author Chas Henry about Fuji Fire book

Over Memorial Day Weekend 2025, CBS News Radio affiliates across the U. S. broadcast these two reports by correspondent Michael Toscano. They introduced listeners to a tragic-but-forgotten 1979 typhoon, fuel spill and fire at a ramshackle U. S. Marine Corps camp on the lower slopes of Japan's Mount Fuji. Introducing Toscano's reports, news anchors noted, "A new book called Fuji Fire reminds us that the sacrifices of service in the U. S. military are not confined to wartime."

CBS News Radio Remembers 1979 Fuji Fire Incident

From Westwood One News, a noting of the 25th anniversary of the 1991 U. S. and coalition military operation to liberate Kuwait from occupation by forces of Iraq. Reported by the network's national security correspondent Chas Henry, who fought as a U. S. Marine in that conflict.

Gulf War 25th Anniversary: Overview

On September 23, 1971 — paying for the airtime with $20 earned mowing lawns — Chas Henry, aged 13, did his first-ever radio show, which consisted of disc jockeying contemporary Christian music, and reading public service announcements for the church he and his family attended at the time. He bought the time from Lorenzo Milam, manager of the avant-garde free-form radio station KTAO in Los Gatos, California. Today, Chas is a news anchor and national security correspondent heard on hundreds of U. S. radio stations via Westwood One News.

First Radio Broadcast

On the morning of Saturday, May 30, 1981, disc jockey "Charlie O'Henry" did his last radio show on air in Honolulu — just before his "day job" as a U. S. Marine required him to move from Hawaii to North Carolina.  A number of prominent Hawaii celebrities helped him promote the fact that the 6-10 a.m. program would end with a "major announcement," his end-of-show goodbye was inspired by General Douglas MacArthur's observation that old soldiers don't die, they just fade away.  Legendary Hawaii radio personality Kimo Akane appears at the end, implying that Charlie has disappeared.

Charlie O'Henry Last Show on KKUA, Honolulu

On July 25, 1969, 22-year-old Army Specialist John Fogle, an OH-6A crew chief, was torn open by AK-47 rounds -- after the observation helicopter on which he was manning an M-60 machine gun unexpectedly flew low over a North Vietnamese Army encampment.  One round severed his femoral artery.  As John used a bungee cord to create his own tourniquet, the helicopter's pilot guided the shot-up bird to a field medical post in Phu Bai, fortunately only about 10 minutes away.  At the 22nd Field Hospital, surgeons applied lessons they had learned as part of an ongoing study of the best ways to repair injured blood vessels.  Their efforts, and those of others who operated on John over many months to come, would ensure he didn't lose his right leg.  Waking from that first surgery in Phu Bai, John promised doctors he would keep in touch, sending details of his recovery.  Listen to the story of how the recent digitization of the Vietnam Vascular Registry helped him -- nearly a half-century later -- keep that promise, and say thanks.

Vietnam vets find, thank docs who saved their arms and legs

In November 2019, Westwood One News Correspondent Chas Henry visited Germany to examine the wide-ranging, long-lasting impacts of the November 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.

30 Years After The Fall: The Legacy Of The Berlin Wall

Washington, D. C.-based broadcast journalist.

WTOP Radio Speaks with Author Chas Henry about Fuji Fire book

Chas Henry

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