Fort Bragg based podcast provides insights to military actions, past and present

By Jenna-Ley Harrison, posted Jul 29, 2021 on BizFayetteville.com

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Joe Buccino hosts a twice-a-week podcast focusing on the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg as well as historical events and interviews with notable military leaders. (Photo used with permission of the U.S Army.)

In a world of information overload, countless platforms constantly compete for people’s attention. But U.S. Army Lt. Col. Joe Buccino has found a way to break through the barrage of phone apps, media markets and other attention-grabbing channels to offer a fresh, unique outlet for delivering engaging highlights about military history, the people who lived it, and the patriotic politics that shaped this country’s past and other world events.

“There’s so much competition for people’s attention…social media, Tik Tok,” Buccino said. “(There are) hundreds and hundreds of podcasts and thousands that nobody listens to. Every organization and company has a podcast now; how do you compete with all that and create something that people will be compelled to listen to regularly?”

In January, Buccino officially launched his 18th Airborne Corps Podcast. But it wasn’t his first podcast; the top-ranking brass previously hosted a Fort Bragg-based podcast dubbed “The All-American Legacy Podcast.” It celebrated the 100th anniversary of the 82nd Airborne Corps—the infantry division to which Buccino previously belonged.

While his show’s airwaves broadcast from a small Southern studio on North Carolina’s East Coast, its message is far-reaching, registering with listeners on the West Coast and beyond.

“I get the sense that a lot of the people who listen are Army officers who are not assigned to the 18th Airborne,” Buccino said. “(There are people) as far as California and the Pacific Northwest who’ve reached out.”

In a few short months, Buccino has propelled his podcast to great heights, quickly drawing a dedicated fan base and gaining the attention of The Washington Post, who did a write-up earlier this year, he said. In the first week alone, the podcast boasted an average of 41,000 downloads per episode; and the show has only grown since then.

“Something like what we’re doing has to be a habit,” Buccino said, “so you have to have it in a certain rhythm to where people are going to want to go back to it and anticipate it. …Ultimately, the show has to be both enlightening and it has to be interesting. …If you’re curious about the world around you and you’re curious about why things have happened the way they happen, then you’ll like this kind of endeavor.”

According to the podcast’s website, the show’s Tuesday/Thursday sessions cover a plethora of topics, featuring interviews with "some of the most prominent American and British historians, veterans, and currently-serving soldiers.” Simply put—“Buccino examines the full spectrum of life and service in the 18th Airborne.” His man goal is to tell the history of the military—a history Buccino has long feared is being forgotten and not communicated throughout his branch with the same frequency it was 30 years ago.

“History and history of the Army is why I came into the Army,” he said. “It’s something I’ve give always been fascinated with. I feel like we don’t invest enough in our history anymore. …We’re not sharing it; we don’t know it; commanders don’t understand it. A lot of our history became lost in terms of understanding it and its relation to who we are—it’s descriptive of who we are today.”

Buccino also strongly believes in sharing history to “help us learn about the future and new emerging technologies and ideas.”

“There’s a basis for the implementation of these things somewhere in history,” he said. “(There are) so many parallels between the Army of the 1970s and today. When you consider and know your history, time becomes a flat surface, and you can connect ideas and philosophies between the past and the future.”

Prior to the inaugural podcast session, Buccino conducted several months of behind-the-scenes prep to ensure the new initiative’s success. However, off-the-air planning has continued to keep the podcast’s lone host doing some heavy lifting. From orchestrating all the details of show topics and their guests and other related items, Buccino said he stays busy.

“I have to bridge an enormous knowledge gap with whoever I’m talking to for every episode,” he said. “I have to read 700 pages in a week to get to some reasonable level with the (guests). The preparation in my free time is really all I can do. (I feel like I’m) getting some sort of master’s degree in different subjects.”

To date, some of his favorite guests have included Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter, who served under President Obama, and Dan Carlin, an American political commentator, podcaster and actor.

“I think there’s a lot value, a lot of insight (in the show)…there’s a real humanity and a lot of heart in the people that we talk to, and I hope the people feel that,” Buccino said.

But he can’t forget the “wild” guest, Sir Max Hastings—a well-known Vietnam War journalist and historian.

“He was really interesting,” Buccino said of Hastings. “His office put a lot of stipulations on what I could not ask him; and then he came on (the show) and violated every stipulation. He was wild. He was very critical of himself and his own understanding of Vietnam and critical of the Lyndon-Johnson administration, and he started talking about other journalists and historians in a real critical way. I was just really trying to keep pace with him.”

Throughout his 24-year military career, Buccino has been stationed at Fort Bragg on two separate occasions. He was with the 82nd Airborne Corps from 2016-19 and returned about a year ago with the 18th Airborne Corps.

It was 1997 when Buccino complied with Uncle Sam’s calling on his life.

“I always wanted to be in the Army so I enlisted right out of high school,” he said.

Through the Army, Buccino was able to attend the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania and later achieve officer status. In February 2020, he celebrated his most prestigious promotion to date—that of colonel.

With regard to day-to-day operations at the base, Buccino heads all communications related to the Army headquarters in Fort Bragg.

“Anything that relates to media engagement, social media, anything that leads the Corps or Fort Bragg and that includes the podcast—one of the bigger efforts that we have and it certainly now has become the biggest platform that we have,” Buccino said.

Each podcast episode is about a half-hour long, though some require more time—including the Battle for Hamburger Hill episode, which lasted two hours.

“What I try to do is encapsulate a full story in each episode,” Buccino said. “What I don’t try to do is have a set pattern or time for me for me it’s about finding the heartbeat of a story and then following it so that the story leads you to the show.”

But Buccino is already conversing and connecting with his guests ahead of the show’s start.

“I start recording when they start talking, and I just talk to them (for) about 20 to 30 minutes about their families and what they have going on…so by the time they start talking about Harry Truman, they’ve already engaged with me,” he said. “It’s a conversation, and I try to give them as much as they’re giving me. Then, somebody like Max Hastings drops his guard.”

And Buccino’s goal for his audience?

“You have to come away having learned something about history or the world or the Army,” he said. “I’m so proud of putting this together and getting it out to the world.”

The 18th Airborne Corps Podcast is available on YouTube, Podbean, Stitcher, SoundCloud, and Apple Podcasts. For more information, visit https://home.army.mil/bragg/index.php.

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